The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Sam seeking success at Eurovision 50 years on from Perth’ s own Eve
Perth lass Eve Graham was the singing waitress who took The New Seekers to second place for the UK at Eurovision 50 years ago.
Tonight, Eurovision 2022 takes place in Turin with high hopes for the UK’s entry, Sam Ryder, Space Man – ironically he is also second favourite.
After leaving school, Eve worked in a Perth post office with her mum before getting a job at the RendezVous restaurant in Union Street, Dundee, where she was billed “the singing waitress”.
Eve’s brother Ian joked that she should “get the hell out of there”, so she replied to an advert in the NME, then in 1964 set off for London with £20 her mother had given her and found herself singing for Cyril Stapleton, a wellknown orchestra leader.
Eve went on to join a group called The Nocturnes with Ross Mitchell and Sandra Stevens, later of Brotherhood of Man, who was later replaced by Lyn Paul.
“Keith Potger, who had been in The Seekers, heard about us and phoned me,” she said.
“He was looking to form and manage The New Seekers and wanted it to have a young image.
“Being 26, my age put him off but he asked me to audition anyway and he decided I was right.
“Lyn didn’t get the job originally but a year later I recommended her when another female vocalist left.”
The band’s song I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing made its debut in February 1971, before being adapted for the Coca-Cola “Hilltop” television commercial.
The song shot to No 1, earned the band a Grammy nomination and was voted the best ever for a television commercial in a UK poll in 2005.
The New Seekers were chosen to sing Beg Steal or Borrow for the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest in Edinburgh, where they finished in second place.
“After the show we were mobbed by fans on our way back to the Caledonian Hotel.
“Our car had to drive right up the pavement to the revolving doors and, as we piled inside, the doors were forced off by the pressure of the crowd.”
The band, then also including Lyn Paul, Paul Layton, Marty Kristian and Peter Doyle, sold more than 25 million records, worked with the likes of Liza Minnelli and Andy Williams and partied with Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan.
Eve declined the advances of Hollywood actor Burt Reynolds, had a fling with football legend George Best and lived with TV and radio presenter Ed Stewart before quitting the band in 1974.
She looks back fondly on her days as a New Seeker, admitting: “We always had top-quality songs from the best writers – Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond and so on.”
She recalls: “I was at a record launch in the 70s and walking through a crowded area when a voice from behind shouted: ‘Hi, Eve, how’s Scotland?’
“I turned round and it was Paul McCartney, who was sitting with his wife Linda and Bob Dylan. I was so gobsmacked that I said: ‘Fine,’ and kept walking.”
She joined a reformed New Seekers in 1976, which is where she met husband Kevin.
They stayed for two years, before leaving to sing as a duo and get married.
From 1978 to 1985, they performed together, releasing two singles and touring with Gene Pitney and Max Boyce.
Almost every week since she left the band she has been asked if they will ever reunite.
Top theatre producer Bill Kenwright tried to make it happen, but Eve has always given a firm no because for most of the intervening years Paul Layton has led his own version and Peter Doyle died from throat cancer in October 2001.
Eve returned to Scotland with Danny in 2004 to live in Crieff.
Only a few years ago, she learned that Free To Be... You And Me, a song The New Seekers recorded in 1972 with her distinctive lead vocals, became a favourite of millions of Americans, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Barack Obama, when it was the title song of a US TV special and record.
“I’m told Obama has said that Free To Be... You And Me taught a generation of kids that they were strong and beautiful, and that my voice on the song helped inspire him when he was growing up,” she said.
“When she appeared in The Actors’ Studio TV programme, Gwyneth Paltrow revealed that as a little girl, she spent lots of time in her room singing along with the song.”