#ONE MAN BAND INSTRUMENT CALLED PROFESSIONAL#

Leo’s band Patches were booked into London’s Olympic Studios less than a week later, to make his first single.ĭavid Courtney’s “Living In America” was on the A-side, and Leo and David’s “The Hour Is Love” on the B-side. After an abortive attempt to get a deal with Beatles producer, George Martin’s new Air Records label, they took the songs that they had demoed to David’s ex – employer, Adam Faith.Īdam’s response was immediate and dynamic. Those tapes are still around today, and show clearly how songs like “One Man Band” and “Giving It All Away” were originally conceived. They put everything down onto David’s Grundig tape machine.

They worked separately – David bashing out the melodies on his Knight upright piano, Leo in the next room, surrounded by books of poems and lyrics that he’d been writing since his early teens. At David’s Brighton flat, the two started writing, Dave’s bright pop melodies fusing wonderfully with Leo’s bruised loner lyrics. So began what would turn out to be a remarkable creative partnership. He’d played drums (with early 60’s pop star Adam Faith) and was also a songwriter. It turned out that David Courtney was not just a promoter. Patches featuring Gerry Sayer (vocals and harmonica) won the audition. David Courtney, who was about to set up a talent agency, held the audition, which took place at Brighton’s Pavilion Theatre. It was now 1970 and he was 22 years old.Ī local Brighton newspaper, The Evening Argus, ran a small box advert for a talent contest. Leo, still known as Gerry at the time, had decided what he wanted to do with his life. The Rock newspaper Melody Maker had a “Battle Of The Bands” contest that Leo and his mates entered, narrowly missing winning the local heat. Patches started playing gigs all over the south coast.

He gradually built up a band of mates that called itself Patches. He flung himself into music and started writing songs, setting some of his old poems to music. Some local friends were playing at night in bands and he joined them, now singing as well as playing the harmonica. He worked in a factory that imported German cars. He stayed on a houseboat for a while on Shoreham’s river Adur, licking his wounds. He went freelance as an artist, but he got into trouble with too much work and not enough money, had a mild breakdown and came back down to his home town, Shoreham – landing with a bump. He frequented Soho and Kensington folk clubs and sometimes got up to play the harmonica. At work he designed record covers, and illustrated top 60’s magazines. Here he met painters and musicians, started writing poetry and working on a book. He moved up to London in late 1967, right at the moment that the youth revolution was changing the world. However, he got work straightaway in a nearby Brighton design studio. Leo was meanwhile finding he had a non-conformist streak, rebelling against an uncreative course and left after completing only two years of the three-year course.

Leo and some friends formed an Arts and Music club called “The Worthing Workshop” and Leo sang and played with the local house-band “Terraplane Blues”. Leo used to play on the 20-minute train journey to Art School every day, and soon learned enough to sit in and jam with local bands.

#ONE MAN BAND INSTRUMENT CALLED PROFESSIONAL#

Here he met a professional harmonica player who taught him the instrument. He used to sit and draw on Worthing beach, and try out his new passion – the mouth organ. He started listening to Rhythm and Blues, and singing with soul bands. Leo left school graduating into a course for commercial art and graphic design at West Sussex College of Art and Design in Worthing, Sussex. He was now 16 and it was the year of 1964.

David introduced Leo to Buddy, The Crickets and Bob Dylan, records that had a great effect on him. He sang with the school band, Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley songs he’d learnt from his older cousin, David’s, record collection. To this day Leo attributes “the finding of his voice” to Father MacHale, who gave much singing instruction to the boy chorister.Īt secondary school he showed a gift for drawing and painting. He was the second child of three (an older sister Kathleen and a younger brother Brian) The Sayer family were devout Catholics, and after serving as an altar boy, Leo was inducted into the choir under the educated ear of Father Dermot MacHale, the Parish Priest. 1948, Thomas Sayer and Teresa Nolan at Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, in England. Leo was born Gerard Hugh Sayer on May 21st.

One man band instrument called