I was in there every night until about three or four
o’clock in the morning, and our audience was
made up of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The
Small Faces, The Kinks, and The Walker Brothers.
Everybody that was somebody in the business.
voice coming out of this little framed guy,
[Leo Sayer]. I knew right there and then
that I’d found something magical. So, I
signed them up to manage. And by then
I’d started writing and so I presented
them with a song that I’d written called
Living in America, which is the first song
they ever cut.
way that Simon Cowell does now, I did
then, and unfortunately, I didn’t limit
to music so, when I turned up at the
Pavilion Theatre, which is where I held
the auditions, it was a warm Saturday
afternoon in August and all these people
turned up, and I’m sitting in front of this
little table with my clipboard and, of
course, because I didn’t limit it to music,
I was getting all manner of people doing
farmyard noises and all sorts. I thought,
“What have I done? I’ve made a real
boo-boo here.”
I had to plough through this lot one
after the next shouting “Next. Next.”
and eventually, at about number 48 on
the list, was this band called Patches
and they came on and they started to
play this sort of bluesy music and then I
heard this voice. I thought, “Where’s that
coming from? What an incredible voice?”
And I’m looking around the stage then.
It’s not from the drummer, it’s not the
keyboard player, and it’s not the guitarist.
Suddenly this little small framed figure
with fuzzy hair walked on the stage like
a Shakespearean actor, and I notice the
voice is coming out of this little body. My
god, I mean, how strange, it’s such a big
So how did your relationship with Leo
progress?
Gerry- Gerard Hugh Sayer - that’s his
real name, started to write with me in
my apartment, which was in Wykeham
Terrace on Dyke Road in the basement
flat. It was a tiny place, but I had this
little upright piano and a tape recorder
and the other room was my bedroom.
Leo would come every day and we
started writing songs and demoing and
I thought, “Right, I don’t know my way
around the business side of the music
industryso, who do I know that I can go
and talk to?” Just prior to that, a friend
of my father’s offered an introduction
to a man called John Burgess, who
was working for George Martin, the
Beatles producer, who had started up
a new record label called Air Records
and owned a studio in London. So, we
were lucky enough to get an audition to
take the band up with a view to them
getting signed. And we did the audition
up at Air Studio and as soon as John
Burgess heard Gerry singing, he offered
a contract there and then. So, I had this
contract in my hand but I had no clue
whether it was good, bad or whatever.
Immediately thought, “Right, who am
I going to see?” and by that point my
friendship with Adam Faith had really
started to blossom outside of him being
my employer and he’d moved down to
Sussex down to Henfield so I phoned
him up and I said, “Look, this is what’s
happening. I’ve found this band, I’ve
been writing these songs and put some
of them down on tape and I want to
come over and show you because I’ve
been offered a contract.”
I have to say when you’re in this industry,
it’s like your worst nightmare when
people come to you and say, “I’ve got
a tape I want you to listen to” you think,
“Oh my god, no, please don’t. Leave me
alone.” And I’m sure he felt the same.
You know, even though he was friendly
with me, he must have thought, “Oh
god, if it’s no good how am I going to
disappoint him” .
I went over there and I took the tape
machine over with me. I left Gerry in the
car outside and I went in and I sat down
and said, “Okay, here’s the contract.
This is what we’