Introducing The Sweet
Are you ready Steve? Uh-huh
Andy? Yeah
Mick? Okay
Alright fellas, let's go!
The man doing the Introduction on Ballroom Blitz was Brian,
Brian Connolly.
Brian was born in 1945 to a teenage waitress and an unknown father.
Abandoned by his mother when he contracted meningitis as an infant, he was fostered by a Scottish couple at the age of 2.
He moved to England at 12 and joined the navy in his mid teens.
Upon his discharge he fronted a local band.
Upon leaving this band, he was replaced by Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame. Rest of the band must have really sucked lol
Except the drummer Mick Tucker who he took with him to form the Sweet.
Steve Priest joined soon after. 4 ****ty singles followed before guitarist Andy Scott joined
Connolly was born to be a rock n roll frontman.
Blonde hair, attractive and with a magnificent vocal range to sing the softest of songs to all out rockers
Success was the stuff of his dreams. A #1 hit single in the UK in Blockbuster, US success with several big hit singles as well.
Leaving the songwriting team that restricted their developing songwriting, Connolly and the band were primed to become a great band.
Unfortunately the event that would change his life forever occurred in a staged attack, rumoured to be organised by a disgruntled ex-roadie.
Connolly was attacked while returning to his car after buying cigarettes.
His throat was deliberately targeted resulting in severe injuries that required six months of surgeries, rehabilitation and lies to the public explaining his absence.
The re-recording of Fox on the Run led to a monster hit that kept the band in the limelight before Connolly could return.
Steve Priest and Andy Scott sung a few tracks on the albums, but
Connolly had his vocal range heavily limited by the assault.
This led to a lack of confidence in his own voice, alcoholism and the alcoholism led to severe frictions within the band as Connolly was excluded from decisions and his erratic performances led to his exclusion.
The band gave him the dignity of saying he was leaving to pursue solo projects.
But he had one last great moment.
Love is like Oxygen. It is a fantastic vocal performance, perhaps his best. It surprised the band and gave the Sweet a last massive international hit.
Unfortunately post Sweet life for Connolly didn’t get any better.
With his ongoing alcoholism, Connolly had a
hospital visit punctuated with 14 heart attacks in 24 hours in 1981
This resulted in partial paralysis and a degenerative nerve condition.
Connolly recovered well enough to form one of about 4 versions of the Sweet, Brian Connolly’’s Sweet or the New Sweet.
His voice however was shot and his health an ongoing concern. After an attempted reunion in 1988
In 1988, the producer Mike Chapman arranged for Connolly and former band members Mick Tucker, Steve Priest and Andy Scott to reunite in
Los Angeles,
California, and rework studio versions of "Action" and "
The Ballroom Blitz". The reunion was with a view to producing a new album for
MCA Records, however due to problems with Connolly's voice, the project failed and Connolly returned to the New Sweet.
Trudging along, Connolly had reconciled with Priest and Tucker in the early 90s, but not Scott who controlled the original Sweet material. His health declined rapidly in 1995 and
his death at the age of just 51 happened in early 1997 shocked no one who had seen him in the preceding years. .