Photo's of A S SWEET gig "Fredericia Teater", Fredericia, Jylland, Denmark, February 5th 1998.
Please Click on any photo to enlarge it.
All photo's Copyright Michael Damkvist 1998
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About an hour later the band went on stage and having managed to get first row places we had the perfect view of the stage from just in front of Andy. In fact they had been a little nervous prior to the gig because Chad Brown had missed the plane back in England and he had not arrived at the venue until half an hour before going on stage!
First track was Hellraiser. A good up-tempo start giving a good warm-up. Someone in the audience shouted: "We missed you" and Andy replied: "Yeah, you too". Then they played X-ray Specs. This track is popular and it seems you can be sure to find it in the set now. Personally I think that I have heard a couple of other songs from Andy in the 80's that are at least as good, but it seems this one is the hit. Then they gave us Turn It Down in a funny country/hillbilly version. Hardly recognizable except for the lyrics. I first heard this version at an unplugged fan club session in Braedstrup, Denmark in the summer of 1997. Then as now it brought a smile on people's faces.
Then it was time for a medley made of Funny Funny, Popa Joe and Coco (as far as I remember). Then Wig Wam Bam and Little Willie. Little Willie is a great sing-along-song, I think. My friend who introduced me to Sweet about 25 years ago got sore hands from banging the rhythm on the steel-railing and our voices suffered from shouting along to the chorus.
Then Burn On The Flame which was my favourite of the night. What a rocker! Teenage Rampage next... an undeniable classic. The Sixteens was introduced with the words: "This is our favourite". AC/DC and Love Is Like Oxygen followed. Love Is Like Oxygen is a great live track. Especially the powerful and melodic midpiece is great. Straight on to Action which must definately have got those few ones still seated off the chairs and on their feet.
At this stage in the set my friend shouted to me that the endings were begining to get longer. And I know that that is something he likes - and I could tell by the look in his eyes. He enjoyed it to the max! Time for Blockbuster in a quite unrecognizable blues version! I never heard this before! Half way through Andy broke it off and said: "...and here?s how you remember it" started and the ordinary rock version. Last in the set came Fox On The Run. Andy?s voice seemed particularly clear in the chorus of this song. When the band came back for an encore people were shouting for Ballroom Blitz and they played that as the only encore.
Just before playing Ballroom Blitz Andy introduced the band. When they played Breadstrup last summer Bruce Bisland was introduced as "The Sex God" - this time he was "No Longer The Sex God". Jeff Brown was introduced as the one in the band who likes to drink and therefore was called Hang Over. 1½ hours of Sweet pass quickly - but time does pass quickly when you are in good company.
After the show the band came down to sign albums, cd's and stuff and to chat. I asked Andy about Mick Tucker's condition and he told me that they had just been talking that week and that Mick was much better. When they left they told us that if we wanted to we could go to a certain bar in Fredericia. They were going there but we had to leave. We had to go to work the next day. Too bad.
Henrik Jensen, Denmark