Leo Sayer has stories. Boy, does he have stories! Muhammad Ali? Stories. Keith Moon? Stories. Elvis Presley? Stories. I\u2019ve never met anybody with so many stories. He\u2019s in Australia, where he lives, when we speak by video link. The pint-sized pop star with the mop of curly hair is 77 and still bouncing like a Superball.<\/p>\n
Back in the 70s, he was famous for his turbo-charged energy. On his first Top of the Pops appearance with his breakthrough hit, The Show Must Go On, he dressed as a pierrot. If you\u2019re looking for the footage, you won\u2019t find it. Paedophile presenter Jimmy Savile played such a prominent role that the video was disappeared. \u201cHe was creepy. He wouldn\u2019t get off the fucking stage, so they can never show my first performance. I\u2019m sure he fancied me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Half a century ago, Sayer was at his peak. In 1976 and 1977 he had two successive number one singles in the US with You Make Me Feel Like Dancing and When I Need You. You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, a falsetto cocktail of pop, disco and R&B, could be the theme tune to the 1970s. When I Need You is 110% schmaltz. There were plenty of other hits \u2013 Moonlighting, Tall Long Glasses, Thunder In My Heart, One Man Band, Orchard Road. Sayer was a lyrics man. Bob Dylan was his hero. While he was no Dylan, he knew how to write a song that told a story.<\/p>\n
In the corner of the screen is the name Gerard Sayer. Leo was his \u201cpop\u201d name, inspired by the mane. He greets me with the cheeriness of a Play School presenter. \u201cHe-llooooo! Can you see me? Hello, Simon, how are you?\u201d The cheeks are a bit more jowly, the hair greyer, but he\u2019s instantly recognisable.<\/p>\n
I ask if he thinks of himself as Leo or Gerard. \u201cGood question. I spend so long being the custodian of Leo Sayer, I think I need an escape valve. My passport, driving licence, I\u2019m Gerard. And I like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clowing around \u2026 Sayer in 1974, dressed as a pierrot. Photograph: Gijsbert Hanekroot\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Sayer grew up in Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex, to a northern Irish mother who was a nurse and an engineer father with a handlebar moustache and social aspirations. In the 1960s, he moved to London to work as a graphic artist, designing album covers (including Bob Marley\u2019s Catch a Fire), doing bits of copywriting and inventing a couple of typefaces. Sayer was a skilled harmonica player and he would perform alongside great folkies such as Donovan and Bert Jansch in pubs in Ladbroke Grove.<\/p>\n
He was signed by the pop star turned manager Adam Faith, who made him, then almost broke him. \u201cAdam was an incredible mentor, it must be said. I can\u2019t forgive him for the things he did later, but in the early days he was incredible. He knew everybody, he could open doors. Guys like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, everybody looked up to him. \u201d<\/p>\n
Sayer and his first wife, Janice, leaving Heathrow airport in 1983. Photograph: David Parker\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Sayer was in his early 20s, and already married to his first wife, Janice, when he was signed by Faith. \u201cGod, did Adam curse me for that: \u2018All these birds in the world and you go and marry that one.\u2019 Lovely girl. A librarian in Shoreham. She was gorgeous, but very straight. He thought if I was single, more girls would come to the show. I always wanted to be an artist and he wanted me to be a pop star.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sayer was naive in the extreme. It was commonplace for pop stars to be swindled by their managers, but few were swindled like Sayer. \u201cI signed power of attorney over to Adam Faith at the beginning of my career.\u201d Which meant Faith could pretty much do as he fancied with Sayer\u2019s finances. \u201cWhen he picked me up, he said: \u2018Right, we\u2019ve got to make this legal, so sign this otherwise we\u2019re not going to get started.\u2019 It was very gangster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Years later, Sayer realised he had been conned. There are reports that he had to flog his \u00a32m house, but that\u2019s not true. He never got to buy the house in the first place. \u201cI said to Adam and my accountant: \u2018There must be enough money to buy this house,\u2019 and they say, \u2018No you\u2019ve spent it all. There is none.\u2019\u201d Again, that wasn\u2019t true. \u201cThey\u2019d taken it.\u201d Well, you were young, I say, so it\u2019s not surprising that you were naive. \u201cNo,\u201d he says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t that young. I was old enough to know better, but I didn\u2019t want to stop the moving train.\u201d<\/p>\n
Things came to a head when he got himself a lawyer, Oscar Beuselinck, father of another popular 1970s singer and actor, Paul Nicholas. \u201cOscar rang Adam and said: \u2018I think you\u2019ve been a very naughty boy. There\u2019s a young chap called Leo Sayer who I\u2019m talking to, and I think you\u2019ve stolen a lot of money from him.\u2019 I had signed a renewal of my contract with Chrysalis records. I signed off a piece of paper.\u201d Again, he didn\u2019t read it. \u201cIt said: \u2018Chrysalis records paid \u00a3650,000 to Leo Sayer to renew the contract.\u2019 But the money didn\u2019t go to Leo Sayer \u2013 it went to his managers, and they never told me about it.\u201d Sayer often talks about Leo in the third person.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s why I say Adam was a robber.\u201d<\/p>\n
They settled out of court for \u00a3650,000.<\/p>\n
Making a racket .. Sayer and friends in 1980.
Photograph: David Dagley\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
When Faith died in 2003, Sayer was one of his pallbearers. I assume they had made up. But they hadn\u2019t \u2013 he was just asked to help carry the coffin, and he agreed. By then, Sayer had long fallen out of fashion. He hadn\u2019t had a hit since 1983. \u201cThe last time I saw him he was with the agent Colin Berlin in a restaurant. They said I should go into a musical, and revitalise your career. I went: fuck that, I\u2019m not a theatrical song and dance man. I turned the table over and stormed out, and all the food landed on them.\u201d Had he ever done that before? \u201cGood lord no! I just saw red and went bang. So this very quiet guy, measured guy, suddenly goes maaaaad.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be fair, Leo, I say, it\u2019s not the only time I have seen you go mad before. \u201cWell, Big Brother, yeah. But that was because a guy manhandled me. I came out of that with bruises. I said everything I could to get them off me.\u201d Sayer lost it in 2007\u2019s Celebrity Big Brother after having his underpants confiscated. He broke out of the house, was shoved by security, and fired a volley of \u201cfuck offs\u201d at them.<\/p>\n
Again, he admits he was naive to go on Big Brother. So why did he? \u201cThere was a guy who said: \u2018We can get you a new record deal.\u2019 There\u2019s always a carrot, isn\u2019t there? \u201d<\/p>\n
Sayer and Fletcher Bird during a performance on The Muppet Show, c. 1978. Photograph: United Archives GmbH\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Why did they confiscate his underpants? \u201cOh God, where do you start? I hate digging up all this again. I\u2019d arrived with 20 pairs, Calvin Kleins. They took them away and gave me three in return.\u201d Why? \u201cBecause. They. Wanted. To. Set. Me. Up. They brought out a mangle and wanted me to wash my smalls in the front room, with the angle that you, you big jumped-up pop star, would never wash your own underpants.\u201d Was he surprised by how much it got to him? \u201cYes, I was being mentally affected. It was claustrophobia. That\u2019s probably why I went to war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did Big Brother change you? \u201cI\u2019m an unchanged person. I\u2019m very normal. I\u2019m the same curious person I was in 1973. But it\u2019s a fight, Simon. You have to fight your own temptations.\u201d He laughs at a distant memory. \u201cI was standing on a corner in LA, shouting at everybody because I didn\u2019t get the pink limo. I wanted the pink one! I didn\u2019t want the black one. And two hours later you\u2019re slapping yourself: did I really say that?!\u2019<\/p>\n
You certainly succumbed to the vanities of fame then, I say. \u201cFor that brief moment!\u201d he concedes. Did he have groupies? \u201cI never thought I was handsome. I\u2019ve got a crooked face and I always thought I was the odd man out out; too short and all that stuff. I never thought of myself as a sex symbol.\u201d And the groupies? \u201cAmazingly, as time went on, yes. I threw them all aside because I was with Janice.\u201d He pauses, and admits he didn\u2019t throw all of them aside. \u201cThere is the famous straying of Orchard Road, of course. The song I had about the affair I had with a young girl who happened to jump on a train when I was on tour, and the rest is history, I suppose.\u201d The girl was 16, and Sayer was in his late 20s. \u201cI moved Janice out of our house. I said: \u2018I\u2019ve found this girl and I think I\u2019m getting serious.\u2019 And she said: \u2018Right, well, get me a flat and I\u2019ll move.\u2019 And I did. She moved to a flat in Churchfield Road, Acton, but Orchard Road sang a little bit better. I moved the girl in the same day.\u201d<\/p>\n
How long did their relationship last? \u201cOh, it was only a night! As soon as the girl was in the house, I was like: what the fuck have I done? Because it just wasn\u2019t right. So I sent her home. I drove her to the station and then drove back to see Janice, and the song is me putting the coins in the phone box and trying to be forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hold on a sec, I say. I\u2019ve heard this story before. Didn\u2019t her father chase you with an axe? Ah, Sayer says. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of mythological. Hahahaha!\u2019 So it\u2019s not true? \u201cIt\u2019s not quite right, no. Hahaha. I embellished that story when I was trying to make the song more of a hit. Hahahaha!\u201d Should we correct the record? \u201cOh, please do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Which reminds me, I say. There\u2019s another story \u2013 you got a phone call from Elvis, just before he died, asking to meet up with you. Absolutely true, Sayer says. As with many of Sayer\u2019s anecdotes, there\u2019s a long runway. In short, he\u2019d fallen off the stage in the US, and got massaged by a celebrated former American footballer called Michael who was now working for a famous person he wouldn\u2019t name. \u201cThen one day he handed me the phone, and the person at the other end said [Cue Elvis voice]: \u2018This is Elvis Aaron Presley, and you make me feel like dancing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know the photographer Terry O\u2019Neill? He was a great friend of mine, and a brilliant mimic. I said: \u2018Is this Terry?\u2019 And he said: \u2018No sir, this is Elvis Aaron Presley.\u2019 And I\u2019m going, \u2018OK\u2019. And he says: \u2018Well, Michael tells me you\u2019re a great guy and I\u2019m going through a bit of a hole myself in my life, and things ain\u2019t so good, and I\u2019ve just got me and my girlfriend here, and I would like you to come to Graceland and hang out. Let\u2019s see what we can do together because I love your songs, man. I think you could be a good force of energy for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Blimey, I say. \u2018We chatted for about 25 minutes. He was very humble and very sweet. You could see he was a good Christian. And he was really enthusiastic about, \u2018give me some of your energy\u2019. I\u2019m kinda famed for that energy. So the next day comes, and I had this foreboding feeling. Then, on the radio, I heard: \u2018The singer Elvis Presley has been brought into Memphis Baptist hospital dead on arrival.\u2019\u201d Sayer says he has rarely told the full story because he doesn\u2019t think people would believe him. \u201cI told Janice, and she said: \u2018Don\u2019t tell anybody \u2013 they\u2019ll think you are a crank. Or name dropping.\u2019 So I started to think it didn\u2019t happen. That I\u2019d made it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sayer plays the Great Southeast Music Hall in Atlanta, 1975. Photograph: Tom Hill\/WireImage<\/p>\n
But, seven years later, in 1984, he received a call from the producer David Foster inviting him out for dinner. By now, Sayer didn\u2019t have a record deal, and he convinced himself Foster was going to offer him a contract. \u201cSitting beside David at this dinner is a beautiful woman Ginger Alden, who was Elvis\u2019s girlfriend at the time he died. And David says: \u2018Look, the reason you\u2019re here, Leo, is Ginger, who is terrified of flying, managed to get the courage to come with me to London because she said, \u201cI\u2019ve got to meet Leo Sayer.\u201d\u2019 She\u2019d been holding back this story for all those years. And Ginger told me the last thing Elvis said before she found him in the morning dead. She said: \u2018He was singing your song and saying he was going to meet Leo, and couldn\u2019t wait!\u2019\u201d Sayer looks at me intensely, barely credulous about his own story. \u201cSo is that something to carry?\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing snooker with Steve Davis on the BBC\u2019s Leo Sayer Show, 1982. Photograph: Radio Times\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Wow! I heard you were also great friends with Keith Moon, the legendary Who drummer, famous for driving Rolls Royces into swimming pools. Well, here\u2019s another strange thing, Sayer says. \u201cI was with him the last evening of his life. With Paul and Linda McCartney and some others.\u201d Now I\u2019m beginning to get the willies. What was he like that final night? \u201cCompletely changed. Really relaxed. I don\u2019t think he was taking drugs at the time. I remember talking to Macca and saying: \u2018Look at Keith \u2013 he\u2019s just normal, isn\u2019t he?\u2019 And Paul said: \u2018Yeah, it\u2019s a beautiful thing to see.\u2019 And Keith was running around to everybody saying: \u2018I love you, I love you.\u2019 He came up to me and said: \u2018You\u2019ve always been a great friend and support.\u2019 And I was thinking, \u2018Oh, Keith, be normal! Be yourself.\u2019 But he was emotional, and I don\u2019t know what happened that night. They say he managed to get some drugs, and the next day he was gone. Overdose!\u201d<\/p>\n
Why does he think Moon was like that on the last night? \u201cI\u2019ve always wondered that.\u201d Do you think he knew something? \u201cI don\u2019t know. But it was very strange. Look at another friend I had, Ayrton Senna. And look at that last race he was in. And the way he acted the day before he was killed. He was so caring for all the other drivers. He was so emotional. Everyone said they saw a different person. I think people know when the game is up.\u201d<\/p>\n
A billboard for Thunder In My Heart on the Sunset Strip, c. 1977. Photograph: Robert Landau\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Sayer\u2019s spooking me now. So I change the subject. To Muhammad Ali. I once saw a brief mention of the time Ali asked Leo to go jogging with him. Surely that\u2019s apocryphal? Nope, he says. Another story, another runway of a buildup. Fast forward a few years, and Sayer\u2019s now living in LA. At the time, British Airways gave him first class tickets in exchange for commercials he did for them. This time around, he\u2019d just turned up at Heathrow without booking, and there was a problem. \u201cThey say [cue posh voice]: \u2018Mr Sayer I\u2019m so sorry, a gentleman has booked up all of first class and we can\u2019t put you in there. We can put you in coach, but down the back of the plane is not very nice.\u2019\u201d So, Sayer comes over all pink limo. \u201cI said, look, tell him who I am. I thought I\u2019d pull a bit of rank. And they tell his manager, \u2018It\u2019s Leo Sayer!\u2019 The answer comes back: \u2018Mr Sayer, you\u2019re going to be sitting in first class with the gentleman.\u2019 I went, OK! Score! So I get on the plane and there he is in bandages two seats over. My fucking hero! My God! So I sit down and he starts singing You Make Me Feel Like Dancing to me in this broken, croaky voice! He\u2019s just been in an exhibition match where he got the pulp beaten out of him. We talked the entire trip. It was the best thing ever. Just glorious. Every now and then his trainer and manager would come into the cabin and he\u2019d say: \u2018I\u2019m talking to Leo!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s more. At the end of the flight, Ali invited Sayer to stay with him and his wife in Santa Barbara. They sent a limo for him, and he spent two days running, jogging and chatting with Ali. Again, he says, he\u2019s found it hard to talk about it. \u201cI could never really tell anybody because they\u2019d never believe me number one, and number two it was very private.\u201d<\/p>\n
Big fan \u2026 Cassius Clay, AKA Muhammad Ali, in 1962. Photograph: The Stanley Weston Archive\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Fast forward another few years, and Sayer is invited to perform for Ali at his 60th birthday party in London. Well, how could he say no? \u201cAli\u2019s very much in the Parkinson\u2019s now. He\u2019s very restricted in his movement, and he doesn\u2019t really say anything. So I do the show, and he just glues his eyes on me. The way he\u2019d look at you; you couldn\u2019t look away. Then his wife came out and said: \u2018He wants to see you backstage.\u2019 So I went into the dressing room, and he gave me the biggest hug, and he said, \u2018I love you man!\u2019 That\u2019s one of the most emotional moments in my life.\u201d His bottom lip is quivering. \u201cI always get emotional when I think about it. He pauses. \u201cIt was one of those moments. He just liked me. There was something chemical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ali, Ayrton, Moon, Elvis, What does he think they all saw in him? \u201cI\u2019m one of those guys who\u2019s an eternal good luck charm. I\u2019m very charming. I\u2019m friendly with everybody.\u201d As soon as he gets on a plane, he\u2019s chatting away to his neighbour. Do people know who he is when he starts conversations? \u201cOh yeah, I\u2019m very well known. The only frustration in it is that people don\u2019t often link the songs with me. So maybe there\u2019s some work still to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
What a life! There\u2019s so much more to write about, and so little space. It\u2019s getting late down under, and Sayer says it\u2019s well past his bedtime. These days, he\u2019s living comfortably with his second wife, Donna (they\u2019ve been together for 40 years), earning a nice crust from streaming, downloads and even the occasional record sale. He\u2019s preparing for his grand tour of the UK, and still fizzing with energy and hope. When I ask if he\u2019s always been an optimist, he starts singing Monty Python\u2019s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. \u201cI see positivity in everything. This optimism I have can be blinding. It\u2019s always a bright and sunny day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still dancing \u2026 Sayer performs at Rewind South in Henley-on-Thames, 2016. Photograph: Lorne Thomson\/Redferns<\/p>\n
For example, he has always believed that a big comeback is just around the corner. He says his voice is as good as ever, and reminds me of the time he went to America to work with producer Richard Perry. \u201cHe said: \u2018Your voice is unique. You\u2019re Smokey Robinson. You\u2019ve got that thing that Otis Redding had, the way you sell a song.\u2019 He was quite right really.\u201d Does he compare himself with Robinson and Redding? \u201cWell, I bumped into Smokey a bit ago in LA, and I love him to death, but, no, I wouldn\u2019t make that comparison. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m completely like anybody else.\u201d OK, does he think he\u2019s up there with them quality wise? \u201cIf you say so! Somebody told me once to be humble, and I\u2019m trying to be humble.\u201d<\/p>\n
I recently read that, as well as the new tour, he\u2019s preparing to publish his memoir, headline Glastonbury and release a new album. Is that the blinding optimism talking, or is it a reality? \u201cYeah, yeah, yeah! There are people who are trying to engineer things like that for me. It could happen. It might happen. But it\u2019s not confirmed, put it like that. All my fans keep shouting for it, and there are people lobbying for me. There are even people in the \u2019biz who keep talking about it.\u201d He looks at his phone. \u201cGod, it\u2019s 11.08pm, past my bedtime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Look forward to seeing you at Glasto, I say. \u201cOK! I\u2019ll be there. You can come on stage!\u201d<\/p>\n
Leo Sayer\u2019s Can\u2019t Stop Loving You tour starts on 7 October<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leo Sayer has stories. Boy, does he have stories! Muhammad Ali? Stories. Keith Moon? Stories. Elvis Presley? Stories.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-530988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}