A mammoth 32-concert tour isn’t something that’s likely to faze Leo Sayer.
The Australia-based chart-topper is back in the UK playing an epic series of shows to celebrate 50 years of recording – and tells me it’s his trusty doctors that keep him keeping on.
Leo, who scored two American No1 singles in 1977, had three stents put in his heart in 2018 after suffering bouts of exhaustion.
Now aged 74, he’s all too aware of the perils of inactivity and boredom.
‘Just take the pills…’
“As long as I take the pills everything’s great,” he quips.
“I had a partial kneecap replacement a few years ago and have had no problem with the knees since. I keep my exercise going because it’s very easy to freeze up and just get lazy and lose energy, and I really need it for the work I do – I’m still pretending to be a 25-year-old, you see!
“You just do the right things – take the right pills, get the right vitamins in, make sure you get lots of sleep.”
The diminutive troubadour’s tour started on September 20 and approaches its halfway point by calling at Perth Concert Hall on Thursday.
Reviews have praised Leo’s shows’ uplifting nature, and with a back catalogue boasting some of the catchiest singles of the ’70s and early ’80s, that’s no surprise.
Given he’s released 16 studio albums and penned songs for such as Roger Daltrey and Cliff Richard, nor is his broad sweep.
“The show now has so many popular songs in it that we can’t have an opening act,” the crooner chuckles.
“I’d play longer, only a lot of venues have curfews. But I don’t think anybody leaves unhappy – it’s a really well-paced show.”
A stellar career
The Sussex-born entertainer scored a British No1 with his 1976 cover of Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager’s ballad When I Need You, and narrowly missed top spot with four more solo singles, starting with his second, The Show Must Go On, in 1974.
It was DJ Meck’s reworking of his 1977 hit Thunder In My Heart that put Sayer back in the spotlight and gave him a belated second UK chart-topper in 2006, shortly after making his move Down Under permanent.
Since then he’s toured regularly with backing bands based in both Australia and England, while fresh cuts continue along at a steady pace.
This year’s Beatles covers album Northern Songs followed a run of lockdown singles recorded solo at home in the outback between Sydney and Canberra.
Such a way of operating had already emerged pre-Covid, with a template created on Leo’s 2019 LP Selfie.
“There’s a real dichotomy between what I do live and what I do making records now, because I’m very much working in a sort of vacuum.
“My engineer was the one who told me not to use other musicians because he preferred my demos, so that was what I started to do and I kind of enjoy it, although I’m tempted for the next album to bring some players in again – just to add some colours.
“It’s fun working by yourself. You’ve really got to put a lot of effort in, but I’m really happy with the results.”
Given the Fab Four’s influence on his work, releasing a tribute exactly 50 years on from his own fledgling single Living In America, while still with the band Patches, suggested a circle being completed, consciously or otherwise.
The early days
Reflecting on early days guided by ex-star Adam Faith, Leo insists rapid success with writing partner David Courtney didn’t surprise him.
“The ideas came really fast and Adam had the contacts,” he says.
“He introduced me to Paul McCartney the day I signed with him, and round the corner he had a publicist called Keith Altham who worked for the NME.
“He suggested we go to Roger Daltrey’s studio, which is how we ended up with his first solo album. It felt like it was meant to be.
“We were such a strong team with some great songs – that was what really kicked it in.”
Leo acknowledges that his career “slowed down a little bit” for a few years, but is philosophical about pop’s notoriously fickle nature.
“It’s been a career where there have been incredibly productive moments and very slow moments in between,” he muses.
“But that’s very much to do with fashion – music is fashion, isn’t it?”
Leo Sayer plays Perth Concert Hall on Thursday, October 13.
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