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BY BILLY SUTER

IF YOU’RE a child of the 1970s and recall hits such as You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, Moonlighting, One Man Band, Long Tall Glasses, When I Need You, Thunder in My Heart and How Much Love?, you will recall Leo Sayer, the small-framed Brit with the wild, dark perm.

Good news is that he is performing in South Africa soon – at Johannesburg’s Teatro theatre at Montecasino, Fourways, at 8pm on April 21, 22 and 23. Tickets start at R495 each and are available at Computicket.

These performances will mark the first performances in South Africa in 30 years for Sayer, a British-born singer-songwriter who is now an Australian citizen and resident, reports Wikipedia.

Sayer – who, incidentally, wrote the Cliff Richard hit Dreaming and Roger Daltrey’s Giving It All Away – was born in Sussex, England, and will celebrate his 69th birthday on May 21.

Wikipedia reports that he began his music career co-writing songs with David Courtney, including Giving It All Away, which gave Roger Daltrey of The Who his first solo hit in 1973.

That same year, Sayer began his career as a recording artist under the management of Adam Faith, who, adds Wikipedia, signed Sayer to the Chrysalis label in the UK and Warner Bros records in America.

His debut single, Why Is Everybody Going Home, flopped, but he found fame with his second single, the music hall-styled The Show Must Go On, which Sayer performed on British television, wearing a clown costume and makeup.

The single went to No 2 on the chart in the UK, as did his debut album Silverbird, co-written with David Courtney, who co- produced the album with Adam Faith, reports Wikipedia.

Other hits followed, Long Tall Glasses becoming his first Top 10  hit in the United States, reaching No 9, and Moonlighting reaching No 2 in Britain in 1975. His 1977 romantic ballad, When I Need You, reached the top of both  the UK and US charts, and another ballad, Have You Ever Been In Love?, was another great success.

Sayer’s most recent UK number one was a remix of his earlier hit, Thunder in My Heart, in 2006.

He has sold over 80 million albums worldwide.