Mark and Nick Seymour, 1997

Mark Seymour, singer/songwriter, was the lead singer of Australian band Hunters and Collectors before launching his successful solo career in 1998. Born in Benalla, Vic, he moved to suburban Melbourne with his family in 1972. Graduating from Melbourne University in 1980, he became a schoolteacher, and formed Hunters and Collectors, a band with seven core members and a large horn section. With Seymour the electrifying frontman, they achieved instant renown as a live act. Their double-platinum Human Frailty (1985), including the classic tracks 'Say goodbye' and 'Throw your arms around me', has proved one of the all-time classic Australian albums. Cut (1992) yielded six charting singles including 'Holy Grail', undoubtedly the only Australian sporting-event anthem conceived as its lyricist laboured through a Jeanette Winterson novel. The band recorded five more albums and toured relentlessly through the 1980s and 1990s before splitting in 1998. Seymour has since proved himself a superb lone performer. He has recorded four solo albums, including One Eyed Man (2001), which won the ARIA for Best Adult Contemporary Album, Embedded and Daylight and the Dark (2005).

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
© Nathan Kelly