| The Story Of THE SWEET�. Mick Tucker and Brian Conolly first met as members of the Middlesex pop group Wainwright�s Gentlemen. Wainwright�s Gentlemen finally split in 1968 without having recorded together. In 1967 Mick and Brian recruited Frank Torpey and Steve Priest to form The Sweet Shop which later becameThe Sweet. At the end of 1968 they signed a contract with Fontana and recorded the single �Slow Motion�. It did not have any impact on the record buying audience at that time. Consequently Fontana terminated further activities and it took almost a year before the Sweet resurfaced. This time on Parlophone, they recorded another three Singles over a period of seven month, �Lollipop Man�, All You�ll Ever Get From Me�, �Get On The Line�. But again, the singles flopped, were left to oblivion.1969 Frank Torpey left the Sweet and Mick Stewart joined the band as lead player. Mick Stewart retired in 1971 and Andy Scott joined the Sweet. The �Pop� years Producer Phil Wainman teamed up the third-rate-disco band The Sweet with the songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who at that stage were unknown, in 1970. Chinn and Chapman secured the group a deal with RCA and recorded a whole �string of instantly cathy, immediately forgettable bubble gum singles� (NICK LOGAN) with the help from professional guest musicans to achieve immediate and longlasting chart fame. The first successful single, written by Chinn and Chapman, was �Funny, Funny� reaching No. 13 in the British charts. The Sweet soon had the reputation as an out-and-out bubble gum band, indicated by their firs LP appearance on the Music For Pleasure set �Gimme Dat Ding� in 1971: The Sweet had one side which included a second release of the old Parlaphone recordings, the other side was The Pipkins, after whose solo hit the LP was titled. The next single release �Co-Co� even sent the band up to No. 2 in the charts having Parlophone jump on the bandwagon with the single re-release of �All You�ll Ever Get From Me�. But it flopped again. Chinn and Chapman came up with a whole bunch more of easily receptible bubble gum hit. The list of chart singles of this period include �Popp Joe�, �Little Willy�(What a risque title that time!) and �Wig Wam Bam�, all in 1972, �Blockbuster�, �Hell Raiser� and �Ballroom Blitz�, all in 1973 and �Teenage Rampage� and �The Six Teens�, both in 1974. Sweet had racked up one No. 1 hit with �Blockbuster� and five No. 2 hits, including three consecutive number two hits which followed up �Blockbuster�. In 1972, the glam-rock boom was in full swing. David Bowie and Gary Glitter were the trend setters. Not being very happy with their bubble gum reputation, The Sweet also went glam-rock, having their first appearance on �Toop Of The Pops�, wearing feathers and ponchos to present the single �Wig Wam Bam� that was a tale of love among the American Indians. Despite their lack of instrumental skills, The Sweet was a big concert attraction for a screaming teenage following. They were banned from certain venues for overt sexual nature of their repertoire, which brought them a lot of press though. The first two Sweet albums, �Funny How Sweet CoCo Can Be� and the surprisingly early �Sweet�s Biggest Hits�, were merely compilations of their many chart hits. With their following album releases, �Sweet Funny Adams� and �Desolation Boulevard�, the band tried to prove that they were not limited solely to the tree-minute pop format. But all attempts to be taken �seriously� als musicians failde. �Desolation Boulevard� failde to chart at all. The Sweet now tried to get rid of their teenybop image, and they were anxious to prove that they were not just puppets for Chinn and Chapman�s ideas. They split from the Chinn/Chapman stable to make inroads into hard rock territory. The �Hard Rock� years The self-penned �Fox On The Run�, also a track from the �Desolation Boulevard� album, proved staightaway that The Sweet were able to go on alone. It reached the No. 2 chart position and had a strong impact on the American market. Since a major British tour had to be cancelled, because Brian Conolly was seriously injured in a street fight, the band concentrated on the cross-Atlantic market in the following years. The singles �Action� an �The Lies In Your Eyes as well as the album �Give Us A Wink� were not big seller in Britain, and after several more, unsuccessful recordings, The Sweet left RCA. The band caught up momentum again with the Polydor single release �Love Is Like Oxygen� in early 1979. But despite the single reaching No. 9, the album �Level Headed� sank like a stone. In mid-1979 singer Brian Conolly left the band. Andy Scott took over the vocals and the line up was completed by keyboarder Gary Moberly. Over the next four years The Sweet recorded another three albums of hard rock material. The group finally split in 1982. During the next years a reunited Sweet without Singer Brian Conolly toured the pub curcuit. 1984 saw the release of a Sweet compilation album by Anagram, titled �Sweet Sixteen�, which fetured all the singles of their period of success. Today Andy Scott is touring with Andy Scott�s Sweet and Brian Conolly is on tour with Bian Conolly�s Sweet. Below is a Discography of SWEET'S career in Britain. 1.Funny Funny No.13 in March 1971 2.Co Co No.2 in June 1971 3.Alexander Graham Bell No.33 in October 1971 4.Poppa Joe No.11 in February 1972 5.Little Willy No.4 in June 1972 6.Wig Wam Bam No.4 in September 1972 7.Blockbuster No.1 in January 1973 8.Hell Raiser No.2 in May 1973 9.Ballroom Blitz No.2 in September 1973 10.Teenage Rampage No.2 in January 1974 11.The Six Teens No.9. in July 1974 12.Turn It Down No.41 in November 1974 13.Fox On The Run No.2 in March 1975 14.Action no.15 in July 1975 15.Lies In Your Eyes No.35 in January 1976 16.Love Is Like Oxygen No.9 in January 1978. Off The Record: Sweet Facts! �Give Us A Wink� By Steve Priest of THE SWEET By the time the self penned and produced �Fox On The Run�was peaking on the Billboard charts in mid 1975, Sweet decided they wanted to head into a more rock oriented direction. Their first move was to dispense with the services of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, who had written and produced many of Sweet�s earlier �bubblegum� songs such as �Little Willy�, �Co Co�, and �Funny Funny�. With the freedom now to write, produce and record an album all on their own, they left for Spain to write material, then off to the Arabella Hotel in Munich, Germany to record. The Arabella Hotel had a 24 track studio in the basement, next door to a large hallway in which equipment was loaded through. One day when they were recording a back track, someone accidentally opened the connecting door to the hallway. The band, fascinated with the thunderous sound of Mick�s drums echoing throughout the basement, amplified his drums through two speakers outside the studio to capture the echoing effect of Mick�s drums on tape, creating the very powerful drum sound you hear on the appropriately titled �Give Us A Wink�. This offering produced many of Sweet�s finest tracks to date, including �Action�, �Lies In Your Eyes�, and �White Mice�. One of the heaviest and most intense songs on this album is �Yesterday�s Rain�. Steve Priest on the songs inception: �Yesterday�s Rain� came from a line that Burl Ives used in a TV series called �Alias Smith & Jones�, in which Burl�s character replies to someone trying to con him, �I didn�t come down with Yesterday�s rain!�. Another stand out track on �GUAW� is the powerful and raunchy-edged �Cockroach�. Steve: �The line: You got a mouth like a DC10 came from when we were all sitting around one day writing the song on the roof of the Arabella hotel, and this jet flew over. Lucky it did as we were stuck for lyrics! The album cover design was this: A partial human face accenting a pair of big green eyes, (one you could actually make open and close creating a �winking� effect.), over the top of a brick wall background containing �graffiti� that read such one liners as �Wink Off�, and �Kilroy Winked Here!�. Steve on the album cover: The album cover was a play on words, and I don�t think you have to be a rocket scientist to translate it. I did like the concept of the cover, but I thought it was going a bit far by having �Queen are a bunch of winkers�, on the wall. They weren�t that bad. Really! The album �Give Us A Wink� remains a favorite of many Sweet fans, including this one. To date, I have heard at least three songs covered by other bands from this album. �4th Of July� One of the standout tracks on Sweet�s 1976 heavy metal opus �Give Us A Wink�, is a track called �4th Of July�. To one listening to this track for the first time, the band�s trademark multi-layer vocals, smart guitar licks played by Andy Scott, and excellent production quality in general, would be a lasting first impression to a casual fan of their music. To a die-hard Sweet fan, it�s a staple in there musical diet. The track�s theme is that of an American holiday known as Independance Day, celebrated on the July 4th, and the good times that usually go along with it. Sweet Bass player Steve Priest on the song�s inception: �We thought it would be a good idea to write a song that America could relate to. The opening line was from an experience I had a few years before it was written. It was one of our roadies 21st birthday, and we celebrated it at a gig. He was buying champagne and also plying me with whiskey. Eventually I was so out of it that one minute I was standing up, the next minute I was flat on my face and I didn�t think I had moved. It was just like the floor coming up at me. My dad was not amused when Mick helped me up the garden path!� Although �Give Us A Wink� saw the release of only two singles, (�Action� and �Lies In Your Eyes�), the potential of their being others was great. It was believed by some involved at the time of it�s recording, that this song would fit the bill as a possible single. Steve: �I could see this as being a single but it seems I was in the minority there. Good old management and record company again!� An alternate demo version of this track can be found on the 1995 compilation release of �Platinum Rare�, featured without overdubs and in Andy Scott�s opinion, it �highlights some of the band�s influences�. END |