Nic's back with New Seekers
The last time football fan Nic Culverwell was anywhere near his favourite Black Country team he was a schoolboy, stealing glances of the games with his grandfather, outside the ground. The last time football fan Nic Culverwell was anywhere near his favourite Black Country team he was a schoolboy, stealing glances of the games with his grandfather, outside the ground. The next time Nic visits Walsall FC's home, now the Banks's Stadium, he will be returning as manager of his boyhood musical idols The New Seekers. Mr Culverwell, who was born in Bloxwich, looks forward to any tour date but the one on June 22 is particularly special to him. It will be a homecoming for the manager, who still has family in and around Bescot, where his grandparents Probert and Alice Seville lived. Read the full story in the Express & Star.
The next time Nic visits Walsall FC's home, now the Banks's Stadium, he will be returning as manager of his boyhood musical idols The New Seekers.
Mr Culverwell, who was born in Bloxwich, looks forward to any tour date but the one on June 22 is particularly special to him.
It will be a homecoming for the manager, who still has family in and around Bescot, where his grandparents Probert and Alice Seville lived.
The 50-year-old said: "I spent many weekends staying with my grandparents and grandad used to take me every week to stand on the bridge near the old stadium and watch The Saddlers play. We never bought tickets, it was always more fun the way we did it."
Mr Culverwell was a fan of The New Seekers as a teenager but never dreamed he would one day become manager of the band, formed by a member of Australian folk group The Seekers a year after it split in 1968.
His connection with the band began when, aged 15, he spent a summer holiday working for the fan club in London.
He continued to follow the quintet but lost touch over the years until he was contacted out the blue and asked to manage them.
The current line-up includes original member Paul Layton as well as Mick Flinn and Donna Jones, who have both been in the band for 27 years, while Mark Hankins and Francine Rees have clocked up decades between them.
The New Seekers have sold 25 million records worldwide, including seven million copies of 'I'd like to Teach the World to Sing', which became the first track from a television advert to become a global chart hit, reaching number one in 28 countries.
They finished second in the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Beg, Steal or Borrow' and released their first new recording for more than 25 years in March.
Mr Culverwell, who moved with his parents to Castlecroft in Wolverhampton, where his mother still lives, has settled in Dawlish, Devon. He said: "In the 70s the band was the biggest vocal group of all time, they were absolutely enormous."
The original 1969 line-up consisted of Sally and Eve Graham, who are not related, Marty Kristian, Paul Layton and Peter Doyle. Shortly after the band was established, Lyn Paul replaced Sally Graham.
Visit www.thenewseekers.com or call the stadium box office on 0870 442 0111 to book tickets.
