So Sweet

It’s a Ballroom Blitz! Andy Scott of The Sweet Talks to Minds

Glamrocker of the 1970’s was the ultimate in fashion meets music. Painted faces and sparkling jumpsuits were the order of the day. Several big bands appeared and hit the world with their catchy rock songs. Bands such as T-Rex, Roxy Music and of course, The Sweet. With memorable songs such as Ballroom Blitz, Wig Wam Bam and Block Buster, anybody who remembers the decade will remember the songs.


My first question is, what would you most like to be remembered for? Is it the music or the meaning?

My role in the band was taking care of the music so the answer is fairly obvious. I was the one who arranged the songs, vocal harmonies etc and in the end was the guy sitting behind the mixing desk until the early hours as producer [unpaid]. The recordings have stood the test of time.

We know most politicians were born in the fiery pit of hell as the spawn of Satan, but what’s your opinion of the politics of the world today?

In the late sixties when I was first able to vote I'm afraid I didn't, believing that my vote didn't really matter and politics was for others not musicians. However by the seventies we had become successful with money coming in and the taxman was helping himself to great big chunks of it so I certainly voted to try and change things. Now 40 years later, it seems any one of us could have made the kind of mess the politicians have made so it's back full circle for me, keeping my head down.

Can you tell us all about your past, present and future?

My past rears it's head from time to time, mostly good and I do realise that I am extremely privileged to have grown up with and also participated in the most definitive music eras ever - the 50s, 60s and 70s. I am still completely blown away by the quality of the recordings back then on such primitive equipment by today's standards - "God Only Knows" and "Sgt. Pepper" et al - we used what we had, lots of talent.

The present finds me still touring after 41 years with The Sweet, seeing and meeting all the other artists back on the road since their record royalties dried up.

I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2009 and my treatment and ongoing tests are pretty damn good but I now believe in the mantra "Take each day and live it as if it is the last" - oh and keep taking the tablets! My future? - Touring until I drop!

Tell us a little about your kind of music please!

I am on the road so much and playing on stage that I don't really listen to much these days, however we've just returned from Australia where we were on the same bill as the Doobie Brothers and naturally I have reacquainted myself with their material. Opera has become a passion and I go whenever I can, Vienna is a favourite place, but recently I saw Madame Butterfly at the Albert Hall and was completely blown away.

Is 70’s music still cool?

It must be in Europe - we're still filling the halls

If you were an alien visiting planet earth, what would you do? Would you turn around and go back? Or stay and try and help? Or maybe conquer?

Aliens? Seen too many sci-fi movies I think.

What has been your greatest achievement so far?

I haven't quite finished yet but reaching 60 is pretty good. My Ivor Novello for "Love is Like Oxygen". Meeting and getting on stage with Spinal Tap at Wembley on my 60th Birthday.

What has been mankind’s greatest achievement?

Man has made many huge strides until someone suggested Digital!

If you had the chance to speak to every human being on earth, what would your message be?

Why? Why? Why?

If your life depended on it, which Soap Opera would you do a cameo in?

Not a fan but I do have a mate in Eastenders.

If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody is around to see or hear it, does it make a sound?

Of course it does but with so many people on earth someone's bound to hear it - the real answer is "who cares?'

Have you ever felt pressured by the fact that what you sing about affects society? Have you ever wondered whether you were doing the right thing?

Some of our lyrics were decidedly dodgy in the early years, then they became rather verbose but I guess it's the profanity that is most cringe worthy. A nice boy turned into an angry young man and miraculously turned back into a nice old geezer.

What advice would you give to musicians today? And what’s your opinion of the highly engineered and marketed music we see in the charts today?

I think musicians are playing gigs again which is a start as long as governmental regulation keeps its distance. I am afraid we're in the Digital Age, which leaves me fairly cold. I like to hear a band play absolutely live not half playback with most of the vocals mimed. The Sweet are 100% live.

Why do you think music and words seems to work so much better than just words as a means to get a message across?

Poetry has its place obviously but add music and you naturally reach a wider audience. If both art forms have symmetry then that is perfection.

What kind of movies do you watch and why?

My age precludes me from so many modern films but the odd one gets through. I take my solace in the classic tour bus comedies starting with Spinal Tap.

What are your opinions about the power of the internet?

The internet is a monster that has become impossible to control. For every good site there is a hundred bad ones but life can be like that so why not cyberspace. Of course we all use it to send emails, well I do (no facebook chat for me) and use it for buying/selling, air travel check in and information etc but there is a darker side that will have to be addressed sooner than later.

Do you think man is created in the image of God (or Goddess) or the other way around?

I think that Gods were created to appease man's imagination but as we have developed as a species we can think outside the box more and more, thus making it more difficult to accept certain beliefs.

A recent scientific report stated that religion will eventually die out completely. What’s your opinion on that? A good thing or a bad thing?

A bit of both - let people believe what they want to as long as they don't go to war over it.

Is “free will” the whole of the law? Can man ever be truly free?

I loved "The Prisoner". "I am not a number I am a free man". I suggest compulsory viewing for all who believe in freedom.

Do you back Nuclear Power? If not, why not.

We are witnessing so many World disasters right now that for most of us the big question has to be "is it natural phenomena or man's intervention" - until we get the answer everything must be under the microscope.

Do you believe in Ghosts? UFO’s (i.e. aliens visiting planet earth)? God?

Not really but I have had some odd things happen - when we recorded the album "Level Headed" at Chateau d'Herouville in France, I stayed in the tower that Chopin occupied when he was there and on a few occasions I woke in the night to see someone writing at the desk in the corner. I put it down to late nights, good wine etc but the owners told me others had experienced this kind of vision and they believed Chopin was still there passing on his creative know-how. Mind you, I did write some good songs there.

What would you still like to achieve?

When I was 18 I knew another musician who had turned 30 which to me seemed ancient but now of course I would like to live longer and spend some time with my partner and my ever diminishing family especially granddaughter Samantha (born on my 60th birthday).

I will need to keep touring to afford the life style to which we have all become accustomed.

Would you ever record a duet with Justin Bieber?

Who is he? If you asked him he would probably say the same.

Do you believe in manmade global warming? Or is it natural?

I love to drive my cars so I'm probably biased.

And lastly please feel free to say anything at all you want to the world of readers and tell us all about what you’re upto these days, plug an album, website or car boot sale.

I said in a BBC Documentary in the seventies that The Sweet would probably be around for 10 years, well we broke the 40 year barrier last year so here's to another 40 (I wish...)
I come from an era when good manners were the norm, you had respect for your elders and if you behaved badly you got a clip round the ear, sadly missing in today's society. You didn't need ASBOS when the threat of your misdemeanors being brought to the attention of your parents was all that was necessary.