JUDITH DURHAM - Nine News (2013)
Judith Durham - Nine News (2013)
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00OK, now to Judith Durham. In just two months, after a brain haemorrhage threatened to end
00:05her career, she's announced plans to return to singing. And for more on that, we are joined
00:10by probably one of the biggest fans I know of the Seekers. We've got Nines Amelia Adams
00:14here in the studio, Niels. Music to all fancies, including yours. This is great.
00:19I am top of that list, Wendy, absolutely. She is an absolute legend of Australian music,
00:24the unforgettable voice, of course, of the Seekers. And today we saw Judith Durham the
00:28first time since she had that life-threatening brain haemorrhage in hospital in Melbourne.
00:32There she is there with her bandmates, Athol Guy and Keith Botger, and looking pretty well,
00:37you'd have to say, all things considered. She really does. And the big question of course,
00:42which everyone was hanging off, was that incredible voice. Has it been affected? Has it been damaged?
00:47Will she ever sing again? Well, let's hear from Judith herself.
00:52I think everybody around me was sort of skirting that question of, can she sing still, you see?
00:59And nobody sort of wanted to be the first to take that plunge. So I was very, very fortunate
01:06that they decided just right there and then, well, let's sing as a tune, you know. So luckily
01:11that was all intact and I still sing in tune and I'm expecting to be back on stage to sing
01:17again, you know, as soon as all my therapy's done, really.
01:21That is great news, isn't it?
01:23It is. She spoke really candidly though and she did say there is a lot of therapy until
01:27she gets to that point. And some big hurdles as well. She's relearning how to write, how
01:31to read music, how to play the keyboard. So a lot of intensive therapy involved there.
01:36And the lyrics, of course, she has got some short-term memory loss, but no long-term,
01:40which is great news. She remembers all the words.
01:42Unbelievable, really, given what she's gone through.
01:44Absolutely. And those songs that the band's been performing for five decades now, we know
01:48that Judith has got so many fans right around the world when, in today, she took the opportunity
01:53to say thank you.
01:55The uplift you get and the sense of comfort and warmth and people being with you in spirit,
02:01it's just astonishing what that does for you, that you just feel needed and it's an encouragement
02:06to get back in action again.
02:09She's so lovely. Isn't she such a sweetheart?
02:11I love having good news at the top of my head.
02:13Now, you might remember that this health scare actually happened in the middle of their Golden
02:16Jubilee tour back in May, and I actually went to that concert, I have to say, a few
02:20days before she suffered this hemorrhage.
02:21I have heard you say that a few times.
02:22I may have raved about it a little bit. They were in such good voice. I mean, Judith sounded
02:27fantastic. The band was singing so well, marking 50 years of those incredible, unforgettable
02:32folk tunes. They were the first Australian band, Wendy, of course, to make it really
02:36big on the US and the UK charts, and we've got some vision there from our archives. This
02:41is going back to the late 60s, you know, those real classics, Georgie Girl, The Carnival
02:46is over. I think we might take a little bit of a trip down memory lane.
02:49Why not, I say, why not?
02:51Sing it, Georgie Girl, swing it down the street so fancy free.
02:57Nobody you meet could ever see the loneliness there.
03:02Inside you, for the carnival is over.
03:09We may never meet again.
03:14Oh, how good is that? The song they finished every concert with. But as Judith said today,
03:19The Carnival is not over. She's recovering well. It's actually her 70th birthday today.
03:24A very special milestone, and look what better way to mark it than with this great news that
03:28she's on the road to recovery and she says she'll be back on our stage very soon.
03:32I don't think in all the years that I've known you that I've ever seen you this happy. It's
03:36very good.
03:37It's excellent news.
03:38Thanks, Judith, very much.