Leo Sayer Queen's Hall Edinburgh 26th October 2024 Review
Leo Sayer was at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight, the penultimate date on his current UK tour (Glasgow tomorrow night), and it was a sell out show.
As you would expect, many of the members of this audience were of an age to have been around in the 1970s when Leo Sayer was pretty much a permanent fixture of UK radio and television with him and his music almost unavoidable. It is, well for some of us, including Leo Sayer himself, hard to believe that his albums “Silverbird” and “Just A Boy” were released in 1973 and 1974 respectively. Leo Sayer has never stopped making music over the years, and tonight’s audience proved without a doubt that his fans have never forgotten him, or his music. Leo Sayer’s songs have survived the test of time for one reason – they were good songs.
This evening’s set-list opened with “Giving It All Away”, a song which the then unknown songwriter composed along with Adam Faith and David Courtney for rock legend Roger Daltrey. Lyrically this song has all of the elements that were to define much of Leo’s songwriting over the coming years and the audience response to this song was immediately a positive one. Following immediately on from this song were “Endless Flight” and “More Than I Can Say”.
Leo Sayer was last at the Queen’s Hall in October 2022 and then, as tonight, his connection with his audience was immediate. There is a genuine feeling of warmth and affection between the two that is rare and, as last time, Leo was in a very good and often humorous mood.
This was roughly a two hour show (plus interval) and whilst some pop stars from the 70s/80s are still touring, many do struggle to fill out a show once their few chart-hits have been performed. Leo Sayer does not fall into this category as this show was more like a non-stop musical jukebox with huge chart hits often being left until the middle or end of the show and some people maybe saying to themselves “I forgot he did that one too”.
As a songwriter, Leo Sayer has always been one of the best that Britain ever produced and often his songs are carefully constructed stories that have real places, real people and real memories of Leo Sayer’s in them. Two classic examples of this performed tonight were “The Bells of St Mary’s” and “Moonlighting”. Also on this set list was the much under-rated “Orchard Road”.
Over the years, Leo Sayer has also been very careful as a singer as to his choice of songs to cover in his own unique style and “When I Need You”, “Raining In My Heart” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You” are good examples of this.
In this show (as in the one for 2022), Leo Sayer has taken to extending his humour to playing around a little with some of his songs, and that is his prerogative. This approach does, however, always divide the audience as some will be happy to go along with his current take on “Moonlighting” for example while others would prefer it played straight, exactly as they remember the record.
Leo Sayer was in good voice all evening and the power that he is famous for vocally is still there today. As well as this though, Leo is above all an entertainer and knows exactly how to work with his audience. Whether that be a spontaneous audience participation on-stage to “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”, or dealing with a lost ear-plug, nothing it seems puts him off his stride. As his song tells us “The Show Must Go On”, and it did tonight to an audience for whom Leo Sayer gave them the show that they came out to see and hear.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
As you would expect, many of the members of this audience were of an age to have been around in the 1970s when Leo Sayer was pretty much a permanent fixture of UK radio and television with him and his music almost unavoidable. It is, well for some of us, including Leo Sayer himself, hard to believe that his albums “Silverbird” and “Just A Boy” were released in 1973 and 1974 respectively. Leo Sayer has never stopped making music over the years, and tonight’s audience proved without a doubt that his fans have never forgotten him, or his music. Leo Sayer’s songs have survived the test of time for one reason – they were good songs.
This evening’s set-list opened with “Giving It All Away”, a song which the then unknown songwriter composed along with Adam Faith and David Courtney for rock legend Roger Daltrey. Lyrically this song has all of the elements that were to define much of Leo’s songwriting over the coming years and the audience response to this song was immediately a positive one. Following immediately on from this song were “Endless Flight” and “More Than I Can Say”.
Leo Sayer was last at the Queen’s Hall in October 2022 and then, as tonight, his connection with his audience was immediate. There is a genuine feeling of warmth and affection between the two that is rare and, as last time, Leo was in a very good and often humorous mood.
This was roughly a two hour show (plus interval) and whilst some pop stars from the 70s/80s are still touring, many do struggle to fill out a show once their few chart-hits have been performed. Leo Sayer does not fall into this category as this show was more like a non-stop musical jukebox with huge chart hits often being left until the middle or end of the show and some people maybe saying to themselves “I forgot he did that one too”.
As a songwriter, Leo Sayer has always been one of the best that Britain ever produced and often his songs are carefully constructed stories that have real places, real people and real memories of Leo Sayer’s in them. Two classic examples of this performed tonight were “The Bells of St Mary’s” and “Moonlighting”. Also on this set list was the much under-rated “Orchard Road”.
Over the years, Leo Sayer has also been very careful as a singer as to his choice of songs to cover in his own unique style and “When I Need You”, “Raining In My Heart” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You” are good examples of this.
In this show (as in the one for 2022), Leo Sayer has taken to extending his humour to playing around a little with some of his songs, and that is his prerogative. This approach does, however, always divide the audience as some will be happy to go along with his current take on “Moonlighting” for example while others would prefer it played straight, exactly as they remember the record.
Leo Sayer was in good voice all evening and the power that he is famous for vocally is still there today. As well as this though, Leo is above all an entertainer and knows exactly how to work with his audience. Whether that be a spontaneous audience participation on-stage to “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”, or dealing with a lost ear-plug, nothing it seems puts him off his stride. As his song tells us “The Show Must Go On”, and it did tonight to an audience for whom Leo Sayer gave them the show that they came out to see and hear.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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