|
Gerard Hugh Sayer is a singer-songwriter from
Shoreham-By-Sea, Sussex, England, who was discovered by David Courtney and
Adam Faith, and turned out to be instrumental in the launching of Roger
Daltrey's solo career.
Courtney held an audition for his fledgling talent agency at the
Pavilion Theatre in Brighton. Sayer,
who was going by the first name Gerry, was in a band called Patches at the
time, and they passed the audition.
Courtney and Sayer became fast friends and started co-writing songs
together at David's flat, Courtney at the piano and Sayer in the
other room, vetting lyrics and poems he had written for usable material. They threw down a demo and tried
shilling it to George Martin, eventually finding an audience with the
aforementioned Faith, for whom Courtney had played drums. Faith booked Patches to record a
single at Olympic Studios in London, where The Who just happened to be
laying down tracks for a new album.
Courtney and Faith had little production experience, and Roger
Daltrey generously donated his studio and time to their freshman
effort. It proved to be a
lucrative arrangement for all sides, as Daltrey was smitten with some of
Courtney's and Sayer's songs, and they repaid him in kind by
giving him several compositions that had been earmarked for Sayer's next
album. As a result, Daltrey hit the streets well before Silverbird, which was fine and dandy
for all parties involved, as they knew they were into something good. Besides, Faith was underwhelmed by
Patches, whose first single flopped, and decided to market Sayer as a solo
act, retaining only guitarist Max Chetwynd from the original band. Faith's wife Jackie coined the
first name "Leo" in honour of Sayer's trademark mane of
hair. (Never mind that lions
don't have afros.) Things
started happening fast: Joe
Smith, the big cheese at Warner Bros. Records, traveled to Brighton to see
the young phenom in action and immediately signed him to a ten-record deal,
which covered most of the Americas, including Canada, South America, and
the United States. Chrysalis
got in on the act and signed Sayer to a contract that would allow them to
distribute his records throughout the rest of the world. Sayer was poised for international
stardom, touring tirelessly to promote his new album, the paternal Faith in
tow. Adam Faith was involved in
a serious automobile accident after one of the shows, winding up in the
hospital to recover from his injuries.
Ever the promoter, all he talked about in the midst of his trauma
was how great the first single of Silverbird
was. As a result of Faith's
indefatigible marketing efforts, Sayer landed a spot on the BBC television
programme, The Old Grey Whistle Test,
shortly before embarking on a European tour. It was the time for flashy stage
acts and outlandish costumes, and Sayer was no exception. He dressed himself up as a Pierrot,
possibly as a tribute to one of his idols, Marcel Marceau, with his wife
Janice patiently applying his clown makeup and sewing his costumes. All of this hard work paid off, as Silverbird went to #2 on the U.K.
album chart, with "The Show Must Go On" reaching the same
status on the singles chart. A
BBC concert followed. Sayer
made his mark on American audiences in a most unusual way. Three Dog Night took "The Show
Must Go On" to #1, going so far as to pay homage to Sayer by dressing
up as clowns to support the single on television. The time was ripe for a U.S.
tour. Sayer's reputation
had preceded him, as audiences flocked to get a glimpse of this British
phenom, specifically at The Bottom Line in New York, where Hall & Oates
opened for him, and The Troubador in L.A. He returned home to England in the
summer of 1974 and dropped the Pierrot gimmick, which had always been his
plan, once the persona had served its purpose and put him on the musical
map. (Besides, it must have
been hot on stage in those costumes and all that makeup.) He was pleased to find the audience
accepted the change, happy to see the man behind the mask, as it were, and
pouring into the Crystal Palce Bowl to see him open for Rick Wakeman. A second album, Just A Boy, produced his first top-ten success in the States, a
song called "Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance)" which Sayer says
reflects his first experiences in the States. (We're not sure what that says
about the States.) It also
charted in the U.K., along with "One Man Band". Sayer's popularity was
spreading to France, where he lived the dream of playing The Theatre D'
Champs Elysees, home base of the aforementioned Marcel Marceau. Later that same year, Paul Dainty, a
British promoter, encouraged Leo to tour Australia. Much to his surprise, Sayer found
himself getting a Beatlesesque mob scene at Sydney Airport. His two albums had captured the
Aussies' fancy, and "Leo-Mania" was sweeping across the
continent, selling out every venue and shattering box-office records Down
Under. It was an affectionate
and loyal following he would find with no other country, an allegiance that
would lead him back to Australia time and again. " Leo-Mania" wasn't
confined to Australia, as Sayer had already made positive in-roads with the
French, so much so that when he appeared at the Cannes Midem music business
festival in 1975, his set was followed by such a rambunction ovation, Nino
Rota and the symphony orchestra he was supposed to conduct reportedly were "unable"
to go on. (Perhaps it was an
example of the old show-business adage, "How do you follow that?") It was around this time that Sayer
and his long-time songwriting partner David Courtney went their separate
ways. Courtney was embarking on
his own solo career, and Sayer hooked up with composer Frank Farrell, a
former bassist and pianist for Supertramp. Another
Year was slapped together in two weeks at the behest of Adam Faith, who
was preoccupied with his own album at the time. It didn't stop Another Year from being another crowd-pleaser,
however, yielding the #2 single "Moonlighting" and capturing
the imagination of the Irish with a song called "I Will Not Stop
Fighting". (Go
figure.) Leo supported the
album relentlessly with an international tour that included Australia, Europe,
The Far East, Great Britain, New Zealand, and South Africa. Around Christmastime of the same
year, Sayer suffered a rare setback, releasing an ill-advised cover of "Let
It Be". It did not stop
him, however, from re-making "I Am The Walrus" and "The
Long And Winding Road" for the box-office disaster All This and World War II. A year later, Sayer switched
producers and hired Richard Perry, who had his own ideas about which tack
Leo's career should take, showcasing him as a vocalist as opposed to
a singer-songwriter. Perry
exploited Sayer's talent for R&B by encouraging him to cover "Reflections",
"Tears of a Clown", and "What Becomes of the Broken
Hearted". Sayer balked at
first but quickly acceded when he realized his "back-up band"
would include Larry Carlton, Steve Gadd, and Ray Parker, Jr. Ironically, it was in this climate
that Leo would create his biggest hit, "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing",
which evolved from a good, old-fashioined jam session. Vini Poncia would later put the spit
and polish on it and it rocketed to #1 in the U.S. in September 1976, Leo's
first song to do so in the States.
He would repeat the feat with the follow-up single, the Albert
Hammond/Carole Bayer-Sager love ballad, "When I Need You",
which also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South
Africa, and the U.K. The
following year, "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" astonishingly
won a Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Song. Endless
Flight, which Sayer had originally been reluctant to board, was fitted
with platinum wings in the U.K. and U.S., selling over one million copies,
with its singles doing the same six times over. Thunder
In My Heart must have seemed like a disappointment in comparison, managing
a paltry #38 on the Billboard charts, although it fared much better in the
U.K., peaking at #8. The title
track and "Easy To Love" followed suit, each cracking the U.S.
top forty. " Thunder in My
Heart" peaked at #22 on the U.K. charts, whereas "Easy To Love"
didn't register a blip.
His eponymous follow-up featured an all-star band led by Lindsey
Buckingham, as well as a collection of musicians who would soon be known as
Toto. Sayer gamely supported
the album with another mind-numblingly exhaustive tour of Australia,
Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the United States, including
Hawaii. It is little wonder
this curly-haired ball of energy fell offstage at a concert in Wisconsin,
in the middle of a 65-date tour.
The fall received widespread publicity, but the undaunted Sayer, who
was injured in the incident, refused to miss a single show. His resolve couldn't have hurt
his chances to win Best Male Artist of 1978, which was bestowed on him by
The British Pop and Rock Awards.
Courtney and Sayer re-united in 1979 with another all-star band that
included Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn.
The same year, The Very Best
Of Leo Sayer went straight to the top of the U.K. charts and went
double-platinum, selling two million copies. Unfortunately, Leo wasn't
reaping all the rewards of his hard work and success. He wound up in a legal fight with
Adam Faith, who had supposedly jilted him out of hundreds of thousands of
pounds in royalties, a fraction of which he was awarded in court. This meant going back on the road,
not just to support an album, but to make money. Fans across the world were happy to
give it to him, in Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and the high-rolling cities
of Atlantic City, Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas, and Reno in the U.S., where he found
himself curiously billed as a co-headliner with Bill Cosby. The 1980s started out hopeful for
Sayer, who hit #2 in the U.K. and U.S. with a remake of the old Bobby Vee
song, "More Than I Can Say". He also hit the charts as a composer
when Cliff Richard took "Dreaming" to #8 in the U.K. Two years later, another
international hit arrived in the form of the Andy Hill- and Pete
Sinfield-penned "Have You Ever Been In Love". Although the hits were coming fewer
and farther between, Leo continued to enjoy his popularity, hosting his own
TV shows on BBC, as well as a show on Radio 1, and co-hosting Solid Gold with Dionne Warwick. 1985 was not a good year for Leo,
who split up with long-time wife Janice and long-time collaborator Adam
Faith, presumably over the royalties issue. Both were replaced the following
year when Leo found a partner, in both senses of the word, in Donatella
Piccinetti. He left Chrysalis
and started pitching himself to other record companies. It was, ironically, a time for
transformation for Sayer, who straightened his curly locks and sported a
ponytail, causing audiences to do a double-take in Australia and the U.K.,
where he toured with great success.
In 1990, much to his surprise, Leo was greeted with unabashed fervor
in, of all places, Moscow, where he played two dates and found the audience
singing his own songs back to him.
Although the hits were drying up, he was still as popular as ever on
the road, where he spent much of the '90s. In 1997, he was offered a contract
with The Cafi Royal in London, where he found some unlikely allies
in the tabloid press, eager to chat up a Leo Sayer comeback. The ruse worked, as did the
fortuitously timed Groove Generation cover of "You Make Me Feel Like
Dancing", which hit the charts in the U.K. and introduced Leo to a
new generation of fans in England, where disco was definitely not dead. Touring continued to be his bread
and butter after the turn of the century, and he returned to the studio to
record Voice In My Head, a
largely do-it-yourself project that employed the co-writing talents of
Albert Hammond and Susie Webb.
In 2005, Leo was surprised to find himself atop the U.K. charts, with
a re-working of "Thunder In My Heart", mixed by Meck. It continues to be a dance-club
staple, from England to Australia, where Leo moved around the same time "Thunder
In My Heart" was released.
In 2007, he made an ill-fated appearance on the British "reality"
series, Celebrity Big Brother. Not
only was he the audience's least favourite
member of the household; he managed to quit the day he was
to be "evicted"; he also stormed off the set, breaking
things and lobbing obscenities at the security officers on the set. To add insult to injury, his
longtime parter Piccinetti had a fling with Donny Tourette, another member
of the Celebrity Big Brother "cast". Piccinetti and Sayer called it quits
after twenty-two years, in March 2007.
Rumours that Leo was to be engaged and married earlier this year
have been quashed by Sayer himself on his website. He continues to enjoy the
unconditional love and affection of his fans all over the world, and is
still touring at the tender age of 58, 'fro intact, with a new album
purportedly in the works.
Leo Sayer
recordings
In My Life
(David Courtney/Leo Sayer)
Long Tall
Glasses (I Can Dance) (David Courtney/Leo Sayer)
Sources:
1.
http://www.leosayer.com/
2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Sayer
3.
http://www.classicbands.com/leosayer.html
|
