signs, Aries, Cancer and all that in The
Argus and there was this drawing of Leo,
which was the lion with the mane of hair.
To me, that’s it. It looks like him. Leo. So,
the next day we had a meeting over at
Adam’s and I took Gerry over there and
then I presented him and Adam with the
name and Adam loved it straightaway.
He said, “Brilliant, what a brilliant
name.” And Gerry went, “I don’t want
to be called that.” He hated it. So, we
said, “Listen, if you don’t answer to the
name, we’re going to ignore you.” So…
anyway, he wouldn’t be called anything
else now. In the same way Elton John
was originally Reginald Dwight and Cliff
Richard was Harry Webb.Leo’s got used
to it and that was the beginning and he
was Leo Sayer.
What happened to the band?
It wasn’t long after that, we’d started
to make the album and it was always
obvious that he was the star of the
show and that the band was really just
secondary so we broke him away from
them and he became a solo artist. We
recorded the first lot of songs for his
debut album, which was called Silver
Bird. Leo and I had written all this
12
material at Wykeham Terrace by then
and we did the first lot of recordings at
the Manor Studios in Oxfordshire which
is owned by Richard Branson who invited
us to his wedding reception on the day
we arrived consequently we never did
any recording that day. So, anyway, we
did the first lot of recording there but
we still had the other half of the album
to finish. Then it was time to put Leo
and a new backing band on the road,
Adam Faith invited a mate of his called
Keith Altham to see Leo in rehearsals
which were in a room above a pub in
Wimbledon. Keith was the PR man
in the industry and represented many
artists including The Who, the Stones,
Rod Stewart, Jimmy Hendrix and Marc
Bolan. He turned up at the rehearsal
room and was blown away.
During the conversation we said, “We’re
looking to do the rest of the album and
we’re going to be looking at another
studio.” And he said, “Let me introduce
you to my mate Roger Daltrey because
he’s just built up a studio in his house
in Sussex, which is where you guys live
and you could go and record there.”
So, he made the introduction and Adam
and I drove down to where he livesnear
Heathfield to see Roger, and we played
him the material that we’d already
started recording and he was blown
away and he said, “well of course I’d
love to you record here “. He was so
impressed he said he wanted to do his
first solo album and would love us to
write for him (Leo and I) and for Adam
and me to produce him, because he
loved the sounds we were getting.
That was a massive introduction and we
recorded the rest of Leo’s album there
and then and Leo and I went straight on
to writing for Roger’s album - we wrote
all of it and then we recorded it, mostly
at Roger’s place and then the rest we did
at Apple Studios in London where the
Beatles were. We did a lot of recording
there, and as it happened, Roger’s album
was released before Leo’s so the first hit
for me was from that Daltrey’s album and
called Giving It All Away.
How did that feel?
That was my first experience of having
a hit record. After all those years on the
road, plugging away as a drummer, now
I had my taste of success. And I was so