Leo Sayer talks ahead of Birmingham date

He has 16 hit albums and 26 hit singles to his credit and remains hugely popular worldwide. And Leo will be taking a trip down memory lane tonight when he headlines Birmingham Town Hall.

In the past, Leo has appeared alongside other artists who enjoyed hits in the 1970s. However, he’d prefer to go his own way rather than wallow in the past.

“Without dissing it too much, those tours are for people who want to revel in nostalgia, and they’re not really fussed whether an artist has aged or can still sing well. I found those shows easy – I’m still in good voice – but it didn’t matter and it got rather depressing. They’d have accepted me if I’d gone up there and rolled through the motions.

“I’m still recording’, and that I can still sing as well as I could. I still view myself as a current artist. It’s an attitude thing.”

Leo has led a remarkable life after launching his career on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1970s. However, he suffered financial difficulties following the divorce from his first wife, Janice, and further troubles during the 1990s.

However, he battled back and relaunched his music career, enjoying an unexpected return to the charts in 2006 with Meck’s remix of Thunder In My Heart.

He moved to Australia and released a new album in 2015, Restless Years, which was well received. He has overcome a number of health problems and now leads a clean lifestyle, avoiding alcohol and spicy foods, to avoid further illness.

He’s happy to do his own thing, when it comes to making music. “These days the music industry is about genre and the marketing people will say, ‘I want 12 tracks that sound like that one’.

“But the older guys like Elton, Paul McCartney and me are still working in the same old way, trying to make records that are really full of contrasting songs.

“There are some really great modern artists out there but it is hard for them to sustain or produce their message.

“I’m impressed with Ed Sheeran. I think he has a terrific point of view and a great mentality but I sense there is someone in the background saying to him, ‘We need more love songs, Ed’.

“I feel that in his heart he would probably like to be writing more about the planet and the universe.

“Forty years ago we were unfettered. Nobody now could write Imagine like John Lennon did because everyone is in such fear of political correctness or saying anything different.”