Sweet

One of the biggest British pop bands of the 1970s, The Sweet virtually defined the glam rock genre with their glittery image and high energy hits like “Block Buster”, “Ballroom Blitz” and “Hell Raiser”. Singer Brian Connolly and drummer Mick Tucker originally put together a band in London called Sweetshop, recruiting bass player Steve Priest and guitarist Frank Torpey, cutting their teeth on the London pub circuit. They subsequently shortened the name to The Sweet, released their first single “Slow Motion” in 1968 and had a series of different guitarists before being joined by Welshman Andy Scott on guitar. A meeting with producers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman transformed their fortunes, the Chinn-Chapman partnership channelling their mix of bubblegum pop with driving hard rock into an irresistible string of hits notable for high-pitched backing vocals that gave them resounding pop success. They tuned into the glam era of heavy make-up, bright stage costumes and glittery hair adopted by other top pop artists of the era like Slade and Mud and achieved their initial breakthrough with the hits “Funny Funny”, “Poppa Joe”, “Wig Wam Bam” and “Little Willy”. They scored their first number one in 1973 with “Block Buster” but began to falter as they switched direction and tried to adopt a tougher image, eventually falling out with Chinn and Chapman; although they still had with “Fox On the Run”, their big success from Desolation Boulevard (1974), “Action”, taken from Give Us a Wink (1976), and “Love Is Like Oxygen”, which appeared on Level Headed (1978). Singer Brian Connolly left in 1979 to go solo, but The Sweet continued for a while as a trio with Priest and Scott sharing vocal duties, but split in 1981. The name was subsequently revived by different members of the band forming their own versions of The Sweet with varying line-ups, but illness struck and Connolly died in 1997 followed by Tucker in 2002 and Steve Priest in 2020. Andy Scott continues to keep The Sweet name alive with his own touring outfit, which exclusively focused on European audiences up until Priest's passing. The group’s music was received by a younger audience when, in 2016, two of their biggest tracks were used in films – “Ballroom Blitz” was used in Suicide Squad and “Fox On the Run” featured in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

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