BIOGRAPHY
Brian Connolly was born in Hamilton, Scotland on the 5th October
1945 (although early Sweet biographies claimed he was born in
1949). He was adopted at birth and went by the name Brian McManus
until he was 18, when he discovered that he was adopted and changed
his surname to his mother´s, Connolly. He moved to Middlesex
and joined Wainwright's Gentlemen, replacing Ian Gillan. The drummer
was Mick Tucker, born on the 17th July 1947. Wainwright's Gentlemen
split up in 1968 without releasing any records. Connolly and Tucker
stayed together and called the band Sweetshop, later shortening
the name to Sweet. They recruited guitarist Frank Torpey and bassist
Steve Priest. Steve Priest was born in Hayes on February 23th
1950. They signed with Fontana as a semi-pro band, releasing one
single in July 1968 called "Slow Motion", which wasn't
a hit , so Fontana saw little potential in the band and dropped
them. The single is now very hard to find. Torpey left the band
and was replaced by Mick Stewart. The Sweet negotiated a new deal
with EMI under the Parlophone label. Sweet recorded three singles
for Parlaphone ( "Lollipop Man","All You'll Ever
Get From Me", and "Get On The Line") but they all
flopped and Mick Stewart left. His replacement Andy Scott was
born on 30th June 1949 at Wrexham, Wales
Towards the end of 1970, the Sweet met up with a pair of songwriters,
Nicky Chinn, born in London and Mike Chapman, who was born in
Australia. Chinn & Chapman became The Sweet's managers and
songwriters and got them a contract with RCA. They wrote the single
Funny Funny, which entered the charts on 13th March 1971 and made
no. 13. The second Chinn & Chapman single "Co Co"
reached no. 2 on the charts. In 1971 The Sweet released their
first album, shared by Pipkins called Gimmee Dat Ding. Their first
real album, Funny How Sweet Co Co Can Be, was released in 1971.
The first singles was pure bubblegum pop, but under pressure from
the band Chinn and Chapman´s compositions got progressively
harder. At the same time the band´s costumes and use of
make-up got more and more outrageous and they became recognized
as the leading band in the glam (or glitter) movement. The song
"Ballroom Blitz" is generally considered glam rock´s
nadir. In 1974 Sweet released an album, Sweet Fanny Adams, written
almost entirely by the band and with a much harder sound than
before. The album is considered a classic today - although there
wasn´t released any singles from it - and it made the band
confident that they could write their own songs. Later in 1974
Sweet released Desolation Boulevard, an album with only two Chinn
& Chapman compositions and the band split with ChinniChap,
who went on to write and produce for lots of other bands like
Mud, Suzi Quatro, Smokie and Blondie. The first two singles written
by the band were the big hits "Fox on the Run" and "Action",
but as the band developed their harder sound (bordering on heavy
metal) the hits dried up and a year later Sweet parted company
with RCA. Instead Sweet signed to Polydor and and delivered the
excellent album "Level Headed"(1978), which contained
the worldwide hit "Love is like Oxygen". Despite the
succces, on February 23th 1979, Brian Connolly announced that
he had left Sweet. The band, that was in the middle of recording
the LP "Cut Above The Rest", decided to go on as a trio,
even though Andy Scott claims that Ronnie James Dio (ex Rainbow
and Black Sabbath) offered to fill the vacant
spot.
Connolly´s leaving was commented upon by the group´s
new spokesman, Steve Priest, in POSTER issue number 8, 1979: "
-... Brian has been making plans for a solo career for almost
three years now. He has felt unhappy with us,
and since we had our hit "Fox On The Run" in 1974
(1975, author) he hasn´t really taken part in our work or
in developing what we think is our new line... - That annoyed
him, not being the natural leader of the band and he started to
drink." "- ...Before every tour I had stomach pains
and problems with my nerves. Now are all troubles gone and I can
work with my own music." Brian Connolly explained in the
same article.
The Sweet released three albums without Brian and without much
succes ("Cut Above The Rest", "Water´s Edge"
& "Identity Crisis"). In 1982 the band split up,
but in later years Andy and Mick would team up and tour as Sweet.
Mick Tucker had to retire due to illness in the mid -90`s and
to this day Andy Scott tours regularly as "A.S. Sweet",
playing all the old hits.
When Brian left Sweet he announced his intention to get into
country music, which was easier on his voice, but his solo career
never took off. The reason for this was no doubt his drinking
problem, which ravaged his health. Brian is said to have survived
more heart attacks than any person ever, but toured as "B.C.
Sweet" up till his death on February 9th, 1997.
We'll Always Remember Brian
