The Sweet in the 1970s

The Sweet in the 1970s

Decades

Darren Johnson

Contents

Acknowledgments

Author’s Note

1. Early Years

2. 1970 – The Classic Foursome Is Complete

3. 1971 – First Hits

4. 1972 - The Sweet Go Glam

5. 1973 – Blockbuster, Hellraiser and Blitz

6. 1974 – Two Classic Albums

7. 1975 – Going It Alone

8. 1976 – Give Us A Wink

9. 1977 – Final Year At RCA

10. 1978 – Oxygen

11. 1979 – Then There Were Three

12. What Happened Next

Bibliography

Sonicbond Publishing Limited

www.sonicbondpublishing.co.uk

Email: info@sonicbondpublishing.co.uk

First Published in the United Kingdom 2021

First Published in the United States 2021

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:

A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Copyright Darren Johnson 2021

ISBN 978-1-78952-139-9

The right of Darren Johnson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Sonicbond Publishing Limited

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my late father, Alan Johnson, who – whether glam, heavy metal, skiffle, blues or rock and roll – instilled in me a life-long love of music from an early age.

Acknowledgments

A few months ago, I had a vivid dream that I had just written a book about The Sweet. On waking, I soon realised I had written no such book but thought it might be a good idea to do so. I emailed Stephen Lambe that very morning offering to write it and he came back and said yes. I would like to thank Stephen for giving me that opportunity. I am indebted to Tracy Dighton, Cheryl Faithful and Michael Mandt for their comments and to Michael Mandt and Dean Walton for their assistance with the images.

I would like to thank my partner, friends and family for their moral support and, finally, I would like to thank Brian Connolly, Steve Priest, Andy Scott and Mick Tucker for being such an Foreword The Sweet’s look, sound and attitude became an instantly recognisable hallmark of the early seventies glam rock era. But the band did not start the 1970s as a glam rock band and they certainly did not finish as one. This book charts the band’s journey through the decade that made them a household name, from their initial rise as purveyors of disposable, manufactured bubblegum pop to their metamorphosis into harder-edged glam rock icons. And once the sparkle of glam and glitter had begun to pale, we take a look at both their successes and their struggles in their quest to be recognised as a more serious rock act in the latter part of the decade.

The Sweet’s prime decade saw them score fifteen UK Top 40 singles, release seven studio albums and tour several continents. Moreover, while their hit singles of the early 1970s strove for commerciality and mass- appeal on the A-sides, the band very rapidly perfected the art of using the B-sides to showcase high-octane, uncompromising, loud and raucous hard rock.

Unlike many other key bands of that decade, personnel changes were few. The Sweet begin the 1970s with the arrival of new guitarist Andy Scott and end them with the departure of frontman Brian Connolly – and an ultimately ill-fated attempt to continue as a three-piece.

The imagery of glam rock bands like The Sweet was striking, outrageous and unforgettable, and remains so to this day. It did not come without consequences later on, however. Problems that dogged perceptions ofthe band in the second half of the 1970s continued, not just for the rest of the original band’s lifetime – going into the start of the 1980s – but for the subsequent decades beyond that, too. For many years virtually any evaluation of the impact of glam would tend to heap praise on the likes of Bolan and Bowie as the pioneers, lavish yet more praise on the art- school protagonists at glam’s high-end, like Roxy Music, while the likes of The Sweet would be dismissed as merely jumping on the bandwagon and looking like hod-carriers in make-up. All of that raw excitement and charisma, along with those brilliant, life-enhancing tunes, would be brushed away in a single sentence.

The second edition of the NME’s Book of Rock, published in 1977 a few years after glam’s heyday, is typical. Bowie is lauded as ‘one of the most important figures to emerge so far in 1970s rock’. Roxy Music are deemed to have ‘warranted all their acclaim as one of Britain’s most provocative and entertaining bands.’ Sweet, meanwhile, are noted for ‘a whole string of instantly catchy, immediately forgettable bubblegum singles.’

Academics and music historians have also been similarly dismissive of what glam had to offer. While the intervening decades saw increased interest in the more art-school, apparently intellectual end of glam, such as the aforementioned Bowie and Roxy Music, there was relatively little written about the likes of The Sweet and Slade. ‘…critical writing about the more seemingly disposable or disreputable end of glam rock, particularly that aimed at a younger audience – performers such as Marc Bolan or Gary Glitter, or bands such as Slade and The Sweet – is still comparatively hard to find,’ wrote Professor David Buckingham in his essay Glitter, glam and gender play: pop and teenybop in the early 1970s.

‘Glam rock generally is not counted as a significant phenomenon in histories of rock authored by American scholars,’ argued Philip Auslander in his 2006 study Performing Glam Rock: Gender and Theatricality in Popular Music. ‘The conventional narrative is that rock lost its footing in the 1970s… and rediscovered its original energy and impetus only with the advent of punk.’

Over time there have been attempts to redress the balance. Simon Reynolds, in his 2016 publication Shock and Awe: Glam Rock and its Legacy attempts to provide a thorough overview of the whole phenomenon of glam rock and its various players. His in-depth study eschews such haughtily dismissive characterisations as ‘high glam’ and ‘low glam’. Even so, a glance at the end pages will reveal that references to David Bowie account for 162 lines of the book’s substantial index while just twenty apply to The Sweet.

With the death of bass-player Steve Priest in June 2020, the third of The Sweet’s classic foursome to go, we began to see something of a reassessment: an outpouring of love from fans across the world, obituaries in serious newspapers that paid proper regard to the band’s legacy and a glorious celebration of what he and his three colleagues had achieved.

This book is an unashamed celebration of the music of The Sweet and the lasting impact they have had on many bands that came afterwards.

Author’s Note

All of The Sweet’s studio albums from the 1970s are reviewed in full in the chapter for the year that they were originally released, along with summaries for the most significant compilation albums that were released during that period. Given that many of them did not originally appear on a studio album at the time, The Sweet’s singles and associated B-sides are also reviewed in the relevant chapter for the year that they were released.

There were often very considerable differences between the band’s UK and US catalogues throughout the 1970s. The detailed reviews, track listings and release information in each chapter relate to UK album and single releases. However, where relevant, information on US releases and any noteworthy distinctions are included in the relevant section.

Some recordings from band concerts during the decade were also subsequently released as live albums. However, where these are referred to, they are referenced in the relevant chapter for the year that the concert took place, rather than the year that the live album was originally released. In numerous cases, this was a number of years later.

The band is referred to as ‘The Sweet’ in the chapters up until 1974, in line with what appeared on the credits of the band’s releases. When discussing the band’s history from April 1974 onwards, however, when the definite article was dropped from the band’s name on recorded releases, the book, as far as possible, refers to them simply as ‘Sweet’.

Chapter 1

Early Years

The Sweetshop (soon to be renamed The Sweet) were formed in 1968 with Brian Connolly on vocals, Mick Tucker on drums, Frank Torpey on guitar and Steve Priest on bass. All four musicians were based around the west London/Middlesex area. Although Connolly was born in Glasgow, he had moved to Harefield, Middlesex, with his foster family as a child and, like the other three musicians, had been involved in a succession of local bands. One of Connolly’s early bands was Generation X (not to be confused with the punk band of the same name a decade later), with whom he recorded a handful of unreleased demos. One of these early recordings was an original composition called ‘On The Spotlight’, written by Connolly and band guitarist Chris Eldridge.

The song would resurface several years later as the B-side to The Sweet’s ‘Alexander Graham Bell’ and cheekily re-credited to Connolly-Tucker- Scott-Priest. However, the original has been uploaded to YouTube in recent years and it is possible to compare this very early demo with the later version by The Sweet.

By early 1968, both Connolly and Tucker had spent a couple of years working together in a soul revue outfit called Wainwright’s Gentlemen. The band is not only notable for having future members of The Sweet within its ranks but also future Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan, albeit that Gillan departed not long after Tucker joined and several months before Connolly got involved. Towards the latter part of their time in Wainwright’s Gentlemen, Tucker and Connolly were also joined by Torpey, who had previously played alongside the drummer in an earlier band. Fractious internal band politics saw all three depart Wainwright’s Gentlemen in quick succession. First Torpey and then Tucker were unceremoniously sacked, after which an infuriated Connolly decided to quit of his own accord. Tucker: ‘One day my telephone rang, and it was Brian. And he said, ‘How you doing? I’ve been thinking, do you fancy joining a band?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t as it happens.’ I said, ‘I’m going to give it another three months with this band because we had a record deal nearly happening.’ So, he said, ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought you’d say.’ He said, ‘They fired you last night.’’

The three musicians, Connolly, Tucker and Torpey, thus decided to try to find a bass player and form their own band. Steve Priest was already known to them and was in The Army, another west London soul- influenced band who had been working a similar circuit to Wainwright’s Gentleman. Prior to joining The Army, Priest had been in a band called The Countdowns who, through connections via their lead singer Malcolm Sergeant, were called upon to do a number of sessions for the legendary but highly troubled and ultimately murderous music producer, Joe Meek. The band were mainly being used to record demos of songs that would be given to other artists on Meek’s roster and none of The Countdowns’ recordings would be given an official release until many years later.

However, Priest can be heard playing both bass and harmonica on ‘You Stole My Heart Away’ credited to Malcolm And The Countdowns, which was finally released in 1997 as part of a compilation of previously unreleased Meek recordings. A plodding and not particularly inspiring track, it only really stands out for Priest’s fairly impressive harmonica playing. Around the same time, in the summer of 1966, Priest was also called upon to provide backing vocals on a couple of recordings for another producer, John Carter. Unlike the Meek recordings, these were actually released that year. The first, ‘We Love The Pirate Stations’ was a Beach Boys-esque pastiche intended as a protest song about the Wilson Government’s intention to close down the pirate stations. It failed to chart. The second, recorded with the same team but this time credited to The Ministry Of Sound, was an altogether more credible affair entitled ‘White Collar Worker’. ‘We did one appearance at Tiles of Oxford Street for Radio Luxembourg,’ recalled Priest. ‘This was the only airplay it got! It was quite a good song but did absolutely nothing. I was taught a good lesson to learn – in disappointment – very early on.’

Towards the end of his stint with The Army, Priest had shared a bill with old acquaintances Wainwright’s Gentlemen, which led to a post-gig chat with Connolly and Tucker. This was followed up by a phone call from Connolly asking him if he would be interested in joining a new four-piece band. Thus, in February 1968, Priest made his way to a rehearsal to join Connolly, Tucker and Torpey. The outfit that was to become The Sweet was born. Priest: ‘We had a very good blend vocally. We didn’t just sit down and go, ‘Alright, here’s your part’; we all knew our own parts.’

As well as working up their own cover versions of well-known and not so well-known songs, the four also devoted considerable time to coming up with a suitable name, eventually alighting on The Sweetshop. Priest: ‘There were many bands around at this time that had silly names like Marmalade, Strawberry Jam or Strawberry Alarm Clock, and so we managed to come up with a silly name too. We thought that Sweet Shop would do it.’

Although the band were still only semi-pro at this stage, they were able to secure the services of an agent, Starlite Artists, who had a number of name bands such as Marmalade and The Tremeloes on their books. The newly-christened Sweetshop would play their debut gig on 9 March 1968 at the Hemel Hempstead Pavilion, a venue where all four members had previously performed with other bands. Priest: ‘Our material was very varied. Nothing really original. Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Byrds. Mainly vocal-dominant stuff.’

For a band that were later to become notorious as much for their over- the-top visual appearance as for their music, Priest recalled the band’s stage wear in those early days: ‘I wore a kaftan with beads and no shoes. Frank wore jeans and looked like a builder. He didn’t like the idea of stage clothes. Mick and Brian wore frilly shirts with chiffon scarves.’

Numerous gigs followed, including a stint acting as backing band to female vocal trio The Paper Dolls, who had enjoyed one-off hit around that time. In those early months, The Sweetshop also found themselves a manager in Paul Beuselinck. As Paul Nicholas, he would later go on to find fame himself as a stage musical and TV actor. At this point, however, his sights were firmly set on a pop career, which had included a recent spell in Screaming Lord Sutch’s Savages. While he was waiting for his own hoped-for music career to take off, Beuselinck/Nicholas contented himself working in music management and publishing. The latter, through employment with Mellin Music Publishing, led to a fortuitous connection with one Phil Wainman.

Wainman himself had initially been focused on a career as a musician, too. As a drummer, he had worked the European cabaret circuit in the early 1960s with a band called The High Grades. Returning to the UK, he then got involved with a band called The Paramounts for a period. Today, they are most famous for being the outfit that would later evolve into Procol Harum. Wainman then released a couple of drum-themed singles as part of The Quotations, a group of session players who would back