The New Seekers

The New Seekers are a British pop group, formed in London in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group, The Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers, but their music would have pop as well as folk influences. They achieved worldwide success in the early 1970s with hits including "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me" and "Beg, Steal or Borrow".

Formation

The group was formed after the disbanding of the successful 1960s Australian group the Seekers. Keith Potger, a member of the Seekers, put together the New Seekers in 1969, featuring Laurie Heath, Chris Barrington, Marty Kristian, and Eve Graham and Sally Graham (no relation), the latter of whom was a member of '' The Young Generation''. Potger himself also performed and recorded with the group.

Despite their having only released one album with no commercial success, ITV's Scottish Television gave the group their own TV series ''Finders, Seekers''. The lineup for this version of the group hosting the series was Keith Potger, Eve Graham, Sally Graham, Laurie Heath, Marty Kristian and Chris Barrington. Produced in colour the show was given a prime-time slot, starting on March 27, 1970 (Good Friday) and continuing for seven shows. The public did not take to the show, with several complaints seemingly targeted at the band. Despite the complaints, the series was shown on several ITV channels, sold to Canada, Australia and Sweden with interest from other countries as a result of being shown at the international television market in Cannes.

Following the series failure, later in 1970, after one album release, the line-up was reworked to comprise Graham, Kristian, Lyn Paul, Peter Doyle and Paul Layton. This line-up found instant success with their debut release, a cover of Melanie Safka's "What Have They Done to My Song, Ma" (titled in the U.S. as "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma"), which became a top 20 hit in the US, No. 3 in Canada, and a minor one in the UK.

Mainstream success

Over the next year, the group released a number of singles to little recognition, but it was in June 1971 that they released their breakthrough hit, "Never Ending Song of Love" (the first of many hit songs to be produced by David Mackay, and a cover of the American hit by Delaney & Bonnie). The song became a big hit in the UK, spending five weeks at No. 2 in the singles chart and was one of the biggest selling singles of the year. This was their last single released on the Philips Records label. The huge success of this single was mildly ironic in that prior to the single's release, the group were dropped by Philips and had signed with Polydor Records. Their first single for Polydor was "Good Old Fashioned Music", which they promoted on television (including an appearance on ''Top Of The Pops''), but it failed to chart. Towards the end of 1971, the group recorded an adaptation of the Coca-Cola jingle, "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke", which had gained much interest. Reworked as "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", the song became a worldwide success. It made No. 1 in the UK for four weeks and sold just under a million copies. In the US, the song was also a hit, reaching No. 7, and in Canada it reached No. 3. It became a No. 1 hit in many other countries and is the most recognised song by the group.

The group were chosen to represent the United Kingdom in the 1972 ''Eurovision Song Contest''. They entered with the song "Beg, Steal or Borrow", which was chosen by viewers of BBC1's '' It's Cliff Richard!'' show from six shortlisted songs performed by the group on a weekly basis. They went on to finish in second place at the Eurovision final in Edinburgh, where the group received the biggest cheer of the night from the partisan audience. The song was a No. 2 hit in the UK and sold well in Europe. Around this time, they also charted highly with their most successful album, ''We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing'', which reached No. 2. Another top five hit came with the next single, "Circles" in mid 1972. At the end of the year, the group took part in the BBC
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