It's common knowledge around these parts that I have a soft spot for the Sweet. Always have had. And although Brian, Mick and Steve are sadly no longer with us, it's somehow fallen on Andy Scott, last man standing, to continue the band's legacy. I'm not sure why, mind. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan: I told him as much when I interviewed him back in the day. But he should let it go now. Andy and his cohorts came to my town in December for a show at Rock City and I didn't go. My bad. But the band of brothers he was so tightly intertwined with thru the whole of the 70s (and early 80s as a three piece) don't exist anymore. I want to remember them the way they were; only on record, in fans memories, and on those amazing YouTube clips does the glammest of all glam groups come close to recreating the excitement levels they generated back in 1973.
But fair play to Scott, he schleps around Europe with his touring band, year after year, like a travelling circus, trying to reignite the flame that once burned so bright. Ironically, the closest he got was a few years back with a cover version of an old George Benson number: clearly loaded with a reworked Love is Like Oxygen riff, they came as close as they ever had to replicating the sound that, for a period of close to ten straight years, guaranteed them VIP Lane access direct to the higher reaches of the UK singles charts week after week. It's a blinder...
The Sweet - On Broadway (2013)
I saw an Andy Scott + 3 line-up about ten years in Rostov-on-Don in Russia (it's a long story). While they weren't the real thing they still put on a bloody good show.
ReplyDeleteThe whole evening was slightly surreal. The show was in the very grand local opera house. The audience was me plus a couple of hundred enthusiastic middle-aged Russian men, a handful of whom had brought their generally less enthusiastic partners. One woman was so uninterested she sat in the second row doing her knitting.
Wig Wam Bamski! Look fwd to hearing that story one day, Ernie!
DeleteSo many posts, so little time - but thanks, John, for being so prolific and for a superb run of inspired blogging , I've read and enjoyed them all but only just now trying to catch up with some commenting, sorry!
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about wanting to remember the Sweet as how they were in their prime. Untainted by inevitable line-up changes and expanding girths.
Loving Ernie's tale too!
Thanks, C. My prolificness (word?) will probably wane before too long. Make the most of my waxing while it lasts!.
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ReplyDeleteExcuse the test but my previous comments on other posts have failed to publish.
ReplyDeleteAnyway I was going to say I've never wanted to see the Bay City Rollers in my old age - I've always wanted to remember them as they were. Only three of them left now so doing better than Sweet but to call yourselves the BCR with only one original member is not cool.
As C said, for someone who doesn't believe in daily blogging, you've been remarkably prolific this last week!
Funnily enough, I did see the Rollers and they put on a great show. It would have been c.1988 I reckon at Rock City. (I've still got the ticket, must track it down.)
DeleteDaily blogging? Pah! Not for me. No way, Pedro.