On the day that I was told at school that my form were to take their Maths O Level a year early, my mate David phoned me up in the evening.  I thought he was phoning to moan about the maths exam, but no, he said he had just phoned up Hammersmith on the off chance of seeing whether any of the bands we liked had booked a gig prior to it being announced in the music press (we were avid Sounds fans!), and they had confirmed that Sweet were playing.  I was gobsmacked!  Sweet had been my favourite band since Fox on the Run had made No2 in the UK charts in April 1975 and had then turned me on to hard rock music.  I had never before seen Sweet live and I was so excited!  Not quite believing what David had told me, I too phoned up the Odeon, and they again confirmed it!

Immediately, I got my mum to write out a cheque for £7.50, ie three top price tickets for me, David and our classmate Andrew.  Ticket prices were £1, £1.50, £2 and £2.50.  Virtually everyday I phoned up the Odeon to see if they had received the tickets and when we might expect to get them.  I concocted elaborate plans to climb in to the Odeon via toilet windows on the night if all the tickets should happen to be sold out!  Finally, one Friday afternoon, I returned home from school and there was my SAE from Hammersmith!  Ripping the envelope open, I phoned David with the exciting news and he asked me what row in the stalls we had been given.  "Row A", I read.  "A?  That means we’ve got front row!!" , he stated.  I hadn’t realised this in my excitement – we had got front row tickets for Sweet’s first live gig in the UK for years!

The weeks dragged till the Friday of the gig finally arrived.  Neither Andy, David or I could concentrate on school work, we were just so excited!  Rushing home from school, a quick tea, a change into our rock clothes (patch-strewn denim jackets) and on to the tube.  Alighting at Hammersmith, the streets were awash with Sweet fans – it was a glorious sight – we really felt part of an army, everyone united in their love of the same band!  Turning the corner into Queen Caroline Street, there was the Odeon, with "Live tonight – Sweet –SOLD OUT" written across it’s front!  I felt so proud and so bloody happy.  At last, I was to see Sweet live – a dream was about to come true!

The gap between the one-man support act being booed off and Sweet coming on was interminable, and filled with Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours LP continually over the PA, and the audience’s chants of "We want Sweet!" a la Teenage Rampage.  Suddenly, I heard the high-pitched keyboard intro to Action, leapt to my feet and turned to look round as the lights finally dimmed.  And there I saw what looked like a sea of people just rushing forward, past security guards to get closer to the stage!  Turning back to the stage, I saw Brian, arms outstretched, craning his neck looking upwards into the circle.  "So you think you wanna take a piece of me…" he crooned, and bam, the band launched into a stunning version of Action, Andy doing all the twiddly bits on the chorus on his guitar and easily hitting all the high vocal notes.  It was hard to take it all in.  Next up was a number that took me a little while to recognise, but finally the penny dropped, it was the brilliant Yesterday’s Rain off the very underrated Give Us A Wink album.  Ballroom Blitz and Fox on the Run followed (I did notice the harmonies on the chorus of the latter seemed a little flat!). 

Two session musicians augmented the band, Nico Ramsden on guitar, and Gary Moberely on keyboards (the latter from John Miles’s band).  They kept generally very much in the background, but supplemented the sound well, particularly on the more complex numbers from the Level Headed album.  I was disappointed with this album, as it was nowhere near heavy enough for me, but the songs came over well live, with quite a few numbers sung by Steve or Andy, rather than Brian.  On these numbers he was given an acoustic guitar to strum or a keyboard to tinkle, but these contributions were not particularly noticeable in the otherwise excellent and clear sound.  Nico did do one guitar solo I believe, and it was during an excellent rendition of Andy’s Fountain from Level headed.  Andy again shone on Lady Starlight, and Steve shone on Restless, doing the usual "So fucking restless!" line in his trademark sneer!  Mick’s drum solo came during Air on A Tape Loop from Level Headed, and had lots of sound effects on it.  I couldn’t resist shouting "Go on Mick" just like the voices you can hear on the live LP of Strung Up if you listen hard enough.  The current hit Love is Like Oxygen was played and very well received – Andy grinding out the riff, and the full, much longer LP version was played to my delight!

The set was hammered to a conclusion with the Sweet Fanny Adams tracks, Set Me Free and Sweet FA.  And then they were gone after just over an hour!  The cries for an encore were deafening, and they returned to wild cheers as Andy blasted out the riff to Windy City – I went nuts for this really heavy classic from Off the Record!  I noted that they changed the order of two pieces of the quiet mid-section around for some reason.  Brilliant guitar work from Andy here and Brian’s vocals were so confident.  After the song’s conclusion, the band all lined up and took a group bow.  Andy stepped up to the mike and said something along the lines of "Thanks very much, but thanks particularly because you are British!" 

And one hour ten minutes after the lights had gone down, they came up again!  It had been brilliant -  my dream had been delivered!  I had had a fantastic time, and it is a night I am sure I will never forget, even though I was only 14 at the time.  Looking back on it now, it would have been great if they had played for a lot longer and done a lot more of my favourite Sweet songs (which would have meant a sizeable proportion of their back catalogue!) and they really should have had pyrotechnics rather than films but these are minor gripes on what was undoubtedly a classic British night of quality hard rock!

Colin Sept 2001-09-29