LEO SAYER STILL FEELS LIKE DANCING
It’s the earworm that makes you wanna boogie. You know the one. Leo Sayer’s 1976 hit ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing’ still gets a decent spin these days, and now the legend behind the dancefloor‑starter hits Darwin on his first Australian tour in six years.
His 2025 UK and Ireland tours sold out, showing that after more than five decades, he’s still got it, baby. Tierney White caught up with him to chat about his time in show biz, and how he feels about coming back to the Territory.
Leo! So great to chat. I think it’s been about 10 years since you and I last spoke – you were my first famous person interview back in 2015!
Wow. Was that when I was doing a show or just visiting friends?
You were doing a show! So, more than 50 years in the biz. Must feel pretty good to still be out there doing your thang, all these years later?
I'm enjoying it … You know, in some cases, voices go, mine luckily hasn't gone. And the pressure, you know, of touring and the life and everything. It's a crazy business to be in … I mean, look at Paul Simon, still working back on tour. Look at Bob Dylan endlessly touring. Van Morrison is doing shows again. You know, these guys are all older than me, Mick Jagger and The Stones.
I think we're finding out that if you keep yourself together, you know, keep your health together, which I'm always concentrating on doing, we can keep our voices going. We can keep our performance … Like the guitarist with me, Paul Burton, has been with me 20 years – he's a better guitarist now than he was when he first started out with me, and he was very bloody experienced at that time. So, we're talking about this amongst ourselves, us musicians and singers, all the time, but there's no reason why we shouldn't get better, like a fine wine laid down a long time ago and we're maturing beautifully.
And the industry has always promoted youth, you know, and always said that it must be young people doing this game. Look, it's not true! … And it's quite exciting that so much experience is out there … And we would have kind of written them off a few years ago, but we're all finding that audience. I think it's all about the fans as well, you know, they love what we do.
Well, I see you sold out your shows in the UK and Ireland, nice one! What inspired this tour?
I'm always underestimated, let's put it like that. My agent, my manager, they worry about selling tickets. I mean, we've just sold 10,000 tickets, we could have even done bigger venues, you know, but that's just the confidence thing. Look, it's a hard industry and sometimes you do shows and not many people turn up. And that will stick, you know? … This is the first chance I've had to persuade the promoters to take a risk and put on a full Leo show. And it's working. Yeah, it's working.
Australia is home for you and has been since 2005, and I know you love including Darwin on your tour!
Well, I was insisting that we came back to Darwin because I always love it there. You’ll find me on the beach. Yeah, can't wait to get up there.
Well, we look forward to having you here. What do you hope your audiences walk away from a Leo Sayer show feeling or having experienced?
Well, in short, it's a party. Yeah, and I'm the host. We're all coming to my party! A lot of the songs are, not only my personality, I suppose, but the songs are infectious … Even if the ushers are kind of like poo-poo because people are standing up and dancing, they all do anyway. And the ushers usually join in as well.
So, everybody's up … it's a very exciting atmosphere. We bring it down with a very slow number at the end, just to kind of like bookend the whole show, but the vibe is very exciting. People come out and they've had an experience. And it’s a party!
Leo Sayer - Still Feel Like Dancing?
WHEN SAT 11 OCT | 8PM
AT AANT CENTRE
COST $98.80
INFO yourcentre.com.au
