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SWEET
An interview with Andy Scott © Dave Ling - January 2003
previously published in CLASSIC ROCK magazine
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"We
were like four dissipated old whores, mincing about on Top
Of The Pops and churning out computerised pop, just being
as flash as assholes. Everybody thought we were a bunch of poofs,
and that Brian [Connolly] and I were bum-chums. even the birds
thought we were a bit sexually-suspect long before that."
The
above, offered by drummer Mick Tucker in 1974, is evidence of
the many misconceptions concerning The Sweet, or merely Sweet
as they became known once the affections of teenyboppers wore
off. The four members of Sweet were not homosexual - far from
it. They were womanising, drug taking, hell-raising, macho alcoholics.
And
although they burst onto the scene miming to early hits like
'Funny Funny' and 'Co-Co', then emerged as high-camp stalwarts
of the UK singles with glam-rock anthems like 'Blockbuster',
'The Ballroom Blitz' and 'Teenage Rampage', their best music
by far was created once the glitter had worn off. |
| If
you flipped over just about any of the quartet's classic singles,
a self-penned B-side like 'Burn On The Flame', 'Rock 'N' Roll
Disgrace' or 'Need A Lot Of Lovin'' would be ready to assault
your eardrums.
Yes,
Sweet were rockers... albeit often frustrated ones. At their
prime, circa the 'Sweet Fanny Adams' and 'Desolation Boulevard'
albums, they were making records good enough to have matched
any of the true giants of the 1970s, including infinitely more
credible names like Bowie, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. Sadly,
you probably never heard any of them. That's because Sweet were
never anywhere near as cool as the icons whose respect they
craved. Though unmissable, their exploits on Top Of The Pops
branded them damaged, novelty goods. To make matters worse,
wrapped up in their own vanity and self-importance, they often
behaved like complete and utter pricks. |
| Steve
Priest summed it up. They already thought we were poofs, so
we may as well elaborate.
And it worked. Steve had fan clubs all over the world. In places
like Sweden
thered be bunches of geezers hanging around outside the
hotel.
Andy
Scott on the bands effete image |
| This,
then, is a tale of glorious underachievers. But by Christ, did
Sweet have fun while it lasted.
The
year was 1966. Vocalist Brian Connolly and drummer Mick Tucker
had played together in Wainwright's Gentlemen, but elected to
form a band called Sweetshop with bassist Steve Priest and guitarist
Frank Torpey. Various small-time gigs were performed, some fuelled
by a unique concoction they nicknamed The Benny Buzz. Consisting
of the contents of a Benedryl inhaler and Coca Cola in a glass,
it helped The Sweet (as they later abbreviated themselves) to
numb the pain of seeing their first four singles all flop dismally.
Torpey
was briefly succeeded by Mick Stewart before the line-up solidified
with the arrival of former Elastic Band guitarist Andy Scott.
He'd grown in Wales and honed his talents in several low-key
bands, one of whom actually supported Jimi Hendrix on three
occasions. Behind the scenes, Sweet had also signed to RCA Records
and been introduced to producer Phil Wainman and songwriters
Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. Mere months later, 'Funny Funny'
had peaked just outside the Top Ten, becoming the first of their
15 hit singles.
At
the start, these were exclusively penned by Nicky Chinn and
Mike Chapman, who along with producer Phil Wainman insisted
that Connolly should be backed by session musicians. 'Wigwam
Bam' was the first single that Sweet were actually allowed to
play on, though they had been responsible for their own B-sides
since the start. Naturally, these restrictions caused immense
unhappiness. To further compound the situation, Sweet had agreed
to let Chinn and Chapman manage them.
"What
a stupid thing for us to allow them to do," commented Steve
Priest years later. "We were being controlled by a couple
of novices. Mike Chapman could write what sounded like hit songs,
but Nicky was brought up in a private boys' school and didn't
know his arse from his elbow. I nicknamed them Batman and Robin." |
| Whatever
anyone's reservations, the pair's formula proved immensely successful,
and they soon began using it on such other acts as Mud, Suzi
Quatro and Arrows.
"Chinn
and Chapman's songs were banal and simple, but they offered
endless possibilities," admits Andy Scott now. "We
wanted to start having some of our own material used, so the
arrangement was never going to last forever. So other bands
ended up using our rejects, though I won't name any names."
One
of these was Mud's 'Tiger Feet', a fact confirmed years later
by Mick Tucker when he bitched: "Any group who'd recorded
that would have got a hit. Even though it went to Number One,
it was still an awful song."
According
to Brian Connolly, 'Dynamite' was also offered to Sweet, but
Mike and Nicky's last minute decision to give it to Mud instead
only hastened their desire to terminate the arrangement. |
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| "They
wrote 'Dynamite' and it was going to be our next single,"
commented the singer in 1975. "Then they changed their
minds and it became Mud's first release. After that, we were
pushed in the corner and given second rate songs."
For
the first and last time, The Sweet topped the charts with 'Blockbuster'
in early 1973. It beat off stiff competition from David Bowie's
'Jean Genie' , which featured an almost identical guitar riff
and was released via the same label just a week apart.
"I
swear I'd never heard Bowie's song before ours was released.
I was onto Nicky Chinn as soon as I heard it on the radio,"
says Scott now, adding gleefully: "We felt a bit shabby
about 'Blockbuster' coming out a week later - but ours went
to Number One."
Sweet
would go on to stall at Number Two on no less than five occasions,
most annoyingly in September '73 when the Simon Park Orchestra's
'Eye Level' repeatedly held off 'Ballroom Blitz' for weeks at
a time. As a small child I recall sobbing in the kitchen when
the single began to plummet down the charts, but as Scott rightly
points out: "Sales-wise, what would have been a Number
Two in those days would now top the charts for months on end." |
| "At
gigs, Andy would mince onstage swinging a handbag and call himself
Andre.
Steven became Stephanie and I changed my name to Michelle. Brian
was
the only one who
never really went along with the make-up thing"
Michelle, uh, Mick Tucker |
| Steve
Priest admits that certain underhand tactics were used to massage
their sales. Indeed, at least one of Sweet's early 45s may still
be 'bubbling under', in a manner of speaking. The bassist reveals:
"Nicky [Chinn] sent Phil [Wainman] and Mike [Chapman] around
the country to the stores whose sales were used to compile the
Top 30. Between them, they purchased vast quantities of our
new release, brought them back to London, and dumped them in
the Thames."
Nevertheless,
the group's bubblegum anthems and über-camp delivery established
them as mainstays on Top Of The Pops ("We got to
know the guy who let us into the bar very well," winks
Scott). Nobody who experienced it on the small screen will ever
forget Priest batting his eyelids and mock-stuttering "W-w-w-w.
we just haven't got a c. oh!" during 'Blockbuster' or Connolly
prefacing 'Ballroom Blitz' with the legendary questions, "Are
you ready, Steve. ["Uh-huh"]. Andy?. ["Yeah"].
Mick?. ["Okay"]. well, alright, fellas, let's go-o-o-o-o-o." |
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But
as Sweet later discovered, the dressing up and cosmetics would
haunt them when they decided to get serious. According to Scott,
upon seeing Marc Bolan in all his glam glory they realised they
simply had to compete.
"Steve
Priest very aptly summed it up," winces the guitarist.
"They already thought we were poofs, so we may as well
elaborate. And it worked. Steve had fan clubs all over the world.
In places like Sweden there would be bunches of geezers hanging
around outside the hotel. I guess that 'Wigwam Bam' is the one
that people tend to remember, with the miniskirts and headdresses.
There was definitely a sense of competition with Dave Hill of
Slade and - dare we mention his name - Gary Glitter, who used
to come up with daring outfits. Top Of The Pops sometimes
seemed a bit like a pantomime, and The Sweet were definitely
the ugly sisters!" |
| "At
the start, we just used make-up as a giggle," recalled
Mick Tucker years later. "We were at Top Of The Pops
for 'Little Willy' and Bowie kept telling our make-up girls,
'No, no, no, their eyes aren't right'. We all thought, 'What
a strange young man, taking it so seriously'. Perhaps for Bowie
is was just the excuse he needed to wear make-up in public,
but for Sweet it was all a piss-take.
"After
a while things rapidly got right out of hand," Tucker elaborated.
"At gigs, Andy would mince onstage swinging a handbag and
call himself Andre. Steven became Stephanie and I changed my
name to Michelle. Brian was the only one who never really went
along with the make-up thing."
Gradually
Sweet became aware that their audience was polarising. While
younger sisters were playing the A-sides of their singles, older
brothers were appreciating the harder, self-penned rock of flipsides
like 'Burning' and 'Someone Else Will'. 1974's 'Sweet Fanny
Adams' is generally acknowledged as their first real album.
Besides the two Chinn/Chapman compositions, tracks like 'Set
Me Free' and 'Sweet F.A.' were undoubtedly the handiwork of
a credible hard rock act. Critically panned, it barely charted
in Sweet's homeland, though Germany and mainland Europe were
more open-minded.
Released
the same year and featuring the hits 'The Six Teens' and 'Fox
On The Run', the follow-up, 'Desolation' Boulevard' rewarded
Sweet with their first self-composed success. With Chinn and
Chapman away in the US, the latter was re-recorded even without
Phil Wainman and climbed to Number Two. Musically, Sweet were
on a roll. They had made no secret of their appreciation of
Deep Purple. Priest, in fact, had very quickly arrived at the
conclusion that Tucker was in awe of Purple's Ian Paice. "Mick
had decided that he and Ian were in competition," Steve
later said. "In my eyes, this was a mistake. He expended
a lot of energy trying to play like Ian, but he didn't have
to."
However,
other acts also benefited from Sweet's innovative use of vocal
harmonies. Among them were Queen.
"They
beat us to it," later conceded Phil Wainman. "I saw
them as a support band at Hammersmith Odeon. I went up to Roy
Thomas Baker, who was producing them and had been an engineer
for me. I said, 'Roy, that band are phenomenal. I'll swap you
all my acts for that band'. He said, 'I can't do that'. I played
'Killer Queen' to Sweet, and all Andy could say was, 'Yeah,
Phil, we're being ripped off'".
"I
was scared to death when I heard Queen's first album, because
till then I thought we were doing alright," comments Scott
now. "I remember having a wry smile when I met Brian May
in Los Angeles. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was out, and there were
definite similarities. I told Brian I liked the last part of
that one, that it was very reminiscent of [our own] 'Action'.
But that's okay, you beg, steal and borrow. I've put a lot of
Jeff Beck and Hendrix into some of the cheapest and nastiest
pop singles ever, and nobody realises."
The
Sweet were also becoming notorious for their lewd, hedonistic
ways. Each night they took to the stage to the strains of The
Stripper, and 'Someone Else Will' was introduced by the line
"If we don't fuck you then someone else will". There
were reports of a band member pulling down his strides in a
lift to a Swedish teenage girl, and in March 1972 the group
were banned by the Mecca Ballroom chain after John Chapman of
the Portsmouth Mecca said their show was, "The most disgusting
performance I've seen in 11 years" at the venue (Sweet
duly responded with the B-side 'Man From Mecca'). Considering
their audience comprised of under-age females, does Scott believe
that Sweet always behaved responsibly?
"Does
anybody in the music business?" he parries. "At the
time what we sometimes did was considered out of order, but
you only have to look at Channel 5 late at night to put it into
perspective. Compared to Sex In Japan, which was on the
other night, what The Sweet did was fuck-all, mate."
Nevertheless,
on another early Swedish tour, it was alleged that Sweet beat
up a promoter, broke a window, rubbed excrement into a tablecloth
and pissed in an ice bucket.
"The
incident you're probably referring to was an open-air show in
Stockholm," clarifies Scott. "It was pissing with
rain, 15,000 fans were angry that the show was cancelled and
because there were no curtains on the dressing room window we
smeared some guacamole over a pane. It was also reported that
we took a shit into a fucking piano. that would've been really
stupid. But afterwards we couldn't get a hotel in Stockholm
for more than two years." |
| Sensibly,
Scott does not attempt to deny that there were other moments
of excess.
"I
personally couldn't drink and take drugs, so it was one or the
other," he explains. "There are now only two of us
left [alive], so I shouldn't need to add too much to that fact.
But we definitely lived the life. Rarely a week went by without
Brian being in the press for something or other."
In
his autobiography Are You Ready, Steve, Priest portrays
himself to be something of a serial shagger. So what would be
the most people that Andy ever shared a bed with? "Ha ha.
my prowess wasn't in that department," he grins. "You
should be asking that question to MT or BC, the two that aren't
here." |
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| With
kudos for their talents a rare commodity in Britain, the rock
world was astonished when Pete Townshend personally invited
Sweet to open for The Who at an open-air show at The Valley
in south London. Alas, in one of those exploits that Scott previously
alluded to, Connolly was then beaten up outside an Uxbridge
nightclub. Brian had exited the club to find some youths dancing
on top of his Mercedes, and upon confronting them received several
kicks in the throat. While the rest of the band were sympathetic
to his injury, which resulted in them canceling their big break,
they nevertheless felt that one of the most famous faces of
1974 had put himself in an unnecessary position.
"Brian
had apparently smiled at and been talking to this guy's girlfriend,"
explains Andy. "But we had money by then; he could've been
entertaining at home."
Some
say that Connolly's voice was never the same again, a possibility
that Scott refuses to dismiss. "I've never heard a range
drop as drastically," he sighs. "There was no way
he could get anywhere near 'Set Me Free' when we began to tour
America."
Sweet
attempted to crack the States to promote 1976's 'Give Us A Wink'
album with a 50-date US tour, but once on US soil they found
themselves promoting material that was 18 months old. 'Ballroom
Blitz', out in 1973 at home, had emerged in the middle of '75
Stateside and Capitol Records opted to issue an amalgam of 'Sweet
Fanny Adams' and 'Desolation Boulevard', under the latter' s
title. |
| Queen
are a bunch of winkers
Immortal
piece of graffiti on the Give Us A Wink album sleeve |
| On
the US tour's closing night at Santa Monica Civic, Sweet were
joined onstage by Ritchie Blackmore. Back Street Crawler had
been the advertised support act, though just 24 hours earlier,
Paul Kossoff had died.
"I
hope that if Paul was watching, he didn't think it too disrespectful
that at the end of the show, a six-foot dick [stage prop] came
swinging down from the ceiling, spraying the audience with confetti,"
related Priest. "It was a realistic looking affair, with
all the attributes of the male appendage. It was huge, with
coloured veins and a subtle 1,000-watt bulb inside."
Sweet
were still making great albums and scoring hit singles. 'Give
Us A Wink' featured 'Action', later covered by both Def Leppard
and the Scorpions, and 'The Lies In Your Eyes', though they
reached just 15 and 35 respectively. The graffiti on the record's
sleeve also bears the legend: "Queen are a bunch of winkers".
The track 'Yesterday's Rain' described an encounter with a hooker
("She gave me love for a fiver/Up to my balls inside her"),
further proof not only of the quartet's salacious underbelly,
but also that they were leaving the singles market behind.
Sure
enough, 'Fever Of Love' and 'Los Angels' both vanished without
trace from the next album, 'Off The Record', and with their
attempt to become an album's band foundering, Sweet were in
serious danger of falling apart. "There was a certain indifference
in our attitude while we were recording," admitted Scott
in an interview shortly afterwards. "I think what was missing
was honesty."
Perhaps
addressing Scott's admission that "Brian's vocals were
no longer all they could have been", Andy and Steve shared
the singing with Connolly on their band's first album for new
label, Polydor. An incredible 300 bottles of wine were consumed
in just a month upon decamping to Clearwell Castle to record
the 'Level Headed' album. Their inner circle all knew that Connolly
had been drinking too much since the mid-70s. But by the time,
his alcoholism had almost completely ostracised him from the
rest of the group, and he took up residence in a separate area
of the castle. |
| Brian
had been telling anybody who would listen of a plan to jump
from his bedroom window, and land fully unscathed some fifty
feet below. No attention was paid until a night when the band
and crew were eating. After a series of loud bangs and crashes
- one of which resulted when he thudded from the roof of the
mobile recording studio - Brian limped into the room and proudly
boasted: "See, I told you I could fucking do it."
The incident earned Connolly the nickname of Spiderman.
Brian's
depreciation also caused him to return to the sessions from
a weekend at home armed with a shotgun. From his window he proceeded
to take potshots into the bird sanctuary behind Clearwell -
over the heads of his incredulous band-mates who at the time
were playing cricket. Describing the band's stay at Clearwell,
Priest later commented: "After downing up to a dozen bottles
of wine at dinner, we would rush to the pub and imbibe some
of the local brew. The rest of the evening was spent fornicating." |

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| Against
all the odds, 'Level Headed' turned out to be a fine, adventurous
album when issued in 1978. Happier still, 'Love Is Like Oxygen'
provided Sweet with their first Top Ten hit in three years.
"The verses in 'Oxygen...', the ones that Brian sang, were
some of the best he'd done in years," says Scott. "And
it was pure co-incidence, considering what happened next, that
the bridge he sang went, 'There's a rumour going round the town/That
you don 't want me around'. Honestly, it's true. That song patched
us up and set us moving again."
Buoyed
by their return to the charts though sensing the last chance
saloon was looming, Sweet undertook another US tour. With hindsight,
it said plenty that JJ Cale's 'Cocaine' had been introduced
into the set. Priest and Tucker had discovered the drug while
recording 'Give Us A Wink' in Munich, but by the time of 'Off
The Record' as Steve admits: "It was beginning to run our
lives."
By
this point Sweet had recruited second guitarist Nico Ramsen
and keyboard player Gary Moberly, and with Priest and Scott
handling more and more of the vocals, Connolly often had nothing
to do onstage. However, this was no excuse for his behaviour
in America, where the band were supporting labelmate Bob Seger.
A deposition from Capitol Records flew to check up on their
charges in Birmingham, Alabama, and returned to their bosses
with absolute horror.
"Brian
had absolutely no idea where or who he was," related Priest
in his book. "It looked like he had taken some serious
downers. The show had to go on, but I wished it hadn't. We struggled
through 'Love Is Like Oxygen', but eventually had to call it
a day and left the stage."
"Being
drunk onstage in front of 20,000 people was the final straw,"
agrees Scott sadly. "Brian was dragged off after one song,
and Ed Leffler [US manager] was still shouting at him an hour
later."
The
next couple of shows proceeded well enough, but in Atlanta the
same problems emerged. With Scott lobbying the band to sack
Connolly and appoint former Rainbow frontman Ronnie James Dio
in his place, Brian vowed to behave and somehow scraped through
the dates, but invaluable options to extend their touring in
the US had to be declined. Bridges with Capitol were unceremoniously
burned. Back home, the singer tried and failed to dry out, and
after the band tried to begin work on a new studio album he
was given the ultimatum of quitting with a semblance of dignity
or being dismissed. In February 1979, he accepted the former
option, claiming to have been planning a solo career for three
years. |
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Although
Andy says he "definitely spoke to Ronnie Dio" about
replacing Connolly and received positive interest, Sweet eventually
elected to continue with Priest and Scott doubling up on vocals.
The trio's debut offering, 'Cut Above The Rest', continued their
creative growth. More mature than previous albums, songs like
'Play All Night' and the anti-dance music diatribe 'Disco-Phony'
retained much of the original group's charisma, but Polydor
showed precious little enthusiasm in promoting them as a trio.
Although
Steve Priest somewhat uncharitably said that it "sucked",
1980's 'Water's Edge', was another excellent collection of songs,
though again there were neither adverts nor live appearances.
And with Steve relocating to live in New York and Mick Tucker
attempting to pick himself up after his wife Pauline was found
dead in the bath, things looked bleaker still. |
| Just
as their fans were giving up hope, the three-piece Sweet played
an incredible comeback gig at London's Lyceum in January of
1981. An unknown act called Duran Duran were billed as support,
though for unknown reasons they pulled out. Besides playing
all their hits, two new numbers were previewed. One of these,
'Identity Crisis', was sung by Priest with all the schizophrenic
affectation at his command, and was pure vintage Sweet. Such
was the impact generated by the Lyceum show that a dozen more
UK shows were quickly arranged, though it was all in vain when
Polydor only released the 'Identity Crisis' album in Germany.
The
UK tour had sold well but at a show in Nottingham there was
a regrettable incident that involved a youth in the
crowd, Andy Scott and a seemingly wanted pint of beer, which
resulted in the guitarist storming from the stage.
Priest later commented: "Mick and myself had to busk for
20 minutes before Her Royal Highness would return. It was not
the first time it had happened, but it was definitely the last."
"I
felt that we made three very creditable albums after Brian left,"
Scott reflects. "But of course it was never gonna be the
same. The Lyceum show was incredible and we could have turned
things around, but because the record company were dragging
their heels we never managed to capitalise upon it."
Sweet
finally bowed to the inevitable. Besides releasing several solo
singles, Scott moved into production, becoming involved with
Iron Maiden in their earliest stages. However, interest in 1984's
Cherry Red Record compilation 'Sweet 16... It's It's... Sweet's
Hits' and a 12" Disco Club Megamix of the singles 'Blockbuster',
'Fox On The Run', 'Teenage Rampage', 'Hell Raiser' and 'Ballroom
Blitz' almost succeeded in reuniting the classic line-up. However,
the ensuing debacle only showed just how unworkable the situation
had become.
"Mike
Chapman had also become involved, and the band flew to Los Angeles
for three weeks to see whether or not it was possible to work
together again," reveals Kevin Smith, a long-time Sweet
fan who ended up becoming their tour manager from between 1983-1996.
"Some of that was to do with the change in humidity, but
when it came to doing Brian's lead vocals it became obvious
that it wasn't going to happen. And the guy putting the money
up quickly found that he wasn't strong enough to cope with four
very, very forceful characters. They can all be extremely difficult." |
"I
swear I'd never heard 'Jean Genie' before 'Blockbuster' was
released. We felt a bit shabby about 'Blockbuster' coming
out a week later [than Bowie's song] - but ours went to Number
One."
Andy
Scott on the $100 million 'chicken and the egg' question
|
| Though
he hadn't worked with Sweet at the peak of their notoriety,
Smith has heard all the horror stories and has his own theory
about why they never fulfilled their immense potential.
"They
had absolutely no qualms in telling people to fuck off, even
if things were being done for their benefit," he says.
"In the early days there was a controversy at Top Of
The Pops when they turned up wearing jackets with 'Fuck
You' and 'Bollocks' written on the back. The show's producer
tried to make them take them off, but Steve Priest flatly refused.
The cameras just shot them from the front, but because of all
the fuss they weren't invited back onto the show for several
weeks, despite their single selling well."
At
around the same time that Connolly resurfaced with his New Sweet,
Andy was assembling his own Sweet line-up. According to Kevin
Smith, Steve Priest had even "made noises about re-joining"
a grouping that featured Tucker, plus former Iron Maiden frontman
Paul Mario Day and future Uriah Heep keyboard player Phil Lanzon.
Promo photographs were even taken with Priest supposedly featured
'live from New York' on a TV screen, though eventually they
had to settle for ex-Weapon bassist Mal McNulty instead. Three
sold-out gigs in London confirmed that Scott and Tucker had
not lost their old magic, as documented on 1989's 'Live At The
Marquee' double set, but the reunion would not last.
"It
was around that time that Mick and I snuck in to see Brian at
some gig down in Windsor," says Andy. "There was confusion
because there were two versions of The Sweet; Brian Connolly
And The New Sweet doing their cabaret stuff, and us playing
which ever rock venues would take us in England. The strangest
thing was that we were already back on the map in Germany." |
| As
Classic Rock readers might recall, things reached a nadir
when a prime time TV documentary followed Connolly as he played
a show at a holiday camp. For those who recalled the band at
their peak, it was painfully tragic viewing. Brian hobbled to
the stage, seemingly oblivious to the small children that were
mocking him in the background. Indeed, the show made such an
impression upon Scott that he phoned Connolly afterwards.
"Brian
was understandably livid because he'd been ill and his backing
band had played a gig as The Sweet without him," he states.
"I told him the only solution to everybody's problems was
for him to come and play some gigs with my band. We'd play the
first half of the set and he'd come on for the last part. He
was really into the idea." |
|
| Scott's
call was made around Christmas of 1996, but by the following
February Connolly's illness had worsened and he died. A stroke
had led to liver failure. Members of Queen, Def Leppard and
Slade all paid tribute to the singer, with Ritchie Blackmore
commenting: "He was a great singer and a fantastic man."
"I
still have great memories of Brian, and without warning sometimes
they still make me laugh out loud," says Andy. "Things
like the hotel receptionist calling our tour manager and asking
to retrieve him from a corridor, where he'd been found spread-eagled
and bollock naked. He'd mistaken a pot-plant for his bathroom
door, peed on it, and passed out."
Equally
tragically, Mick Tucker succumbed to complications related to
the leukemia he had been suffering from for five years. "Mick
had had his own problems with alcohol; generally with the lifestyle,"
offers Scott now. "It amazes me, how are Aerosmith and
the Rolling Stones are still out there doing it? Compared to
bands like those, we were novices."
Despite
the occasional niggle expressed in this article and Steve's
reluctance to tour, don't be surprised if Scott and Priest work
together again someday. Confides Andy: "At Mick's funeral
I told him, 'The next one of these could be yours or mine, let's
not wait till then'. There's life in the old dogs yet, and we
are working on project together."
For
the moment, Scott has his hands full with his own Sweet activities.
Last year, his latest incarnation of the band (bassist/lead
singer Jeff Brown, guitarist/keyboard player Steve Grant and
drummer Bruce Bisland) released 'Sweetlife', a marvellous slice
of melodic, anthemic pomp rock that somehow managed to slip
under the world's collective radar, and a UK tour beckons in
the early part of 2003. The current Sweet are also about to
issue 'Chronology', a re-recorded collection of the band's best
songs. Even with 30 million records sold, and with 'Ballroom
Blitz' having re-entered people' s consciousness via Wayne's
World, Andy Scott is aware that there are many brick walls
ahead, but he's determined to overcome them.
"When
we go on the road we frighten people. Like the original band,
everybody now sings," he says proudly. "We can re-create
all the old stuff as well as the things from 'Sweetlife'. The
nostalgia tag simply does not bother us, we're happy to play
music from all eras of the band. even some of the stuff like
'Funny Funny' and 'Co-Co' that we didn't do for a while. Musically,
The Sweet always kept the fans guessing. There definitely aren't
many other bands that have had careers like ours."
With
grateful acknowledgement to: www.thesweet.com, Are You Ready,
Steve, by Steve Priest and The Not Even Close To Complete
Sweet Enyclopedia, by Christer Nilsson. |
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The official SWEET website
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