He’ll make you feel like dancing

It’s not often the Australian Prime Minister finds himself upstaged, but that’s what happened at a citizenship ceremony in Canberra this Australia Day.

Kevin Rudd was on hand to congratulate the country’s newest citizens, but many of the assembled throng were far more interested in shaking hands with one of the new Aussies -” Leo Sayer.

There was a lot of attention on the day, but for me it was a big moment, so I welcomed the attention and the fuss. It was a bit like a wedding -“ now I’m married to Australia, the curly-haired crooner told the Star.

Of course I’ve been coming here for years, and it’s always been one of my favourite places to visit, but about five years ago, I just thought, -˜No, that’s it -” I’m coming down to live’. It’s the quality of life that drew me here.

Sayer said he had no qualms about officially becoming an Aussie.

It was a way for me to give something back to Australia -” this place has always been so great to me, so I’m very happy to fly the flag. I’m just amazed that they still want me!

Want him they do -” Sayer’s career has spanned some 35 years, and while the halcyon days of transatlantic chart-toppers like You Make Me Feel Like Dancing are far behind him, he’s experienced something of a surge in popularity in the last few years.

I’m having a nice rebirth in my career, he said.

Sayer will perform at next weekend’s Daylesford ChillOut festival in Victoria, his appearance in keeping with this year’s -˜Disco Stampede’ theme. Having lived through the disco era, he’s in a good position to divulge -” was it all as glamorously debauched as it seemed?

It was pretty full-on, he laughed.

In the old days I’d go to Studio 54 in New York and used to love the flamboyance of the whole scene. The ironic thing with me is that I was around at that time, but disco was only part of what I was doing.

When You Make Me Feel Like Dancing came together in 1976, I suddenly became a disco act. I love dance music, and I kind of got led into the disco sound.

Over three decades later, Sayer insists he hasn’t grown weary of singing the songs that made him famous.
Not at all, I love them. There have been songs right across my career that have never died, and the fact that they’ve never died has kept them alive for me, he said.

A good song can always be reinvented too. That keeps me fired up -” there’s always new variations than can be done.

One reinvention that proved immensely popular was Meck’s 2006 remix of Sayer’s 1977 hit Thunder In My Heart. Originally peaking at number 22 in the UK, the 21st century rework shot straight to the top of the charts.

When the remix came out, I couldn’t stop playing it myself. Funnily enough, I first heard it on the radio just as I was moving to Australia, he said.

While this year marks Sayer’s ChillOut debut, he said he’s an old hand at playing gay venues.
I’ve done quite a few in London, including G.A.Y. I’m really proud of the fact that they called me a gay icon in the UK -” that’s really cool. Especially for a straight guy who just loves most of the gay acts, you know? I love that music and party scene so much, it’s so flamboyant and so wonderful, he enthused.

info: Leo Sayer is at the ChillOut Festival in Daylesford, Victoria, March 6-9. Details: www.chilloutfestival.com.au