Leo Sayer has revealed that 70s nostalgia tours leave him feeling depressed.

The 67-year-old singer had appeared on what he described as ‘package tours’ with other hit makers of the decade, where fans only want to hear 70s hits – You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, When I Need You, Moonlighting, Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance) and One Man Band.

Leo complained: “Without dissing it too much, those tours are for people who want to revel in nostalgia, and they’re not really fussed whether an artist has aged or can still sing well.

“I found those shows easy – I’m still in good voice, but it didn’t matter and it got rather depressing. They’d have accepted me if I’d gone up there and rolled through the motions.”

He added: “I wanted to break that mould. I wanted to tell people, ‘Yeah, I’m still recording’, and that I can still sing as well as I could. I still view myself as a current artist. It’s an attitude thing.”

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing reached No 2 in the UK, and topped the chart in the US, while follow-up single, When I Need You, hit No 1 on both sides of the Atlantic.

Leo – who appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2007 but quit the show after escaping through a fire exit – has recorded new album Restless Years – a collection of new songs and, in the case of Sometimes Things Go Wrong, old numbers he wrote years and years ago.

Leo Sayer entering the Celebrity Big Brother house in 2007
Leo Sayer entering the Celebrity Big Brother house in 2007 (Yui Mok/PA)

He said: “I must have 300 songs unreleased or unrecorded, lying around. I’m a production machine, it never stops.

“And I am happy about that, because the moment those ideas dry up, you’re done.

“For now, I’ve got Restless Years done, and I couldn’t be more proud of the way it’s come out.

“I’m 67, so very happy to be as lively as I was, and to be as active as I am. To still be a player is great.”