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Digger talks to Eve Graham of The
New Seekers
The New Seekers - (standing)
Peter Doyle, Paul Layton,
(seated) Marty Kristian, Eve Graham and Lyn Paul
Eve Graham started early in the
music business, guided and inspired by her dad, and had formed a
professional trio at the age of 15. She was fronting popular
Scottish bands by the mid-60s and then graduated to a
Manchester-based early boy/girl band called The Nocturnes.
Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, two of the most successful British
songwriters of all time, were impressed with Eve's voice when they
heard her perform there, and she recorded with them. Eve was also
still fronting big dance bands as well as performing as a backing
singer for TV and radio. Thus Eve gained a reputation as an able
and reliable singer, and this was to hold her in good stead...
By the end of the sixties, Eve
was recruited to The New Seekers, who, as the name
suggests, were formed after the original Seekers had parted
company and were designed to be more folk-rock in style. They were
a musical phenomenon in the early to mid seventies the like of
which had not been seen since Beatlemania ten years earlier. As
the lead vocalist for The New Seekers, Eve and the group
experienced international acclaim and were at the top of their
profession, with top-selling singles and albums and sell-out world
tours. The tune I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing, (written by
Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway) which had started out life as a jingle
for a Coke TV ad, gained momentum and eventually reached number
one all over the world. It's now in the top 100 best-selling
singles of all time in the UK and was also responsible for turning
around the fortunes of the Coca Cola company.
The New Seekers recorded an
impressive version of Pinball Wizard, admired by the song's writer
Pete Townshend, and had a string of hits throughout the period,
including What Have They Done To My Song Ma, Never Ending
Song Of Love, Circles, and Nickel Song, all with the distinctive
vocals of Eve Graham.
At the height of their fame, The
New Seekers represented the UK in the 1972 Eurovision Song
Contest, with 'Beg Steal Or Borrow'. They appeared at Royal
Command performances and on every major American and UK TV show,
as well as throughout the rest of the world.
Eve left the band in 1974 and
the band has had many manifestations and line-ups from then
until the present day, including the reappearance of Eve in the
line-up from time to time, although inter-band frictions
eventually made this impossible.
But to a great extent it
was Eve's sweet and evocative voice, full of clarity and melody
and her dark stunning Scottish beauty that helped to make the New
Seekers the huge success they were. I can remember being
bitterly disappointed when The New Seekers came second at the
Eurovision Song Contest, such was the popularity that Eve
and they had at the time.
Eve married fellow New Seeker
Danny Finn and has been very active in the music business with him
as a duo, and more recently with a new solo career once again.
Having lived in California and other exotic climbs, Eve has now
returned to her native Scotland and in 2005 released a new album
The Mountains Welcome Me Home and her very latest CD called 'Til
The Season Comes Round Again.
Images courtesy of and © copyright www.rexfeatures.com
Digger: What was
your early background and at what point in your life did you
decide that yours was to be a musical life?
Eve: I am one of
five children, brought up in a council house in Perth, Scotland.
My first school was Kinnoull, with secondary education at Perth
Academy. My dad was an engineer with the North of Scotland Hydro
Electric Board, and my mum went back to work in the post office
as soon as we were all at school. Later, she had her own
sub-post office, which is where I worked (after a few years in
hairdressing) until I left for London in 1963. My dad sang in
concert parties, and by the time I was about 14 or 15, I was in
there too. In 1960 I joined a band, and we did the Friday and
Saturday night dances around Scotland.
Digger: Did you
receive any formal musical training and who were/are your
musical inspirations and icons?
Eve: I had
singing lessons while I was at school, but I didn’t take it
too seriously. Singing was not considered to be a job option in
those days. After
seeing “Showboat” the 1951 movie, I remember walking home
with the song “Can’t
Help Loving Dat Man” going round in my head. I still love that
song and I know if I could choose, I would live in another time
and be a torch singer! My mum
told me that before I could speak properly, I used to try to
sing “The Blues In The Night”. Apparently, it came out as
“The Booze In The Night” ( something Freudian there,
methinks!)
Digger: Are your
early recordings as Eve Eden (great name!) available as it would
be fascinating to hear them?
Eve:
Recordings as Eve Eden? Now
that might be bad music! I don’t think Auntie (the beeb) kept
tapes of the old shows back then. I don’t know of any existing
recordings from before “The Nocturnes” albums other than
with Roger Cook. When we
finished for the night at Tiffany’s in Manchester, we usually
went to one or other of the great clubs that were around then
and danced the night away. I
think anyone who lived in Manchester then would agree that none
of us would have swapped it for the London scene.
Of course, I had the best of both worlds, as I lived in
Chelsea’s Lower Sloane Street in the early sixties, before I
went up to Manchester.
You know what they say – if you remember it, you weren’t
there!
'Seekersmania'
Digger: Sir
George Martin said in a recent interview with us that there's
only two sorts of music - good music and bad music. As you have
performed dance band, rock and pop, folk and Scottish
traditional music to name a few, what is your take on this? What
do you think of the state of popular music in 2007?
Eve: I
would not dare to disagree with the iconic Sir George Martin’s
view that there is only good and bad music, so lest it is taken
out of context, I would think of my view as being from a
different perspective. Some “stuff”
around today seems so bad to me that I can’t listen to it, but
if there’s a market for it, then it must be good music to
somebody. Vive La Difference!
Digger: There
was a time in the seventies when your face, along with those of
Lyn, Marty, Peter and Paul, was on the cover of every magazine. You
were incredibly busy and phenomenally famous. How did you deal
with that level of work pressure and fame? What are your
enduring memories and what were the best and worst aspects of
being with The New Seekers?
Eve:
The New Seekers began as just another job – except
harder work. Keith Potger had big ambitions for the group. He
had started the Seekers and they became famous, so he was
determined to prove that he could do it a second time. This time
it involved long hours of rehearsing harmonies and choreography
so that the group would appear first class from day one. It was
so tough that three of the five of us left after only a year.
The hard work didn’t bother me, and I love singing harmonies.
We were so busy, that the fame, the fans, and having the press
around just seemed to creep up on us.
The New Seekers circa 1973
The down
side was that we had no life of our own. We didn’t seem to get
time to socialise. There always seemed to be a handy limo ready
to whisk us away, and it wasn’t until I was in L.A. after
I’d left the group that I had the pleasure of walking into a
Led Zeppelin record launch party, and Elton John and Jimmy Page,
who were standing chatting together, broke off their
conversation and called to me to join them. It only hits you
that you’re world famous when you meet someone huge, and they
greet you like you’re one of them.
I remember
Jimmy Page saying to me that he always instantly recognised my
voice, and that he was a bit of a fan. I hope I managed to look
cool!
The same
thing happened again at another big event when a voice called
out to me across a very crowded room, “Hey, Eve! How’s
Scotland!” I turned round and realised it was (Sir) Paul
McCartney. He was sitting with his wife, Linda, and Bob Dylan
and his wife, and I blew my chance to meet them all!
I was so
stunned that I simply nodded, said “fine” and walked on. To
this day I’m embarrassed to think of it. He must think I’m
an awful snob. I was in shock to think that he recognised me,
and knew my name.
Digger:
If you could arrange a dinner party and invite any guests,
living or dead, real or fictional from any era, who would you
chose and why?
Eve: Now
I live “back home” my dinner party guests are usually my two
brothers who live in Perth, and their families. In a fantasy
gathering, I would invite Rick Stein, and hope that he might
cook the fish. I will persuade my second guest, the prime
minister that the expression “lack of funding” should carry
a prison sentence for anyone who uses it as an excuse for not
doing their job properly.
My third
would be Beniamino Gigli. Even on our old 78s, his voice sounded
amazing, so I hope that he would sing. His partner would be
Maria Callas, and lets hope she likes the food!
My date
would be Pierce Brosnan, unless maybe Harrison Ford could make
it Oh,
what the heck – I’ll invite them both!
Digger:
Why did you decide to return to Scotland and to record more
traditional material?
Eve: Living
in L.A. didn’t really suit me. It’s fun, and I have close
friends there, but I’m happy just to visit. I’m pleased that
my husband has always liked Scotland , and my family, so that it
could be his choice to move up here.
Scotdisc
wanted to release my new recordings of The New Seekers hits, and
asked if I would be willing to add something with a Scottish
flavour and, as ever, David Mackay made a brilliant job of the
arrangements. I have since done two more CDs and a second DVD for Scotdisc, and the icing on the cake is that they are all now
released in the States.
Between the
New Seekers days and our life now in Scotland, Kevin and I had
toured as a duo, and we loved the Far East. You get so used to
every city being the same, so we were lucky to spend time in
Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok where the culture is so
completely different.
Digger: Of
the many places around the world you have visited, what are
your favourites and why? Who were the best audiences and were
there marked differences in the reactions around the world?
Eve:
Wherever you go, audiences are always different. Even the same
place on the next night never has a sense of deja vu. But I do
prefer the atmosphere of concerts to that of nightclubs.
Digger: What
makes you laugh, what makes you sad, what make you angry and
what makes you hopeful?
Eve: “The
Golden Girls” still makes me laugh. That humans are the cruelest
animals on earth makes me sad, and the expression “lack of
funding” as an excuse for everything from laziness to criminal
behaviour makes me furious. I am given hope by the knowledge
that, if countries such as Ireland and South Africa can learn to
live with their differences after many false starts, then so can
every other country.
A
different line-up of the band, with
Kathy Ann Rae and Danny Finn
Digger: Please describe yourself
and your career in a couple of sentences.
Eve: I
would describe myself as more of a doer than a thinker, and as
long as I have a project, I can be just as happy playing in the
garden, or renovating a house, as working on stage. My career
was not planned. I just happened to be in the right place at the
right time.
Digger: Would you change anything
you have done and what are your biggest disappointments, if any?
Eve: If I could go back in
time, I would recognise that I had some sort of uniqueness, and
perhaps take my solo career seriously much earlier. I’m
disappointed that no agent approached me as soon as I left the
group, but it’s my own fault for “hiding away” in L.A. for
too long, and not having the character to promote myself.
Digger: What are your personal
favourites of the work you have produced?
Eve: I don’t have a
particular favourite, because I love the diversity of the
material that I’ve recorded down the years. My producer, David
Mackay, tends to hold the reins quite tightly. If he didn’t, I
would be doing an album of operatic arias next! He thinks one
identity is enough.
Digger: What are your current and
future projects?
Eve: My albums are being
released in the States, but I’m still waiting for some airplay
in the U.K. That would be nice. I hope to
do another album next year, also a DVD amid this beautiful
Scottish scenery.
New Seekers' Eve Graham interview.
October 2007.
Many thanks to Eve Graham for her
kindness with this interview. More information at www.evegraham.com
Images courtesy of and © copyright www.rexfeatures.com
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