by: PHIL MARSH
I last saw Andy Scott's Sweet a few months ago at the (smaller) venue next door to The Empire - The Bottom Line - so it should be interesting, I thought, to see how they go down in the bigger venue, especially as it had been pretty full then.
Standing watching Love Train, the support playing mid 70s disco covers ("Disco Inferno", "Car Wash", "Can You Feel The Force?" etc ), my wife pointed out that Andy had just walked past me. Only ever having seen him on stage and not met him face to face, I was surprised when she said he only seemed to be as tall as her - a couple of inches over 5 feet!
Anyway, the support finished eventually and with a minimum of delay (taken up by trying to get someone to serve me at the bar) the lights went down and the band came on to "The Stripper" Theme (just for a change!). "Hell Raiser" started and was followed by the welcome return of "Sweet FA" and "Turn It Down". However, to these ears, they didn't really warm up until after this. The crowd was a bit disappointing, both in size and activity - many seemed to be a casual "greatest hits, please" crowd, there out of curiousity and seemingly happy to stand and watch with a drink in their hand. Still, fortunately there were a number of regular fans there who tried to compensate!
Andy dedicated "The Six Teens" to a friend who died in the New Year (couldn't make out his name, I'm afraid), and the band started to move into gear. From here on in, the band played well although there were few surprises songs wise - I know Andy has said its hard striking a balance between the hits and the more obscure heavier stuff, simply because only the regular fans will know the heavier songs. So, although we got "Sweet FA", "Burn on The Flame" and "X Ray Specs" (in the encore - a prior request from some German fans in), we also still got mainly hits - including "Wig Wam Bam" and "Little Willy".
As I said, after the first couple of numbers they put on a great performance - Chad (who'd driven 200 miles for the gig) sang great and looked as though he was enjoying himself despite some sound problems, Bruce was his usual solid, pounding self behind the drums, Steve Grant did a great job switching between guitar and keyboards and even - on the end of "Fox On The Run" - playing both at the same time. Jeff Brown had flown in from Florida especially (again!) and looked suitably tanned and healthy - oh yeah, he had a good night on stage as well! Finally, Andy looked as though he enjoyed himself and shot out all the famous riffs with his usual aplomb.
After the final encore - the inevitable "Ballroom Blitz" - that was it; the shouts for more cut off by the DJs music over the PA. The final word comes from my wife - "I like going to see The Sweet, because you always have a good time". Says it all really - although I'd still prefer to hear less hits and more album tracks. Either way, BIG thanks to Andy for still knocking out those riffs!