1973

This page provides a snapshot of Lyn Paul's career focusing on 1973. To find out what else was happening in 1973 select any of the following options:

To find out about the rest of Lyn's career, choose a year from the table below.

Liza Minnelli

Lovin'
Liza Minnelli

Pete Townshend
and the Who

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Roy Wood

The Official
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Goodbye Is Just Another Word

The New Seekers start the year in style. On 18th January the group plays for President Nixon at the Kennedy Center, Washington - the first time that an act from outside the USA had been invited to perform at a Presidential Inauguration.

On 26th January the New Seekers make the first of two television appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (NBC). The first episode is hosted by Mama Cass Elliot and has a guest list that includes Pat Boone; the second, screened on Wednesday, 23rd May, features Faye Dunaway and James Hampton. The group also appears on two episodes of The Mike Douglas Show (KYW): on Monday, 22nd January the New Seekers are guests alongside singer Morgana King and entertainer Tiny Tim with his daughter Tulip; the following week the group appears on the show with comedian Pat Cooper, film critic Rex Reed and musician-songwriter Mike Curb of the Mike Curb Congregation.

By now the New Seekers sound less like the original Seekers than ever. In February they release a single which combines two songs from Pete Townshend's rock opera Tommy. Pinball Wizard / See Me, Feel Me (Polydor 2058 338) is a Top 20 hit in the UK, where it reaches number 16; it also does well in the United States, where it reaches number 29. The New Seekers promote the single in the UK with TV appearances, including a guest slots on The Val Doonican Show (ITV, Saturday, 17th February, 8.30pm) and Crackerjack (BBC1, 2nd March, 5.00pm).

Another single is released in March which is a complete contrast in style. Nevertheless (I'm In Love With You) (Polydor 2058 340) is an old-time smoocher and is credited to Eve Graham and the New Seekers.

Having returned to the UK in February for cabaret dates at the Fiesta Clubs in Sheffield and Stockton, the New Seekers embark on a concert tour of the UK and Ireland during the Spring to promote their new album - New Seekers Now (Polydor 2383 195). Released in April, the album was recorded in part at the MGM Studios in Los Angeles with The Osmonds' producer, Mike Lloyd, and includes two songs written by The Osmonds - That's My Guy (originally That's My Girl) and Utah. Lyn takes the lead vocal on a song entitled Everything Changing - one of the five tracks recorded in London.

New Seekers Now
(cassette cover)

 

The New Seekers' tour kicks off in style at the Royal Albert Hall. Lyn Paul's solo spot is a show stopper! She rips off her long dress to reveal a mini skirt, which she wears as she dances a charleston to the tune I Could Be Happy With You. The tour ends at the Pavilion, Hemel Hempstead on 7th May.

The New Seekers at the Royal Albert Hall, 1973.
Pictured (left to right): Paul Layton, Marty Kristian, Eve Graham, Lyn Paul and Peter Doyle.
Copyright © Chris Walter. Photo used with permission.
See more of Chris Walters' photographs at the Photofeatures website.

 

During their UK tour the New Seekers make guest appearances on two TV shows: They Sold A Million (BBC2, Sunday, 1st April, 10.40pm) and Stars Of The Year (BBC1, Tuesday, 17th April, 10.15pm). On 11th May, just four days after the end of the tour, the group is voted Britain's Top Pop Act by readers of The Sun newspaper.

In June Peter Doyle leaves the group and a single is released aptly titled Goodbye Is Just Another Word (Polydor 2058 368). Peter Oliver is recruited as a replacement and joins the New Seekers on their cabaret and concert tour of the USA. The tour, which had started in May, runs through to August and includes dates supporting Vikky Carr and the group's first appearance in Las Vegas.

New Seekers' Summer Schedule
1st June	Disneyland, California
2nd June	Disney World, Florida
5th June	Spectrum, Philadelphia
7th - 9th June	Disneyland, California
12th - 15th June	Disneyland, California
25th June - 1st July	Music Circus Theatre, Sacramento, California
3rd July	Crete Fair, Crete, Illinois
6th - 7th July	Starlight Theatre, Indianapolis
10th -15th July	Millrun Theatre, Illinois
20th - 21st July	Miss Universe Contest, New York City
26th - 28th July	O'Keefe Center, Toronto
6th - 11th August	Warwick Music Theatre, Warwick, Rhode Island
12th August	Frontier Ranch, Columbus, Ohio
24th August	Canadian Exhibition, Ottowa
25th August	Treasure Mountain, Park City, Utah

 

In between tour dates the New Seekers make another appearance on The Mike Douglas Show (KYW, Wednesday, 20th June). The other guests on the show are actor-singer Fabian, astronaut Neil Armstrong, Alexandra Nicholson and Shamu, the killer whale. The group also appears on Evening at Pops (WGBH, Sunday, 22nd July) and The Helen Reddy Show (NBC, Thursday, 26th July).

As they approach the end of their own tour the New Seekers get an unexpected offer to tour with Liza Minnelli for three weeks. Instead of returning home as planned, the New Seekers stay on in the USA until October. In 2006 Lyn recalled this as "the highlight" of her time with the New Seekers:

"We had our own plane - the orchestra and us, the make-up people and the dressers and that. And we went from place to place with this plane. It was very entertaining - on and off the plane!"

"I watched every single show... and I think I learnt more from her than from anybody else in the business." (From The Bottom To The Top, Capital Gold, 20th July 2006)

During their extra time in the States the New Seekers squeeze in another television appearance, singing Pinball Wizard / See Me, Feel Me on the once-a-week Saturday afternoon show American Bandstand (ABC, Saturday, 6th October).

Back in Britain the New Seekers are used to promote the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign. In September posters featuring the group appear on hoardings all around the country and a single, We've Got To Do It Now (Polydor 2058 397), is used to help get the message across. All proceeds from the sale of the single are donated to the Campaign.

While the New Seekers are in Hollywood Lyn tells Peter Oliver that she wants to leave the group. She contacts Peter Gormley, Cliff Richard's agent in the UK, and prepares to leave. As Lyn tells it:

"At that point they gave me 'You Won't Find Another Fool' to sing because they were hoping that if it was a success it would coax me into staying and at least the group would stay together." (John Dunn Show, BBC Radio 2, 1983)

Success it is, but stay together they don't. On Christmas Eve, Eve Graham announces that she is leaving the group. Eve's and Lyn's contracts state that only one of them can leave the group at any given time. Lyn insists that she is also leaving. The result, as Lyn later explained in another radio interview, was that "I signed everything away... The only way we could get out of our contracts was to sign everything away. Or so we were told."

Meanwhile, an unsuspecting British public knows only what it sees and hears on the television - five smiling faces and the outward show of "perfect harmony". Following appearances on the It's Lulu show (BBC1, Saturday, 3rd November, 7.15pm), The Two Ronnies (BBC2, Thursday, 22nd November, 9.25pm) and two children's programmes, Magpie and The Basil Brush Show, the New Seekers record appearances on The Golden Shot, The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show (BBC1, Tuesday, 25th December, 7.35pm) and a seven week series as special guests on the David Frost show, Frost's Weekly (BBC1, 14th December - 25th January). You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me enters the UK singles chart on 24th November and rapidly rises into the Top 5. Everything in the garden seems rosy.

Incidentally...

On 3rd May the annual Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting and composing are presented at the Music Publishers Association Lunch at the Connaught Rooms in London. The award for 'Most Performed Work of the Year' goes to the New Seekers' Beg Steal Or Borrow, written by Tony Cole, Graeme Hall and Steve Wolfe.

On 25th May shooting begins on a new film called The Dove (at this point with a working title Here There Be Dragons). Filming takes place at twelve locations, starting in the Fiji Islands and finishing in Del Mar, California on 28th September. Other locations include: Australia, South Africa, Mozambique, the Galapagos Islands, Brazil and Panama. The film turns out to be significant for Lyn Paul, who is asked to sing the John Barry / Don Black theme song, Sail The Summer Winds. The film is released on a staggered basis in May the following year; Sail The Summer Winds is released at the same time as Lyn's first solo single.

In June 1973 singer-songwriter Albert Hammond has his only UK hit with Free Electric Band (Mums 1494). The New Seekers had previously recorded two of Hammond's songs. The first, I'm A Train, was issued as a studio recording on the 1970 album Keith Potger & The New Seekers and later released as a concert recording on the album Live at the Royal Albert Hall. The second, Down By The River, appeared on the 1972 US album Come Softly To Me. It was never released in the UK.

In August Roy Wood has the first of four solo hits with Dear Elaine (Harvest HAR 5074). The B-side of the single is Wood's version of Songs Of Praise. The song had originally been submitted as one of the entries in the 1972 Song For Europe and was included on the New Seekers' album We'd Like To Teach the World To Sing.

Who said that?

Awards

Awards are like piles. Sooner or later, every bum gets one.
Maureen Lipman, 'The Independent', 1999

Goodbye

Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again after a moment or lifetime is certain for those who are friends.
Richard David Bach

Johnny Carson

Sophia: Hey Dorothy, guess who's on 'Johnny Carson' tonight?
Dorothy: Who?
Sophia: Johnny Carson.
Dorothy: Must be the anniversary show.
Estelle Getty (Sophia Petrillo) and Bea Arthur (Dorothy Zbornak),
'The Golden Girls'

Twenty-five grand in ten seconds. Now I know how Johnny Carson feels.
Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty), 'The Golden Girls'

He's an anesthetist - Prince Valium.
Mort Sahl

Liza Minnelli

I'm gonna be a great film star; that is, if booze and sex don't get me first.
Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), 'Cabaret'

My daughter's got a voice like chalk on a blackboard.
Judy Garland

Isn't Liza Minnelli just darling!
Armistead Maupin, 'More Tales of the City'

If I've learned anything about stagecraft, then I've learnt it from her.
Lyn Paul,
'From The Bottom To The Top', Capital Gold
(interview recorded on 20th July 2006)

If you don't find Liza with a Z inspiring, then there's something wrong with you.
Paul Spicer

Richard Nixon

He told us he was going to take crime out of the streets. He did. He took it into the damn White House.
Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy

... a Main Street Machiavelli
Patrick Anderson

I'm a fan of President Nixon. I worship the quicksand he walks on.
Art Buchwald

President Nixon's motto was, if two wrongs don't make a right, try three.
Norman Cousins

Richard Nixon means never having to say you're sorry.
Wilfred Sheed

He is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree and then mount the stump to make a speech for conservation.
Adlai Stevenson

... the integrity of a hyena and the style of a poison toad.
Hunter S. Thompson

... even if he caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in.
Harry S. Truman

USA

The United States, I believe, are under the impression that they are twenty years in advance of this country; whilst, as a matter of actual verifiable fact, of course, they are just about six hours behind it.
Harold Hobson, 'The Devil In Woodford Wells'

America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there.
Laurence J. Peter

America is a land where a citizen will cross the ocean to fight for democracy - and won't cross the street to vote in a national election.
Bill Vaughan

California

You can't have everything, even in California.
Raymond Chandler

Hollywood

You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a fruit fly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer's heart.
Fred Allen

The men in Hollywood are all either married, going through a divorce, or want to do your hair.
Doris Day

Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy gets the Catholic Church. America gets Hollywood.
Eroca Jong

If you are into just being looked at, you will love Hollywood, but if you are into film, you will hate it.
Adrian Lester, 'The Independent', 25th August 2001

Strip the phoney tinsel off Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath.
Oscar Levant

No one ever went broke in Hollywood underestimating the intelligence of the public.
Elsa Maxwell

Hollywood is a sewer - with service from the Ritz-Carlton.
Wilson Misner

Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you $50,000 for a kiss and 50 cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.
Marilyn Monroe

Hollywood is where, if you don't have happiness, you send out for it.
Rex Reed

A place where they shoot too many pictures and not enough actors.
Walter Winchell

Los Angeles

A big hard-boiled city with no more personality than a paper cup.
Raymond Chandler

Connie: We've got to go someplace where we can just blend in, somewhere where they'd never look for us because there's no theatre, no musical theatre, no dinner theatre, no culture at all.
Carla: Los Angeles!
'Connie and Carla'

In Los Angeles, by the time you're 35, you're older than most of the buildings.
Delia Ephron

Seventy-two suburbs in search of a city.
Dorothy Parker

I moved to Los Angeles, and I miss so many things from the real world that they don't have here, like ageing, pride and dignity.
Greg Proops

Los Angeles is awful - like Liverpool with palm trees.
Johnny Rotten

Twenty-four

Personally, I think if a woman hasn't met the right man by the time she's twenty-four, she may be lucky.
Jean Kerr

Two Ladies

I mean, if two ladies are at the front of the band, of course there is competition going on.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad (ABBA)

I think that was good because that meant we did our best.
Agnetha Fältskog (ABBA)