SWEET was one of the bands to be into when glitter and platform boots ruled the world and Top Of The Pops was a major weekly event.

Guitarist Andy Scott spoke exclusively to The Peterborough Guide about the many aspects of the band’s career and how the music scene has all changed.

According to Andy, who was speaking from his home studio in Wiltshire, Sweet wasn’t just the glam band that most Brits will remember for hits such as Blockbuster and Wig Wam Bam.

He said: “We have been everything from an out-and-out pop band to quite a progressive heavy rock band.

“In America we are seen as a hell-raising rock band. In England we have the tag as part of the early to mid ’70s. It was a fantastic period when the amazing hits happened.”

He maintained that Sweet had something for everyone “from the age of six to 60”.

At one point though, they were regarded as rock and roll bad boys after getting banned from the Mecca ballroom chain.

He said: “We had a series of dates with them. We were playing in Bournemouth.

“Because we were having a lot more rock input from abroad, we were coming back to England with a rock ’n’ roll attitude.

“We swore on stage a couple of times. The manager was not impressed with our guitarist who was sticking his guitar through his legs and grabbing the guitar by the whammy bar and swinging it around. He made such a song and dance about it we were banned from Mecca!”

The glory days of Sweet were best expressed in their Top Of The Pops appearances – many of which can still be seen on the repeated Top Of The Pops Two shows – where they competed with Slade’s Dave Hill to see who could be the most outrageous.

Andy said: “Thirty years or more ago Top Of The Pops was a highlight of the week, people were waiting to see what was going to happen.

“Now there are so many shows and so much access to music either through hitting the internet and downloading or by switching on the TV and scrolling through the digital channels. Things like this are the reason for drops in sales because people don’t need to buy stuff any more.”

These days he felt the charts were filling up with dance routines and records that were sounding the same.

But he still felt artists were entitled to get the money they earned.

He said: “I still believe that in an artistic way everybody should be entitled to get some kind of reward for their achievements and work. I’m pretty sure that authors and journalists and students who write theses, if people plagiarise them and use their stuff as their ownn there is certainly enough barracking about that.”

Sweet had recently returned to the album charts with the re-release of The Very Best of Sweet, getting them in the top 10 for Woolworths and WH Smiths.

He said: “When you speak to people in record companies they have realised there is a nostalgia market for people who usually have an income and mainly replenish their vinyl with CDs, whereas younger people would resort to the internet first to see if there was anything they liked.”

The band had also released a Very Best of Sweet DVD featuring lots of new things that hadn’t been seen before.

Andy said: “There’s some of my home film footage, as I used to have a movie camera on the road. I gave them to somebody who transferred it.”

The DVD also features pictures and interview footage from the time, and includes film of two of Andy’s former bandmates Brian Connolly, who died in 1997 and original drummer Mick Tucker, who passed away in and 2002.

Despite the deaths of his old friends, Andy still looks fondly back at the old days.

He said: “It was fantastic, there is no other word for it. Even if there were bad times, they don’t stick in your memory.”