David Courtney - First Day: The Complete Story (Remastered) (1975/2010)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 484 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 202 MB
1:10:08 | Pop Rock, Classic Rock | Label: Cherry Red Records
David Courtney's career is so bound up within the early years of Leo Sayer's that it is sometimes easy to forget that he was a phenomenal performer in his own right, and not just the man who managed, produced, and wrote the unknown Leo to glory. First Day was released in 1975 and, in many ways, points out the direction that Sayer might have gone had their partnership not gone awry. Compare Courtney's version of the opening "Silverbird" with the sparse piano-and-voice-led rendition that titled Sayer's debut album; vast and vastly theatrical, it is a tsunami compared to Sayer's gentle ripple, and it sets the stage for an album whose middle name could have been Theatrical Overkill – in the best possible way.