Sweet

[dmccombe7]

Just read the thread on Slade and always thought them and Sweet were very under-rated.
Anyone else got any thoughts on Sweet especially some of their B sides which were very heavy Deep Purplish IMO.

All came across as good fun but there was a serious side to them and some obvious talent.

Aaah fond memories from my early teenage yrs just flooding back.
Sweet were one of the main reasons i got into heavier rock music and away from usual chart drivel of the 70's.

Dave

Edited December 3, 2011 by dmccombe7

[merello]

Wayne's World! The lead singer was a Scot and his brother was Taggart!

[RhysP]

I used to love Sweet, they brought out some great records.
Saw them live as a three piece (without Brian Connelly) in the late 70's & they were fantastic - still got one of Andy Scott's plectrums from the gig!

[daz]

They looked like brick layers in makeup frankly. But they made a few decent singles, i remember them all. Never heard an [i]album[/i] of theirs though. Cant even recal any LP covers, which is odd, as like most kids from that early 1970s era, I spent hours every weekend going through the racks in WHSmiths.

Edited December 4, 2011 by daz

[discreet]

Does anyone know the way, did we hear someone say?
We just haven't got a clue what to do!!
Does anyone know the way, there's got to be a way -
To Block BUSSSTERRRR!!

[jakenewmanbass]

i never thought much of them until a neighbour of mine discovered I was a bass teacher, expressed an interest, and with my encouragement joined a glam rock band.
Fast forward a few months and lessons with him involved listening to, and teaching him Sweet numbers. It was at that point that I realised that they were actually a tremendous live act, and an utterly rocking band!

[tom1946]

Damn straight they were.
Still on the go as well I think.

[warwickhunt]

Despite some of the sickly 'sweet' singles they were actually a great ROCK band! Listen to some of the album stuff and it's worlds apart from what you'd expect; try 'Someone Else Will' just don't play it when Granny or the kids are around.

[steve-bbb]

B sides were the nuts

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyYWhk-bOPk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyYWhk-bOPk[/url]

[leschirons]

They were all serious rockers at heart. Saw the sadly departed Brian Connolly fronting his own band called Connolly. I think it was a Van Halen gig and they were supporting (memory going so may not have been VH) and they rocked. He could still do it.

As musicians, Sweet were definately ahead of the game in their day.

[lollington]

I went to school with Malcolm McNulty's daughter. Malcolm later played in Sweet (and Slade, so it seems).

He was a really nice guy, and arranged a couple of pub gigs for us when I played punk covers as an angry 14/15 year old. I remember his girl telling me who he used to play for and it not having much of an impact on me - I couldn't name many acts from the 70s in my Rancid/NOFX/Green Day era. My dad got pretty excited though!

Certainty influential music now that my playing style has expanded.

[Paul S]

Sweet Fanny Adams - great rock album. Set Me Free, great rock track. Mick Tucker - one of the best rock drummers ever.

http://youtu.be/SW6zZAigmMo

[Lozz196]

Great band, much under-rated as an actual rock band. And interestingy enough, take a look at early Motley Crue, and see how much like The Sweet they were.

[4-string-thing]

I spent weeks trying to persuade my old band that they should do Blockbuster.... They decided to cover some crap by a band called Cinderella (whoever they are/were) instead. I walked away not long after!

[WalMan]

[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1322997307' post='1457987']
Sweet Fanny Adams - great rock album. Set Me Free, great rock track. Mick Tucker - one of the best rock drummers ever.

[media]http://youtu.be/SW6zZAigmMo[/media]
[/quote]Yes indeed. Still give it a blast on occasion, and there were some good B'sides

[BigRedX]

The Sweet (along with Slade, T.Rex and Bowie) that first got me excited about music in the early 70s.

Hell Raiser was the first single I bought.

Does anyone know if Steve Priest actually used that rather wonderful looking Danelectro Longhorn bass for anything other than posing on TotP?

[Stacker]

I reckon it was the Italian copy of the Dano - the Dynelectron - that SP had. Also remember him using a Gherson Jazz bass and a Rick 4001.

[BigRedX]

Could be - looks vaguely hollow-bodied from what I can see on the various TotP clips.

Strange - my recollections of the Sweet involved SP playing either the Longhorn or the Rick, but perusal of YouTube shows that he favoured something Fendery for the big hits from Blockbuster through to Teenage Rampage.

[Big_Stu]

The legendary Robin venue in Bilston, Wolves has hosted a Sweet gig for the past few years - next year will be the 10th - with Andy Scott's Sweet being headliner. When they do the nostalgia circuit they do what the fans call the "Pipe & Slippers set" - a Greatest Hits essentially; at Bilston Andy does what's more or less a request show of more obscure heavy B-sides & album tracks.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnO6UcYcN3Q[/media]
Last years was a charity night - I've covered this before - where I made 70's style scarf/banners which 250 of the crowd paid £1 for, Andy put the gig profits to a cancer charity (he's now in remssion) & also one of his guitars (A Washburn electro acoustic) up for grabs in a raffle - which I won - to cries of "FIX!!!".


It's a great night out for those with a passing interest, a great atmosphere in a wonderful venue.

Edited December 4, 2011 by Big_Stu

[Shaggy]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1323013928' post='1458266']
The Sweet (along with Slade, T.Rex and Bowie) that first got me excited about music in the early 70s.

Hell Raiser was the first single I bought.


[/quote]
"Fox on the run" was mine (which the excellent "Miss Demeanour" as B-side, as I recall)

Saw them live without Brian - good, but just not the same

The Motley Crue comment is an accurate one, but whereas Brit Glam-rock was always something of a self-parody, '80's US hair-metal took itself a tad too seriously.....

[Big_Stu]

Some of their lyrics are so explicit it's no wonder they were banned from many venues even at their peak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PidiEjQxKx8
I loved "Burning" (B-side of Hellraiser) & many years later thought it owed a lot to Immigrant Song - but the other part of this medley - to a largely teenage female market??

[SteveK]

Sadly, my memory of Sweet is from 1989 (ish), somewhere in Europe, dragging Brian Connolly from his bed while the rest of the entourage (bands and crews) are on the bus waiting to get to the airport.

[peteb]

[quote name='SteveK' timestamp='1323028010' post='1458465']
Sadly, my memory of Sweet is from 1989 (ish), somewhere in Europe, dragging Brian Connolly from his bed while the rest of the entourage (bands and crews) are on the bus waiting to get to the airport.
[/quote]
My mate's dad used to play in a band with him, I think around about that time

He had a bit of a drink problem himself, but nothing compared to Connolly's by all accounts.....

[skankdelvar]

IIRC, in the band's Glam-Pop heyday the A-sides of the singles were usually written by Chinn & Chapman.

The B-sides were band compositions which reflected their preference for the harder-edged stuff. All part of the deal, apparently.

[dave_bass5]

I remember my cousin playing me a live Sweet album back in the 70's and i was knocked out by how heavy they sounded back then. Great band.

The singer (who was also playing bass) and guitarist in my current band were doing something with Brian Connolly just before he died. By all accounts he never really looked alive.