Sweet Metal

Introduction

Today I picked a CD out of my play pile to listen to while I work and it was "The Sweet Collection" and I thought there are so many amazing songs on here, maybe I should share a few on Vocal.

When I first heard The Sweet they were a bubblegum very light pop band in the Chinn/Chapman hit stable. Their early songs were, in my opinion awful, but at some point that changed. In 1971 they released "Blockbuster" and I started listening.

Bassist Steve Priest was camp as hell in full makeup, and remember this was in the homophobic seventies, but the music was ratcheting to become glam metal.

The lineup for all of these songs is

• Brian Connolly – lead vocals
• Steve Priest – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Andy Scott – guitar, backing vocals
• Mick Tucker – drums, backing vocals

The band is still active and their website is here. This is them fifty years on from when I first heard them. Andy Scott with the long blond hair looks more than a bit worse for where but he is a superb guitarist

This is a history of their line up changes

So here are a few songs that show how glam metal the Sweet were, and they are still here. Where possible I have used live footage so you can see what they looked like.

"Blockbuster" single but on "Sweet Fanny Adams CD Reissue"

Like Bowie's "Jean Genie", this uses the speeded-up main riff from Elias McDaniel's (Bo Diddley) "I'm A Man" and was when I first started taking real notice of the band. Steve Priest is the only one with makeup and so many of my friends questioned my maleness when I said that they were good.

The funniest story that this caused was at a sixth-form disco and the nefarious DJ put Bowie's "Jean Genie" on and all the "cool cats" took to the dancefloor, but he segued it seamlessly into "Blockbuster" and two minutes into it the "cool cats" stormed off the dancefloor because it was the Sweet.

I thought it was hilarious.

"Ballroom Blitz" Single but on "Sweet Fanny Adams CD Reissue"

Andy Scott's guitar is lethal on this, and this was another great single. The Halifax Building Society is notorious for its terrible adverts, but the Halfifax Ireland Bank Fight is one of the funniest that you will ever see. I really hope everyone can see this one. Sorry about the picture quality.

"Fox On The Run" from "Desolation Boulevard"

This is the sound of The Sweet that I still love, Andy Scott's guitar, synthesizers, and prog rock vocals, and a hit single to boot. Again it was still difficult to persuade any of my mates how good the band were.

"Sweet FA" from "Sweet Fanny Adams"

Almost everyone I played the intro of this too refused to believe that it was The Sweet. The lyrics are a little iffy but the music is monstrous, again driven by Andy Scott's guitar. I think I first heard this as the "B" side of a single but I cannot find what it was, or maybe it was released as an "A" side.

"Hellraiser" Single

Released in 1973 and a number-one single, again a million miles from when I first came across the band.

"The Six Teens" from "Desolation Boulevard"

This almost sounds like Bowie crossed with Who, a little slower than most of the songs here but with some great vocals and amazing guitar work from Andy Scott.

"Action" from "Give Us a Wink"

Gotta say this is absolutely vicious. I don't know whether this is my favorite single of theirs, although my favorite song is "Sweet FA" byt again Andy Scott's guitar block riffs just completely steamroller you, and again this is a single.