Browsing the shelves in HMV, as I am wont to do, I came upon a compilation triple album by the 1970s Glam Rock band The Sweet. Although there was a lot of filler, there was definitely enough killer for a single album. They were certainly one of the better pop bands of my youth.
Admittedly, I had to look up the dates but the band first came to attention in 1971 with their ‘bubblegum’ singles Funny, Funny and Coco, songs I really liked. The next two years saw them release a series of brilliant pop records including Little Willy, Wig-Wam Bam, Blockbuster, Ballroom Blitz and Hellraiser, all written by the songwriting machine otherwise known and Chinn and Chapman. But they were no manufactured band. They were proper musicians who in 1975 released their first band written single Fox On The Run, which almost became their second number one, the first being Jean Genie soundalike Blockbuster.
Their final hit was in 1978 with the excellent Love Is Like Oxygen, after which the usual band splitting-up, reforming, off-shoots being formed and all the rest of it. As pop careers go, their seven years at the top was fully justified and whilst I never liked the production style – the voices were always way too high in the mix for me – the quality of the tunes was undeniable.
The name of the band has survived and they still tour small venues, playing short but sweet Sweet setlists to enthusiastic fans. There are no ‘original’ members, although beautifully bewigged axeman Andy Scott, who joined in 1970, can certainly be regarded as ‘proper’ Sweet.
There are many heritage bands still performing on the nostalgia circuit and with a back catalogue as good as The Sweet’s it’s great that they’re keeping the music alive.
