Saturday, August 20, 2022

Tom Springfield died 10 days before Judith Durham

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When I chose Cloudy by the Seekers as my music video last Sunday I wrote about their producer Tom Springfield, who also wrote some of the songs they are best known for.

I mentioned that the folk-tinged Springfields, which also included his sister Dusty, were the first British group to have a top 20 hit in the US. And I also mentioned two great pieces of trivia:

  • His baptismal name was Dionysius O'Brien (Dusty's was Mary O'Brien)
  • Like Alan Bennett, Dennis Potter and Michael Frayn, he was a graduate of the Russian course at the Joint Services School for Linguists.

Today I found out that Tom Springfield was already dead when I wrote about him last weekend. He died on 27 July, some 10 days before Judith Durham.

The news seems to have just broken, so there have been no obituaries in the papers yet. I'll tweet any without a paywall that I see.

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