Sweet: Glitz, Blitz & Hitz (DVD)

The Sweet is a name that the earliest followers of the Glam Rock scene know and respect very much. Without their innovative style and rock power, bands such as Motley Crue and KISS would have one less inspiration to their own successes. When one listens to the music of The Sweet you will find that a lot of their material still sounds pretty fresh even though it holds a slightly kitsch sense of the times. Beginning as "Wainwrights' Gentlemen" and onto "Sweet Shop" in the 60's; the quartet of Brian Connolly, Andy Scott, Steve Priest and Mick Tucker became The Sweet and delivered some of the catchiest, most influential Rock music that has ever been heard. Sadly, there are a good number of music fans that never got the proper exposure to the level of talent that Sweet had and probably only know one or two songs. For that matter they also probably think they were performed by someone else especially in the case of "Love Is Like Oxygen", a very ELO like track. This DVD takes archival footage of the group's promotional films and appearances on shows like the UK "Top Of The Pops" and mixes it with interview segments from Andy Scott, Nicky Chinn (manager) and Phil Wainman (producer) to give you a good background on the bands history. The upside to the DVD is the strong representation of the bands best material by way of these films, but the downside is the limited actual band commentary besides Scott and complete lack of any true live performances. Most of those early 70's shows were all lip-synched before such action became reprehensible. The difference back then was that these groups did actually could deliver in the live sense. Classics such as "Little Willy" and "Fox On The Run" are explained deeper and simply take you back in time when you hear them. I felt that this was an interesting DVD but it was more suited for the curious or the Rock Historian collector rather than someone who is unaware of their impact. It was interesting to see how this band that began as "Bubble Gum Rock", went to "Glam Rock" (ala Bowie and Glitter) and then became Hard Rock. Each variation on the bands style yielded some great music which is not often the case these days when an artist tries to drastically change the way they do things. Those that do watch this DVD will find themselves seeking out their material and there are a good amount of hits retrospectives available for one of the most inspiring yet completely under rated acts in modern music history. Sadly the world will never see an original Sweet reunion of any fashion, as lead singer Brian Connolly passed away in 1997 while drummer Mick Tucker left us in 2002. Perhaps more footage will surface over time but as I understand this is the only legitimate release available on the band that is available.

Track Listing

1. Slow Motion
2. Funny, Funny
3. Co-Co
4. Poppa Joe
5. Little Willy
6. Wig Wam Bam
7. Blockbuster!
8. Hell Raiser
9. Ballroom Blitz
10. Teenage Rampage
11. The Six Teens
12. Turn It Down
13. Fox On The Run
14. Action
15. Love Is Like Oxygen

Added: January 21st 2006
Reviewer: Ken Pierce
Score:
Related Link: Music Video Distributors
Hits: 3522
Language: english

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