The Sweet DVD - pretty cool looking!

This from www.DVDreview.com :

Glam-rock at its best is coming to DVD with Sweet: Glitz, Blitz & Hitz
February 19, 2004


The infamous 70s glam band ?Sweet? is coming to DVD in Music Distributor?s release Sweet: Glitz, Blitz & Hitz in cooperation with CREEM Magazine.
This CREEM Magazine DVD release features all of Sweet?s bubblegum and glam-rock hits from ?Ballroom Blitz? and ?Teenage Rampage? to ?Wig Wam Bam? and ?Blockbuster!? It contains rare performances of some of their later heavier rock tracks, including bonus material from the original 16mm films that Sweet recorded to promote their singles worldwide.
In the midst of the ?70s emerged the bands now legendary as glam rockers. Sweet, not satisfied with being one of the pack, slapped on the paint and went out of their way to become even more successful and outrageous.
With exclusive and specially recorded in-depth interviews, Andy Scott, Nicky Chinn (writer/manager) and Phil Wainman (producer/manager) take you behind the scenes as they relate their stories behind Sweet?s phenomenal rise to stardom in the DVD?s bonus features.
With songs, such as ?Slow Motion,? ?Funny, Funny,? ?Co-Co,? ?Poppa Joe,? ?Little Willy,? ?Wig Wam Bam,? ?Blockbuster!,? ?Hell Raiser,? ?Ballroom Blitz,? ?Teenage Rampage,? ?The Six Teens,? ?Turn It Down,? ?Fox On The Run,? ?Action,? and ?Love Is Like Oxygen? this DVD will heat up your DVD player on April 13 when it will become available for $19.95.

Hi,
Thanks for the news,they are one of my earlier groups that got me into glam,when the dreaded disease called disco was playing they were one of a few groups to hit the airwaves and bring rock back!

Woah!!! cool as hell!!!
Will this DVD be in Music stores around the states?

Anyone know which footage they will use? That Musik Laden video is used too much, I hope it's not that.

BTW...Does anyone know who the woman in the Lettres d'Amour clip is, the one duetting with Brian?

I'd like to see the TOTP ffotage, especially Ballroom Blitz.

About friggin time...that was back when music was music, man, I cut my teeth on em. ceya [img]wink.gif[/img]

This has been out for a while in Europe. It's definitely worth having but mainly for the interviews, especially Phil Wainman's (Nicky Chinn comes across as a big-headed little twat!). Anyone who's into Sweet will probably already have all of the clips - nothing new has been unearthed unfortunately. An interview with Steve Priest is the most glaring omission though and would've made it great.

Oh, and the woman singing with BC on 'Lettres D'Amour' is Stevie Lange (ex-wife of producer Mutt Lange).

Mutt's ex, huh? I wonder what she's doing tonight.

What clips ARE used, the Musik Laden ones? The old lipsync ones such as Co-Co? Which ones?

I've met Steve Priest; I have to say he came across as an utter prick. (Must admit I didn't know who he was at the time...)

The clips are mainly the old promo films made to promote the singles. The Hellraiser/Blockbuster one is a strange choice though - from a German TV show, but not Musik Laden. As I said, there's nothing on it, apart from the interviews, that I don't already have but the quality is a lot better than on my old worn videotapes. Unfortunately almost all of the Sweet clips that survive are of them miming on TV shows. Whilst these are undoubtedly very entertaining they don't give any indication of what a fantastic live band they were. The only decent concert footage is the clip of 'Hellraiser' at The Rainbow in '73 - that's not on this DVD though.

As for The Vicar, I've met him three times myself and he's always been very down-to-earth and absolutely charming. Are you sure it wasn't Andy Scott you met? Now you don't want to catch HIM on a bad day!

Was that the infamous gig with the Stripper theme and the graphic films that got them a bit of bovver? That live album(Strung Up, one of two discs actually)was great. Too bad they cut out Blockbuster.


I remember meeting Brian. He told me about his tiger tattoo, how he got it in the RN.

Don't act so surprised.

Yeah, I believe that Rainbow gig was the one that really got them in serious trouble. The phallic props, the films, they really got a lot of crap for that one.

Are any of those CDs you mention still available?

BTW...Any truth to it being Cozy Powell who drummed on Ballroom Blitz, and not Mick? I thought they played on everything they did after Willie.

It wasn't just one gig that got them into bother but their show as a whole. The Stripper, sexual films etc were all part of the show. They were actually one of the first bands to use films to such an extent, including the drum solo where Mick Tucker would 'duel' with himself on the screen. They were banned by the Mecca circuit in the UK and Steve and Brian were imprisoned in Belgium (!), where they could never play again. Later on they progressed to a giant luminous penis which showered the audience with confetti. All of this was, of course, years before Kiss, The Tubes etc.

The 'Strung Up' tracks are from The Rainbow gig though. BMG actually released a remastered version of the whole gig about three years ago 'Live At The Rainbow 1973'), including 'Blockbuster'. The best live recordings though were released independently by Steve Priest himself. There's one from Germany ('Berlin Blitz') and another from Denmark ('Live In Denmark'). Both of these are from '76 and include more of the heavy stuff and no bubblegum.

The rainbow one is definitely still available, as I saw it in HMV a few days ago. The others aren't officially, as Nicky Chinn put a stop to Steve selling them. There are still a few knocking around though.

I've never heard the Cozy Powell story and I am 100% certain that it's bollocks. Sweet were an amazingly talented band, both musically and vocally, but Mick was probably THE outstanding musician of the four. A phenomenal drummer who deserved a lot more recognition. The full true story of the recording of 'Ballroom Blitz' can be found in Steve Priest's autobiography.

Is it available on the HMV website, which I guess now would be Amazon.co.uk?

As for the Mick/Cozy controversy, I saw that on a Cozy site. I don't have the link, I found it through a search trying to find if Cozy's percussive music from the early 1970s(NaNaNa, Dance With The Devil, etc.)was ever released together on CD or not.

One more thing, who REALLY DID play on Little Willie?

Yes, Amazon have it.

Sweet played on 'Little Willy'. It was the first RCA single they actually played on - the earlier ones featured session players (except the vocals of course). Mike Chapman liked to play on all his compositions though, so he can still be heard right up to 'Blockbuster', where he replaced Andy Scott's acoustic intro to the second verse with his own. The band were usually given half an hour to knock out one of their own songs as a b-side.

Sorry, I'm a bit of Sweet anorak...

Well, the story was that they didn't play on Willy, but did on everything afterwards.

I'm aware of their self-composed b-sides. I had the Bell LP that contained a fair amount of them. I also had the Bell/US Blockbuster/Need A Lotta Lovin' 45.

A Sweet anorak? You are a long, hooded coat people wore to cover themselves whilst riding on a scooter?

I think Sweet was like so many of the UK bands from that era, they were told they had no USA fans, and they believed it. I not long ago read an interview with Dave Hill of Slade where he said they had had no fans here. Well, I know for a fucking fact they were huge in the USA. They had several hits back then. I guess because Dick Clark didn't like them, they thought no one else did. As a drummer I used to see around said, " AM and FM didn't like 'em, but the people did."

'Anorak' is an English expression - I don't know what the American equivalent would be (suggestions anyone?). It's a slang term for someone who is so obsessed with something they can talk about it to the point where it gets very boring for everyone else. An 'anorak' is also a raincoat - the things you're thinking of though, that mods wore, are parkas.

As for Sweet and Slade's US success, I know that Sweet sold a lot more records. They had at least five top twenty hits and even some of their albums charted, which didn't often happen in the UK. Both bands definitely influenced some big US names though. Slade mainly in the case of Kiss and Sweet with a number of bands that included Motley Crue (who took it to extremes at times!)and even The Ramones (Joey was a huge Sweet fan).

Anorak = Nerd.
I think it's to do with train-spotters sitting on the end of platforms, jotting down engine numbers.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Blittz:
'Anorak' is an English expression - I don't know what the American equivalent would be (suggestions anyone?). It's a slang term for someone who is so obsessed with something they can talk about it to the point where it gets very boring for everyone else. An 'anorak' is also a raincoat - the things you're thinking of though, that mods wore, are parkas.

As for Sweet and Slade's US success, I know that Sweet sold a lot more records. They had at least five top twenty hits and even some of their albums charted, which didn't often happen in the UK. Both bands definitely influenced some big US names though. Slade mainly in the case of Kiss and Sweet with a number of bands that included Motley Crue (who took it to extremes at times!)and even The Ramones (Joey was a huge Sweet fan).

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<font size="3" face="Arial">Well, the equivalent USA expression would definitely be a "Jay". Those types tend to get deeply into whatever their thought topic at the time is.

[img]wink.gif[/img]

As for Slade's influence, I'd say it was a lot more than just Kiss. Re their USA hits, I'm not talking about MyOhMy era music, I'm talking Mama and the like.

Regarding Sweet, I'd also say they influenced a lot more people than you mentioned.

I understand "Joey Ramone" liked Sweet, can't understand why. The Ramones existed to destroy things such as big production, flashy images, quality songs and the like. Their fans were basically bohos anyway. The jeans and tshirt image, so much like the allegedly hated hippies.

I wonder why Phil wanted to work with them.

I agree that Sweet influenced a lot of other bands - and still do. I only mentioned those two as extreme examples.

I personally have a very soft spot for The Ramones though and think that their anti-image was in fact a very strong image. In my book a good song is a good song whether it's beautifully arranged/produced or recorded in a shed at 200mph.

Of course it was an image. Anything one wears is an image. Thing is, the punks and hippies both mouthed off about bands who had images that they admitted to. Example, the prevailing viewpoint was that the 1960s was garbage until SanFran was promoted as being the salvwation of the world. You know, all that awful BrillBuilding/RnB/Soul/LatinSoul/ETC. nonsense couldn't compete with the hippies' brilliant compositions.

In the 1970s, the punks spent every waking moment denouncing glam. The gay jokes that were slung at anyone who dared to go against the punk idiocy were actually funny considering the punks were imitating The Ramones, who dressed so gay it was hilarious.

The same phoney political bullshit, the same dislike of image, fuck 'em all. "Counter-culture" bullshit, fuck it.