Certain financial issues in the 90s and more recent reality TV debacles have somewhat tarnished his reputation, but Leo Sayer was a huge star in the 70s and, to a lesser extent, the 80s.

He enjoyed massive hits, including No.1s, on both sides of the Atlantic, and no little credibility – more than once listening to The Gold Collection you will do a double-take and check the credits, such is the resemblance between Sayer’s piano-based pop-rock and that of Elton John.

Shoreham boy Sayer’s first public move was writing the No.5 hit Giving It All Away for The Who frontman Roger Daltrey in 1973. After one false start with his solo debut single Why Is Everybody Going Home, which failed to chart, he had seven Top 10 singles, including the music hall-styled The Show Must Go On (No.2, for which Sayer appeared on TV in full Pierrot maquillage and garb), the Elton-esque Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance), the funk-lite, Scissor Sisters- anticipating You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, and 1977’s US/ UK chart-topping ballad When I Need You.

The Gold Collection, personally compiled and sequenced by Sayer, is a 54-track 3CD reminder of his gifts, and worth.