It’s a new year and as we all know that means a brand new start. Ditching old, bad habits and setting purposeful resolutions that are generally doomed to failure. But this year I’m getting mine nailed early. I want to slay the beast within and post about something that I’ve been thinking about for some time. I am going to post about the first record I ever bought! Yes and to hell with the consequences – to hell with the critics and to hell with the cool people who first bought Bowie or Oasis or The Stone Roses.
My first piece of vinyl that was to kick-start my relationship with music was by The Sweet (later just Sweet) and the track was Hell Raiser. Purchased in 1973 in a shop that mostly sold pianos and organs I remember. It was a pivotal moment for a ten year old, in a time when finding out about music wasn’t easy at all. Especially when your parents love of music extended no further than Vera Lynn!
I also remember, this purchase wasn’t without anxiety. Buying a record in a shop from an old man who really wanted to sell organs felt a little like buying a James Blunt record in HMV now. Very frightening I can assure you.
Anyway, the journey to RCA 2357 started on 27th April 1973 at my friend’s nan’s house in her living room. A lavish room by 70s standards, with comfy furniture and a beaded curtained doorway which led to a kitchen and a well-stocked fridge. That spring night Noel Edmunds was hosting the now defunct Top Of The Pops, which back then used to air a predicted future hit prior to release. On that day I was introduced for the first time to Brian Connolly, Steve Priest, Andy Scott and Mick Tucker. Through the eyes of a ten year old that was really something to see and hear and that hair and those shiny pants. You never bought garments like those in C&A I can tell you.
Looking back now, it seems strange that the process of discovering music was so difficult. It was a time when you saved your pennies to buy what you wanted, and sometimes lack of funds meant that you had to make choices. There seemed to be undiscovered music everywhere and it was certainly a period in time when records were selling in huge numbers, but in many ways the music business was still a very young and naive industry. Artists were generally very badly represented and the large corporate labels were making and spending large sums of money at the artists’ expense.
The bands next single was Ballroom Blitz – I found out about that from my cousin at a family wedding would you believe? Unbelievable really! Anyway, I was now a true fan with two records under my belt. I continued on for a while, picking up the next single Teenage Rampage, but inevitably I moved on as fickle young men do.
The band powered on, finally agreeing collectively that they could no longer work under the total control of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman (writers of their past hits) and decided to go it alone. In 1974 they wrote and released the album Sweet Fanny Adams (although Chinn-Chap were credited with two tracks, No You Don’t and AC-DC) which scored them a top 40 entry. It showcased a much rockier feel and the band also ditched their overtly glam rock image. Later that same year the band released their LP Desolation Boulevard which spawned the Chinn-Chap written hit The Six Teens, but other singles released from the album failed to match its success.
The following year the band went back into the studio and reworked their self-penned track, Fox On The Run (originally from Desolation Boulevard) which was to give them their biggest ever career hit and in the summer of that year, the follow up single Action became a UK top 20 hit also.
From then on Sweet went into a slow decline and from 1976 onwards success by and large eluded them, although the band had a surprise hit with Love Is Like Oxygen, which briefly sprung them back to the charts in 1978. Finally, in 1979 with musical difficulties cited and Connolly’s alcohol problems getting critical the singer left the band.
After Connolly’s departure the band continued on as a trio with little success, until effectively disbanding in 1981. Four years later Scott and Tucker reformed with various new members and toured extensively around the world until Mick Tucker left due to ill health.
In 1997, at the age of 51 Brian Connolly died and in February 2002 Mike Tucker died of leukaemia.
The two remaining members, Andy Scott and Steve Priest continue with rival Sweets – touring and pretty much keeping out of each others way.
Andy Scott was recently seen advertising van insurance, to the backdrop sound of his Ivor Novello nominated track Love Is Like Oxygen…
… oh and a white van!
