[Music] RIP Steve Priest

[lawros left foot]

Saw a lot of bands in the 70's but Sweet at The Dome 1973 remains one of my favourite gigs. There were a lot of mums & dads with their kids present as I expect they thought Sweet were an inoffensive Glam Rock poptastic kind of band, WRONG! The show opened with 'The stripper' blasting out over the P.A. with a back projection on stage of some bird taking all her kit off. When she got down to nothing Sweet ran on stage, Mick Tucker did an almighty 'Gob' across his drums and they burst into Hellraiser with the amps turned up to 11. They played all their hits but a lot of heavier stuff which they used to put on the 'B' sides of the singles. One of the loudest and funniest bands I ever saw, RIP Steve and thankyou.

I think this was recorded on the same tour that we saw them, the sounds a bit shaky at the start but it was 47 years ago!

As I said on an earlier post, either this gig or a Slade gig about the same time (1-2 weeks) was my first ever gig. Them and Slade were both very good, really not teeny bopper bands.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Indeed, would be wrong to put Sweet, Mud and Slade in the same genre as the Bay City Rollers and Jimmy Osmond ...

 

[Super Steve Earle]

Hasn't looked well for a while, but still a shock. Ballroom Blitz was and is my very favourite Glam Rock song. RIP.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Blockbuster was one of my earliest Top Of The Pops memories, I remember as a 6-year old watching Top Of The Pops and thinking how weird it was seeing a man in make-up blowing kisses. That, and Marc Bolan, Bowie.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

Sweet - best known for cheesy but catchy glam-pop - but like several bands of that ilk (Slade and Mud for example) they could actually play and were, when not earning a living playing cheesy pop, pretty good bands.
Anyway, RIP Steve.

As this shows I think

 

[Official Old Man]

Indeed, would be wrong to put Sweet, Mud and Slade in the same genre as the Bay City Rollers and Jimmy Osmond ...

RIP Another from my youth gone. The Osmonds did have a few 'heavier' tracks on their playlist.

 

[GT49er]

Indeed, would be wrong to put Sweet, Mud and Slade in the same genre as the Bay City Rollers and Jimmy Osmond ...

Actually, in the early days, before Davie Paton and Billy Lyall left to form Pilot (and later go on to be part of the Alan Parsons Project; Paton also worked with Kate Bush and Elton John) the Bay City Rollers were a pretty decent group too.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

St Peter: "Are you ready Steve?"

RIP - Sweet were a great band, not only the early stuff but more latterly as real rock band.

 

[sully]

Amongst the bands that really got me into music as a very youngster. Sadly, too young to see my first heroes live and I’m sad that I never did see Sweet.

RIP Steve

 

[Barrow Boy]

I remember a documentary a few years ago about Sweet and one of them (it may well have been Steve Priest) said that they got to a point where their record label said they had to make a choice. They either risked taking the 'Heavy/Prog Rock' route or became a 'Glam Rock' band and started earning some real money The band were split as they loved playing the heavier stuff but at the same time were realists and could do with a few bob as well! The compromise they struck with the record label was they would go 'Glam' but could put their heavier stuff on the B sides of the singles.

Another later Sweet track which highlights how good they were, the 'Glam Rock' look is starting to fade as well.