Leo Sayer

Shoreham, art school, and a song given away

Gerard Hugh Sayer was born in Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, on 21 May 1948, and trained in commercial art and graphic design at West Sussex College of Art and Design before songwriting took over. The turn came through the musician David Courtney, who found him and began writing with him; their "Giving It All Away" became a 1973 hit for Roger Daltrey, and Courtney's connections brought in Adam Faith as manager.

By 1973 Sayer was signed to Chrysalis in Britain and Warner Bros in America. The record that opened the door was "The Show Must Go On", a music-hall-shaped song that reached No 2 in the UK — a long way from the dance records that would define him in the United States three years later. The 1970s remain his most prolific decade by a distance: 19 UK Top 40 singles in total, and a run of seven consecutive Top 10 hits.

Two American number ones, then the bill arrives

The peak is narrow and very high. Endless Flight, released in 1976, reached No 4 in the UK and No 10 in the US and went platinum. Out of it came two consecutive American No 1 singles — "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing", which won him a Grammy, and the ballad "When I Need You". In 1979 The Very Best of Leo Sayer gave him his first UK No 1 album.

What followed was less about records than about accounting. His 1985 divorce exposed how Faith had handled his business affairs, through investments and expenses that would not stand scrutiny; a settlement of £650,000 came in 1992, and Sayer recovered his publishing rights from Chrysalis in the early 1990s. A 2006 remix put one of his songs back in front of an audience that had not been born when he made it.

Talking to Simon Mayo on Greatest Hits Radio in early October 2026, Sayer told a story from the same era about the offer he could not take. After he sang "Hold the Line", members of Toto asked him to front the band. "I can't, man. I'm signed to Warner Brothers, and my manager, Adam Faith, would kill me," he said he told them — a decision he still describes as a game-changer he had to let go.

Sydney, and a working second half

Sayer moved to Sydney in 2005 and took Australian citizenship in January 2009. He has gone on making albums rather than trading solely on the catalogue: Restless Years in 2015, Selfie in 2019, Northern Songs in 2022, and 1992 in 2024 — sixteen original UK studio albums by the count used on this year's box set.

Australia is now his home market in a practical sense as well as a legal one. The Still Feel Like Dancing! tour sold out there in 2025 and took on encore dates into 2026: Palms at Crown in Melbourne on 25 January, the State Theatre in Sydney on 18 April, and the Mundi Mundi Big Bash at Broken Hill across 20–22 August.

Leothology, and a memoir called Just a Boy

On 11 August 2026 Sayer announced Leothology: The Studio Albums 1973–Now, which came out three days later, on 14 August, through Edsel Records and Demon Music. It runs to 18 discs and 220 tracks: all 16 original UK studio albums in mini-vinyl replica wallets inside a hard-shell box, with a 28-page booklet carrying a 3,000-word foreword by Sayer and track-by-track notes.

Two of the discs had not been issued before. Don't Wait Until Tomorrow – Live captures a 2008 Melbourne concert with a 25-piece orchestra, and Return to Paradise gathers 14 tracks of unreleased material. Asked which part of the set pleases him most, Sayer has pointed at the live album rather than the hits. Of the project itself he said: "When Demon Music approached me recently with the idea of putting together this comprehensive Leothology box-set, which includes everything I've recorded so far, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to complete the picture."

A first autobiography, Just a Boy, is in its final editing stages for worldwide publication in early 2027. He told Mayo it includes harder passages — a hotel fire he witnessed when he was young, and his time on Celebrity Big Brother.

The last long lap

Sayer announced the Can't Stop Loving You UK tour on 28 January 2026, with tickets going on general sale at 10am on Friday 30 January through AEG Presents. It is 23 shows, opening at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea on 7 October and closing in Edinburgh on 15 November. The route takes in the London Palladium on 27 October, York Barbican on 30 October, Buxton Opera House on 31 October, Manchester's Bridgewater Hall on 6 November, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 7 November and Newcastle City Hall on 12 November.

The framing has been consistent since the announcement, and he has been careful about it. "I am NOT retiring, just slowing the number of live shows down a little," he said; this will simply be the last time he plays so many dates across the country. The reasoning he gave Mayo is physical rather than sentimental — spacing the dates out is what keeps the energy intact, and he would rather stop touring at this scale while he can still dance and reach the notes than carry on at a reduced speed.

By mid-October the run is roughly a third gone. Bexhill on 7 October was followed by Worthing Assembly Hall on 10 October, Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone on 13 October, Watford Colosseum on 15 October and The Anvil in Basingstoke on 17 October, with Cambridge Corn Exchange on 22 October, Lighthouse Poole on 23 October, the Cliffs Pavilion in Southend on 25 October and the Palladium still ahead before the tour moves north in November.