The Man With Thunder In His Heart
Gill Sherry
One of the great things about Zoom is, you can chat to people pretty much anywhere. Leo Sayer, for example, is in Australia when our call connects at 9am one morning, or 6pm in his little corner of New South Wales.
He doesn’t look very different from the Leo Sayer I remember from the 1970s. Big smile, big hair… and dwarfed by the very big piece of artwork depicting him as a Pierrot clown. For those too young to remember, Leo wore the white clown outfit, including full face makeup, for live performances of his hit single ‘The Show Must Go On’ and to promote his debut album, Silverbird.
Our conversation takes us back to a time before then, when Leo was in a band called Patches.
“We were just a bunch of school mates,” he tells me. “We answered an ad in the Evening Argus in Brighton. They were looking for talent and we won the contest. That was it, there was no looking back!”
The band went on to make a record called ‘Living in America’ and although it wasn’t successful, they pushed on to record an album. By this time, David Courtney and Adam Faith, the band’s co-producers, had recognised Leo’s singing and songwriting talent, believing a solo career was the way forward.
“Adam kind of engineered it. Remember, this was 1972, and he asked the others if they’d rather have a colour TV or work with Leo. Of course, they said they’d rather have a colour TV! So, all of a sudden, I was a solo artist.”
Before long, Leo found himself in Roger Daltrey’s recording studio, where he recorded ‘The Show Must Go On’ and finished his first album. But the launch of his solo career was temporarily put on hold.
“Halfway through that little adventure, Roger turned round and said, ‘I want to do a solo album. Pete Townsend has done one, and I want to do one, and you’re going to write the songs.’ It was frustrating because I just wanted to get on with it. But it turned out to be a great thing because Roger went out to the world and said, ‘If you think this is good, wait till you hear the guy’s album who wrote these songs!’”
To get that endorsement from The Who’s Roger Daltrey was fantastic for Leo’s early career. Coupled with Adam Faith opening doors in the music world, this resulted in Leo’s first seven singles all reaching the top 10 in the UK charts.
Knowing how big Top of the Pops was in those days, I ask what he remembers about his first appearance on the show.
“Actually, before Top of the Pops, I appeared on a BBC In Concert programme. I remember being terrified, in the Pierrot outfit… it’s on YouTube. A week later I did Top of the Pops, because you don’t do Top of the Pops until your song is a hit, and it took about three or four weeks for ‘The Show Must Go On’ to be a hit. By then I was much more confident with how I was dressed, the persona… I was really wearing it then. But I remember it being a really incredible moment.”
He’s perhaps best known for his 1976 hit ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing’ and I ask if this is also one of his personal favourites.
“It’s kept the wolf from the door for quite a few years!” he laughs. “There’s a new remix being made at the moment because it’s the 50th anniversary of that song. But personally… the song that Roger sang and had his debut solo single with was ‘Giving It All Away’ and that song means so much to me. I will always love performing it. There’s an undercurrent of anger in there. I was so frustrated when I wrote it because Adam was holding me up to do Roger’s album. I love the fighter element in the song.”
It’s a fascinating insight, but I can’t ignore his comment about the 50th anniversary. Five decades! That’s some career.
“It’s actually 54 years. I remember listening to Radio 1 back in David’s Lotus Europa (he had a posh car). They said they were going to play ‘Giving It All Away’ but we didn’t know what time. It came on at seven o’clock in the evening! But we had to hear it announced on the radio, it was a very vital moment.”
Any other memorable highlights?
“Yes… when ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing’ reached number one in the US. I was actually out shopping with the missus in New York and somebody said, ‘There he is, he’s number one!’ I was put on somebody’s shoulders and walked down Fifth Avenue to the Plaza Hotel where all the hotel staff came out and applauded me. They had a boombox and they were playing the song!”
Fortunately, if you’re a fan of Leo you don’t have to rely on a boombox to listen to his music. You can either buy his brand-new box set Leothology (more on that later) or see him live at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall on 13th November. Or both.
“I’m looking forward to that Glasgow audience singing along,” says Leo, “because that’s what they always do. They’re incredible, they know all the words!”
At this point, he breaks into the chorus of ‘When I Need You’ – my own private Leo Sayer concert, albeit on Zoom!
“I put a lot of energy and effort into the show. We don’t have an opening act, I do the whole thing, and I have to squeeze in as many songs as possible. Audiences love it when we pull out some more obscure songs like ‘Dancing The Night Away’ or a big long version of ‘Raining In My Heart’. It’s not just a greatest hits tour, it’s more than that.
“‘Moonlighting’ is a good Scottish one,” he continues. “That’s always in there because of Gretna Green, and I usually stop and tell the story of that one.”
He does exactly that, but I won’t spoil it for you, other than to say it’s based on a true story. As is the story behind ‘One Man Band’.
“It really happened. A lot of those adventures in the songs, they’re real. I’ve actually been in that situation.”
It makes me want to go back and listen to them all again. Which I probably will. And what better way than to buy his new 18 CD box set?
“It’s a rebirth of the design from The Definitive Hits Collection, and it’s the same typeface as Silverbird, so it’s kind of iconic. There’s a couple of extra bonus CDs on there, including a live version of an album I made and only released in Australia called Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow. Then there’s another featuring unreleased tracks from my personal archives called Return to Paradise.”
He reminds me that he didn’t have a record deal during the 1980s and 1990s, although, he continued to make records. Hence the new box set with 18 CDs and 220 tracks. That’s some playlist!
“The only exhausting thing for me was playing it all in my car and listening to every track, making sure they worked. We’ve been very diligent, and I’ve got a great team, we work together really well. I’m proud that over the years I’ve kept up the standard.”
He’s also proud to still be performing in front of sell out audiences, some of which are a lot younger than you may expect.
“Since the last few albums… there’s a new, younger audience. It’s thrilling to see them at the front. I think because the remix of ‘Thunder In My Heart’ was big in the clubs, and because ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing’ keeps appearing on various new things, like on those awful dating shows! Some people might say ‘No, you’re not having it’ but I always say, yeah, bring it on!”
It may be over 50 years since Leo Sayer first burst on the scene, but he’s still full of both enthusiasm and energy and admits he can’t wait to return to the stage.
“When you’re up there the adrenalin takes over. I don’t prepare myself for shows, I just walk out there and let the show come to me. I think that’s the best way to do it. I just go out and find myself. I live between the drum riser and the front of the stage, that’s it for me, that’s Leo Central. I don’t need to be anywhere else. And because the songs all have this narrative, I do feel that I’m telling my life story in the songs. It’s a fantastically cathartic experience to do this show.”
And finally, does he have a message for his fans ahead of his tour?
“I’m so looking forward to my Scottish dates. I love that Glasgow audience, that gig is just fantastic, I love it. You’re right there by Sauchiehall Street… it’s incredible, a great place!”
Leothology is available to purchase
from 14th August. For tickets for what will be Leo’s final full UK tour,
visit www.leosayer.com/shows/
