The football terrace chants of “We Want Sweet, We Want Sweet!!” echoed around the hall even before they hit the stage in scenes that evoked visions of their last visit to Sunderland almost 50 years ago.
Of course, much has changed since then. The passing of three original members has left the legacy of Glam Rock titans, Sweet, in the hands of guitarist Andy Scott who may well have assembled the best version of the band since their 70s heyday.
Tearing out of the traps with a rip roaring “Action”, Sweet delivered the perfect mix of gold plated hits, Hard Rocking album tracks with a sprinkling of new songs.
Front man Paul Manzi was the real deal, he had the look, the charisma and more importantly, the voice to give the likes of “Teenage Rampage”, “Wig Wam Bam” and “Hellraiser” an almighty kick and along with bassist Lee Small, he combined with Andy Scott to deliver those trademark multi-layered harmonies on “Fox On The Run” and a sublime “Love Is Like Oxygen”.
While many think of Sweet as a Glam Rock institution with a bucketful of bubble gum Pop hits, there is far more to them than meets the eye. Albums such as Desolation Boulevard and Sweet Fanny Adams and B-sides to hit singles yielded some hard hitting Heavy Rock of the highest order with “Set Me Free”, “The Six Teens” and “Burn On The Flame” showing a band who could lay down some tasty riffs. No wonder they influenced a generation of Hard Rock bands from KISS and Cheap Trick to Mötley Crüe and The Wildhearts.
It wasn’t all nostalgia though as “Everything”, a smouldering Power Ballad and the hard driving “Circus” from their forthcoming album Full Circle showed a band full of vigour and creativity which bodes well for the future. No wonder Andy Scott was beaming wildly as his band took their bow after a climatic ending of “Blockbuster” and “The Ballroom Blitz”.
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