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TDC: Steve Priest of The Sweet IBS


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That sucks.  There are some recent (sort of) videos with Steve Priest being interviewed.  He had enthusiasm for everything that was going on, but he appeared in bad health.  Video of his version of The Sweet showed him playing concerts seated while the rest of the band was standing. 

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What a shame. I knew he was in bad health condition and had seen the videos with him playing sitting. The Sweet were my teenage band. I still like to listen to them. Would go to see the Andy Scott‘s Sweet again if the pandemic ever got to an end.

RIP

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Do people realize what a great hard rock band Sweet evolved into?  After the early bubblegum singles, they had plenty of killer riffs and great playing especially on the 3-album run of Sweet Fanny Adams, Desolation Boulevard, and Give Us a Wink.  Well worth digging into if you never heard them before.  Crazy harmony vocals and tons of guitar hooks.

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Sad to hear this. Big time Sweet Fan. They get plenty of play on Spotify and Pandora from me. Not sure how I missed seeing them in concert back in the 70’s. I regret that. 

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Bummer.

I was a HUGE Sweet fan in my youth! Oddly enough, largely due to the fact that, like most kids of 10- 12 YO,  I had no viable source of steady income :P, I never owned any of their albums. Instead I wore the grooves out of their singles; Ballroom Blitz, Fox On The Run, and Action and eventually became equally enamored of the B sides as well. Only when I got out of grad school and fell into the Columbia House CD club did I finally purchase their greatest hits.  Still, I managed to miss some killer tracks like Sweet F.A. and Set Me Free  which would have appealed to me enormously as my appetite for harder music grew.

Interesting to note- Vince Neil with Steve Stevens covered Set Me Free and SS covered Action on his Atomic Playboys disk (for the vague Hamer tie-in)

 

 

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1 hour ago, tommy p said:

After the early bubblegum singles, they had plenty of killer riffs and great playing especially on the 3-album run of Sweet Fanny Adams, Desolation Boulevard, and Give Us a Wink.  Well worth digging into if you never heard them before.  Crazy harmony vocals and tons of guitar hooks.

Of the three Spotify has only Desolation Boulevard.  Listening now, thanks!

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17 minutes ago, velorush said:

Of the three Spotify has only Desolation Boulevard.  Listening now, thanks!

You've not heard that album? You, sir, are in for a treat!

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25 minutes ago, MCChris said:

You've not heard that album? You, sir, are in for a treat!

It's extremely good.  I love the fantastic harmonies.  Lots of unexpected twists and turns (unexpected because of my familiarity with their top 40 output).  

ETA: EPIC!  Seriously.  Travesty that their top 40 selections overshadowed the other stuff.  This is easily on the musicianship level of Queen, though I was very surprised some years ago to listen to the entire Queen catalog and discover another level with them, as well.

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I always loved the Sweet and Queen. I was also a big fan of Deep Purple and Rainbow. Sweet tried to get Dio as their singer after they went on without Brian Conolly. I don't think it would have worked.

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Give Us A Wink is my all time favorite of them. Way the strongest and hardest of all. I have always admired the later 3-piece albums Cut Above The Rest and Waters Edge. They were different, but still sound modern today. Kind of ahead of their time a bit. Strung Up and Off The Records were also very strong. Desolation Boulevard has a few soft titles on them that had me dislike the album a bit. Although, The Six Teens is a gem.

Aahhh, so many memories.

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Those cassette tapes were in the mix all the time for us in the '70s especially when we were skipping school surfing. Finally got to see them open for Alice Cooper sometime around '77 -8, I think.

@The Shark said he was there though I didn't know him at the time. Great show except for the surprise opening act, Eddie Money. 

I remember when they cranked into, "Windy City." Andy Scott's opening riff was thick and charred. Really made the show. Brian Connolly's voice was killer and his throat seemed to open up like a lion's roar. Unbeatable memory. 

I still remember where I was the very first time I heard them. I was in Grants in '74 looking at albums when, "Fox on the Run," came on over the player. I was instantly hooked. 

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Oh, now you've gone deep.  "Grants"!!!  I used to love Grants.  They had one of the best toy sections for plastic models, when I was a kid.  I built almost every Revell kit they had.  I still have the Mongoose and Snake funny cars.  

Sweet headlined at Stetson.  They were so loud.  I spoke to my cousin and he told me it was 1978.  Love is Like Oxygen was the hit.  All I can tell you is that they were great.  I'd just started to smoke weed!

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Man, how I loved The Sweet! Still do....Desolation Blvd and Give Us a Wink have such great songs. I can remember hearing Little Willy for the first time  and freaking out about how cool the guitars sounds...especially that stuttering little  lick on the bent g string in the intro. I still play that song as a rhythm warm up. Same with Ballroom Blitz. It made me wanna rock. That band is a HUGE influence on me bigger that I ever thought.

As was Grants. Everything from fishing gear to airplane models (Revell and Monogram for me). I miss stores like that.
 

When I play later today it will be Little Willy, Blitz, & Oxygen to start. I never learned Fox....maybe that’ll happen now. 

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1 hour ago, Jakeboy said:

Man, how I loved The Sweet! Still do....Desolation Blvd and Give Us a Wink have such great songs. I can remember hearing Little Willy for the first time  and freaking out about how cool the guitars sounds...especially that stuttering little  lick on the bent g string in the intro. I still play that song as a rhythm warm up. Same with Ballroom Blitz. It made me wanna rock. That band is a HUGE influence on me bigger that I ever thought.

As was Grants. Everything from fishing gear to airplane models (Revel and Monogram for me). I miss stores like that.
 

When I play later today it will be Little Willy, Blitz, & Oxygen to start. I never learned Fox....maybe that’ll happen now. 

Now you are a magnate!

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Revell models here too. Biggest was a jumbo jet with full seating. One side open for view inside.

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I think the largest I ever built (and I built close to 100) was the Revell (or was it Monogram?) 1/72 scale B-52.  The wingspan was dang near 3' (one meter). 

My practice was to thumb-tack airplanes to the ceiling.  I proudly hung the B-52 over my bed only to be woken up during the night when it fell!

The brand I bought could be done in camo (which I did), or aluminum with SAC decals.  Good times - I had no airbrush at the time, so it took a solid week of painting with a brush.

 

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For the record, the house brand of W.T. Grant was "Bradford", found on appliances, televisions and radios...and guitars. One of the models that was sold at the Grant's in my home town was a Teisco-made solidbody with the elliptical-shaped hole all the way thru, like a primeval Ibanez. Don't recall if that one was a Bradford, Teisco, or some other brand.

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Sweet is great stuff! Read up a little bit more on them lately and I never knew Saxon covered Set Me Free, Joan Jett covered ACDC and Pat 
Benatar covered No You Don't. 

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