The Sweet may be known as the satin jumpsuit-clad outfit behind iconic ’70s tracks such as The Ballroom Blitz and Fox on the Run. However, as guitarist Andy Scott – the lone survivor of the original powerhouse lineup – tells Guitar World, beyond the glitz, glamour, and the hits, the band eventually felt “it was more important to make music we wanted to hear without compromise.”
Unfortunately, The Sweet’s trajectory was marred by vocalist Brian Connolly’s drinking problems.
“When we recorded Love Is Like Oxygen [widely regarded as their last international success in 1978] we had to do it in the morning when none of us were at our best because we knew that by afternoon, Brian would be drinking so heavily he wouldn’t be capable of singing,” Scott shares.
“The reason Steve [Priest, bassist] and I each sang a song on Level Headed was because Brian was in no condition to do them. That continued, and in 1978, he collapsed a couple times on tour.”
Things finally came to a head when the band was recording 1979’s Cut Above the Rest at Clearwell Castle in England, which would eventually become the first release without Connolly.
The reason was simple: “We couldn’t get a single usable master vocal out of Brian,” Scott admits.
“We did everything we could, but he was beyond control,” he continues. “At one point, he fired a shotgun out of a window into a bird sanctuary. When we heard the bang, we said to the tour manager, ‘You need to take that gun off him!’ He said, ‘I’m not going in there.’ Steve said, ‘Well, if we go in, he might shoot us.’”
Eventually, the owner of the castle managed to take the gun away from him, but that incident was very much the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“After Christmas, we were called into our management’s office. They said, ‘There’s only one way the band survives. Brian has to go.’ And the rest of us kept the band going as a three-piece,” Scott concludes.
For more anecdotes about The Sweet, plus new interviews with Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee, pick up issue 605 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.
