Sept. 1, 1977 review: Leo Sayer without Melissa Manchester at the Century Theater

 If I recall correctly, the real reason I signed up to review this concert was to see Melissa Manchester. 

Sept. 1, 1977

Melissa Misses It,

But Donna Saves It 

          The Leo Sayer-Melissa Manchester show arrived at the Century Theater Wednesday night without Melissa Manchester. Exhaustion, said co-promoter Corky Berger in the lobby as her replacement, Buffalo’s Donna McDaniel, struck up a sharp band called the Navigators.

          Manchester, the former Bette Midler Harlette who went on to ballads like “Midnight Blue” and commercials for cassette tape, had gone on stage Tuesday night in Saratoga Springs against doctor’s orders. The new prescription: Cancel your next three dates.

          McDaniel has become a more commanding performer as a result of her summer of success with the European disco hit, “Save Me.” That number, coming next to last in her short set, gave her a lively flourish before her breathy goodbyes.

* * *

SHE ASKED for a hand for her band and they certainly deserved it. A tight powerful unit, these successors to her old group Windfall. From the Century, they left to fulfill the second half of their night at the Executive.

          It was unlikely that any of the nearly 2,000 Leo Sayer fans missed Manchester. They greeted him with that bright teenage squeal that comes from having two AM radio hits in a row – “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” and the current “How Much Love.”

          Sayer, a street singer and folkie in London in the early ‘70s, attracted notice in 1974 with his “I Won’t Let the Show Go On,” which was a hit for Three Dog Night in the U.S.

          Sayer, meanwhile, was introduced to the American public in pantomimists’ whiteface. The makeup is gone now, but the miming isn’t.

* * *

A SKINNY figure in black pants and vest with a curly ball of hair, Sayer mimed out the music. He was the essence of cuteness. So was his marvelous, mighty falsetto. And so were his songs.

          The worldly, wistful frailty of “Just a Boy (Giving It All Away)” opened into bold, handclapping raves like “One Man Band.” Lend a hand, he said. And he got one.

          Ah, the mimist’s art – suspended disbelief. Sayer was anything but a one-man band. Behind him stood two Black female singers, two horn players, two keyboardmen, two percussionists (Professor Oliver E. Brown especially flashy on congas), a bassist and guitarist Richie Zito from the “Endless Flight” album.

          After he introduced them all, some impertinent fan inquired: “Who’re you?”

* * *

“I’M JUST a guy who hangs around in front of the band,” he replied, wiping his steamy forehead with a towel.

          Sayer must be hanging around in a big way. So big the Leo Sayer Endless Tour 1977 needed two buses to travel. This was an expensive band, bigger and bolder than the setting required, but it was a first-class ride.

          Sayer’s gestures seemed too big at first too, but the excitement of the show rose to meet him. The hesitant I-can’t-dance bit in “Long Tall Glasses” brought a mighty beat from the crowd. To end it, dozens of young fans rushed to the vacant orchestra pit for “I Won’t Let the Show Go On.” Leo Sayer many not quite be the next Elton John, but he certainly had the same effect.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Leo Sayer 1977 tour poster with Melissa Manchester.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: This was as big as Leo Sayer got after those two No. 1 hits in a row, but he continued to write songs, record and do TV and film work. “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” won a Grammy.

He got hit with a double whammy in the 1985 – a divorce and the discovery that his manager had ripped him off for millions of pounds. New management then went and ripped him off some more. He finally climbed back to the top of the U.K. singles charts in 2006 with a remix of “Thunder in My Heart,” which he wrote 30 years earlier.

In 2009 he became a citizen of Australia and continues to record and tour there. Wikipedia notes that he still suffers from effects from a fall off a stage in 1977, which injured his legs and ankles. There’s no setlist from his Buffalo date, but it was probably close to what he did Aug. 27 in Wollman Skating Rink in New York City:

Giving It All Away

I Hear the Laughter

In My Life

Hold On to My Love

One Man Band

Train

Endless Flight

Reflections

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing

No Business Like Love Business

When I Need You (Albert Hammond cover)

How Much Love

(encore)

How Much Love (reprise)

Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance)

The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On (reprise)

 Though she missed this date, she bounced back with a fall solo tour that took her to Carnegie Hall and is preserved on a live album recorded in October in the Great Southern Music Hall in Gainesville, Fla. It was finally released in 2022 as a double-disc CD. She’s still writing new songs, recording and performing club dates.

Buffalo remembers Donna McDaniel as the singer on the original version of the Sabres song “We’re Gonna Win That Cup” in 1975. I first wrote about her in 1972 when she was a backup singer for After Dark, a band led by Jerry Hudson of the Road. She went on to L.A., sang backup for Billy Idol, Toto and Motley Crue. These days she’s Donna McDaniel Pavlock, lives in Woodland Hills, Calif., and runs a highly-regarded catering business, Bella Donna Special Events, with her husband Tom. Check out the company’s website.