# Turn It Up! - The Sweet



## Guest (Aug 29, 2018)

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_"Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher, radio
Turn it up, that's enough, so you know it's got soul
Radio, radio turn it up..."
_- Van Morrison

The average length of the 45 rpm single is 3 minutes and 30 seconds...

If you can't say what needs to be said in 3 minutes and 30 seconds then it probably isn't worth saying...

"Turn It Up!" is a series about those classic tunes played on radio stations the world over that still live on over the airwaves of our memories and the artists who created them...

*The Sweet*

The Sweet (also known as Sweet) is a British glam rock band that rose to worldwide fame in the 1970s. Their best known line-up consisted of lead vocalist Brian Connolly, bass player Steve Priest, guitarist Andy Scott, and drummer Mick Tucker. The group was originally called Sweetshop.

The band was formed in London in 1968 and achieved their first hit, "Funny Funny", in 1971 after teaming up with songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and record producer Phil Wainman. During 1971 and 1972, their musical style followed a marked progression from the Archies-like bubblegum style of "Funny Funny" to a Who-influenced hard rock style supplemented by a striking use of high-pitched backing vocals.

The band first achieved success in the UK charts, with thirteen Top 20 hits during the 1970s alone, with "Block Buster!" (1973) topping the chart, followed by three consecutive number two hits in "Hell Raiser" (1973), "The Ballroom Blitz" (1973) and "Teenage Rampage" (1974).

The band turned to a more hard rock style with their mid-career singles, like 1974's "Turn It Down". "Fox on the Run" (1975) also reached number two on the UK charts. These results were topped in West Germany and other countries on the European mainland.

They also achieved success and popularity in the US with the top ten hits "Little Willy", "The Ballroom Blitz" and "Fox on the Run".

Sweet had their last Top 10 hit in 1978 with "Love Is Like Oxygen". Connolly left the group in 1979 to start a solo career and the remaining members continued as a trio until disbanding in 1981.

From the mid-1980s, Scott, Connolly and Priest each played with their own versions of Sweet at different times. Connolly died in 1997 and Tucker in 2002. The two surviving members are still active in their respective versions of the band; Scott's is based in the UK and Priest's in the US.

The Sweet signed a record contract with EMI's Parlophone label in 1966. Three bubblegum pop singles were released: "Lollipop Man" (September 1969), "All You'll Ever Get from Me" (January 1970), and a cover version of the Archies' "Get on the Line" (June 1970), all of which failed to chart.

The Sweet initially attempted to combine various musical influences, including the Monkees and 1960s bubblegum pop groups such as the Archies, with more heavy rock-oriented groups such as the Who.

The Sweet adopted the rich vocal harmony style of the Hollies, with distorted guitars and a heavy rhythm section. This fusion of pop and hard rock would remain a central trademark of Sweet's music and prefigured the glam metal of a few years later.

To promote their singles, the Sweet made numerous appearances on U.K. and European TV shows such as Top of the Pops and Supersonic. In one performance of "Block Buster!" on Top of the Pops, Priest aroused complaints after he appeared wearing a German uniform and displaying a swastika armband. The band also capitalized on the glam rock explosion, rivalling Gary Glitter, T. Rex, Queen, Slade, and Wizzard for outrageous stage clothing.

Despite the Sweet's success, the relationship with their management was becoming increasingly tense. While they had developed a large fan-base among teenagers, the Sweet were not happy with their 'bubblegum' image. The Sweet had always composed their own heavy-rock songs on the B-sides of their singles to contrast with the bubblegum A-sides which were composed by Chinn and Chapman.

By 1974, Sweet had grown tired of the management team of Chinn and Chapman, who wrote the group's major hits and cultivated the band's glam rock image.

The group and producer Phil Wainman, assisted by engineer Peter Coleman, recorded the album "Sweet Fanny Adams", which was released in April 1974. Sweet's technical proficiency was demonstrated for the first time on self-penned hard rock tracks such as "Sweet F.A." and "Set Me Free". Sweet also adopted a more conventional hard rock sound and appearance. "Sweet Fanny Adams" also featured compressed high-pitched backing vocal harmonies, which was a trend that continued on all of Sweet's albums.

Their third album, "Desolation Boulevard", was released later in 1974, six months after "Sweet Fanny Adams". By that stage, producer Phil Wainman had moved on and the album was produced by Mike Chapman. It was recorded in a mere six days and featured a rawer "live" sound. One track, "The Man with the Golden Arm", written by Elmer Bernstein and Sylvia Fine for the 1955 Frank Sinatra movie of the same name, featured drummer Mick Tucker performing an 8 and half minute solo (although this was not included in the U.S. release). This had been a staple of the band's live performance for years.

Between March and May 1978 Sweet extensively toured the US, as a support act for Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. The tour included a disastrous date in Birmingham, Alabama on 3 May, during which visiting Capitol Records executives in the audience saw Brian Connolly give a drunken and incoherent performance that terminated early in the set with his collapse on stage, leaving the rest of the group to play on without him. The band returned briefly to Britain before resuming the second leg of their US tour in late May supporting other acts, including Foghat and Alice Cooper, finishing the US tour in early July 1978. Brian's alcoholism was steadily becoming a greater issue.

On 23 February 1979, Brian Connolly's departure from Sweet was announced by manager David Walker. Publicly, Connolly was said to be pursuing a solo career with an interest in recording country rock.

Sweet continued as a trio with Steve Priest and Andy Scott handling lead vocals, with Mick Tucker continuing on drums.

In 1984 Brian Connolly formed a new version of the Sweet without any of the other original members. Despite recurring ill health, Connolly toured the UK and Europe with his band, "Brian Connolly's Sweet", which was then renamed to "New Sweet". His most successful concerts were in West Germany, before and after reunification.

Legal problems were going on in the background over the use of the Sweet name between Connolly and Andy Scott. Both parties agreed to distinguish their group's names to help promoters and fans. The New Sweet went back to being called Brian Connolly's Sweet and Andy Scott's version became Andy Scott's Sweet.

Brian Connolly died at the age of 51 on February 9, 1997 from liver failure and repeated heart attacks, attributed to his abuse of alcohol in the 1970s and early 1980s. Mick Tucker subsequently died on February 14, 2002 from leukemia, at the age of 54.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sweet

Peak UK chart position in parenthesis -

"*Funny Funny*" - 1971 - (# 13) -






"*Co-Co*" - 1971 - (# 2) -





 - (Live video)

"*Poppa Joe*" - 1972 - (# 11) -





 - (Live video)

"*Little Willy*" - 1972 - (# 4) -





 - (Live video)

"*Wig-Wam Bam*" - 1972 - (# 4) -





 - (Live video)

"*Blockbuster!*" - 1973 - (# 1) -





 - (Live video)

"*Hellraiser*" - 1973 - (# 2) -





 - (Live video)

"*Ballroom Blitz*" - 1973 - (# 2) -





 - (Live video)

"*Teenage Rampage*" - 1974 - (# 2) -





 - (Live video)

"*The Six Teens*" - 1974 - (# 9) -





 - (Live video)

"*Fox on the Run*" - 1975 - (# 1) -





 - (Live video)

"*Action*" - 1975 - (# 15) -





 - (Live video)

"*Love Is Like Oxygen*" - 1978 - (# 9) -


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The summer of 1973 is when I really started to get interested in pop/rock. Hellraiser was one of the first hits that I loved (and that shocked my parents). Still my favourite Sweet song, but half a dozen or so ended up on our car MP3 USB stick.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

A tale of two bands - the glitzy chart-toppers from the Chinn/Chapman hitmaking stable and the fine hard rock group on their b-sides and albums. I didn't like the rather wimpy early pre-_Block Buster!_ hits but from but from 1972-1975 their output put them right up there with Slade and Mott the Hoople.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

_Love is Like Oxygen_ is my absolute favorite Sweet song. Brings back sweet, sad memories and associations.


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