Sweet

Sweet, a '70s British rock band that was part of the "glam" movement, got its start in 1965 with the band Wainwright's Gentlemen. Among its members were Mick Tucker and Ian Gillan (later to join Deep Purple). Gillan left the band and was eventually replaced by vocalist Brian Connolly. In January of 1968 Connolly and Tucker left the band and formed their own, calling it The Sweetshop. Bass player Steve Priest joined them, as did guitarist Frank Torpey. The band developed somewhat of a following on the "pub" circuit, and was soon signed to a contract by Fontana Records. Since there was already an existing band called The Sweetshop, the band changed its name to The Sweet. They recorded a single, "Slow Motion", but it went nowhere. Fontana dropped them and Torpey left the band. They kept playing for the next few years, building a following and going through several personnel and management changes and doing some recording, but they remained hitless. In 1971 they finally had a hit with "Funny Funny". Tensions had been building with their songwriting/management team, and the band was unhappy with the "bubble-gum" image they were being cast in and their reputation as just a lightweight pop band. In 1972 they had another hit with "Coco" and a bigger one with "Little Willy", which hit #3 on the US charts. In 1973 the band raised eyebrows with a performance at the Palace Theater in Kilmarnock, UK, during which the audience reaction was so hostile--apparently they weren't expecting the band to appear in lipstick, eye makeup and the other accouterments of the "glam" movement--that bottles were thrown at the band and they had to be rushed offstage. That incident didn't seem to adversely affect the band's record sales, though, and they soon released one of their biggest hits, "Ballroom Blitz". In 1974 the band and their producer decided to part with the songwriting/management team that had guided the band for several years, one of the reasons being they wanted more artistic control over the band's career, which they didn't believe they were getting. They recorded several more albums after the departure, including "Desolation Boulevard", containing "Fox on the Run", which became a hit single and, unlike their other hits, was actually written by the band. Looking for a change, the band split from its longtime label, RCA, in 1977 and signed with Polydor Records. Their first album for the label, "Level Headed" in 1978, was a major change in the band's sound, with its richer, fuller and complex orchestrations--one of its songs, "Love Is Like Oxygen", often caused listeners who heard it on the radio to mistake it for an Electric Light Orchestra song. The band finally toured the US in 1978, but as an opening act for Bob Seger rather than on their own card. In 1979 Brian Connolly left the band, due to ill health and an increasingly severe alcohol problem. The band recorded several more albums, but none were "chartbusters", and in 1981 they disbanded. In 1985 original members Scott and Tucker reformed the band with new personnel. The new band has stayed together, with various personnel changes, ever since. Founding member Brian Connolly died of liver failure in 1997 and Mick Tucker died in 2002 from leukemia.