The Sweet In The 1970s (Decades)

interesting to read about the years pre and post glam rock success, I saw Sweet in 74 and they were really heavy rock,even the live versions of the chart singles. The years after Chinn/Chapman were up and down and ultimately quite sad

'The Sweet In The 1970s' is an excellent and concise book about rock's most underrated band who transformed from 'bubblegum' to 'glam rock' to 'hard rock' to something a little more progressive throughout the aforementioned decade. It also reminds the reader how Sweet managed to 'snatch defeat from the jaws of victory' on many occasions.Sweet are mostly remembered for their Chinn and Chapman hits before their own excellent songwriting skills, from 1975's 'Fox On The Run' onwards, came to the fore. Darren Johnson reviews each of their singles from 1968 to 1980 and the band's 70's LP output entertainingly and honestly and although subjective this reader agreed with most of the author's comments. (Sweet, did indeed, write some great songs of their own before 'Fox On The Run'; checkout the hard rocking b-sides and self-penned tracks on 'Sweet Fanny Adams' and 'Desolation Boulevard').There are sound bytes throughout the book about Sweet's career progression which are concise and factual including the rapid and sad demise of lead singer Brian Connolly's voice, through his well documented alcohol abuse, when the band were on the verge of super stardom.Any criticisms of the book? Well. I feel the author missed a trick by not reviewing Sweet's 1980/1982 albums 'Waters Edge' and 'Identity Crisis' in the same depth as their previous LPs. Many books and publications about the band seem to mention their albums as a trio as an afterthought in not much detail (although 'Cut Above The Rest' is afforded the same style of review as previous Sweet albums in the book). This is a shame as Priest/Scott/Tucker produced some fine work as a three piece outfit.One minor niggle is the typo where 'Level Headed' is mentioned as an RCA album, not Polydor, but this does not distract from a great, well written book.

Fabulous book. It does what it says on the cover it tells the Sweet story in the 70s. That doesn’t mean that the 60s and 80s are totally ignored. You get to know how they formed and how they ended (both without fanfare).The 70s were the important years. Quite a few lows but plenty of highs. They made many great songs and this book got me to play them again. More importantly it got me to play plenty of songs I didn’t know (with mixed results!)I liked Sweet but wasn’t a huge fan so most pages had things that were new to me but I suspect even the biggest fans will get plenty of enjoyment from this.

Good book but a huge glaring mistake. Ballroom blitz was written about a show in Kilmarnock, 15 mins from me, not Glasgow as mentioned in the book

This is a book full of great info about the band which will delight fans. I've been a fan since I was 13 and the contents is very accurate and even now there are interesting insights from the author - also a fan. Well laid out and nicely objective. I agree with most of the observations. Would have been nice to have reviewed Waters Edge in more detail but that was released in 1980! Nice section though on What Happened Next and the early chapters clear up some vague history.

A Fabulous book of the band straight from the heart of a writer who is also a great fan of this underrated band

Sweet are the most underrated band ever.This is a good read for fans and skeptics!

Interesting information about a great but underrated band.