The ‘sweet life’ is fly fishing in Tasmania. So would Andy Scott agree, but then Andy knows a lot about the Sweet life being one of the members of rock band ‘The Sweet’ soon to play a concert in Tasmania. Andy has visited Tasmania 5 times, once in the seventies to perform with Sweet, but since then it has been the pastime of fly fishing that has brought him here. He tells me when we chatted on the phone recently that last time he was here some kindly ranger organised he get some fly fishing in at the land of a thousand lakes which sounds as epic as Aida but more about that later. He remembers vividly the wombats rollicking around one of the lodges he stayed at.
Nowadays Andy has other interests include a more eclectic enjoyment of music. At the time of our chat he was planning to attend a performance of Aida at Royal Albert Hall. He still enjoys playing rock and is a fan of the Foo Fighters but as he said ‘loud music’ isn’t something he need listen to a lot anymore.
Andy believes that music now is more open to encompassing a variety of forms. He thinks Tony Bennett’s duets with many of the upcoming stars of today is absolutely brilliant and would love to do something like that although he adds you have to be asked.
You may have wondered at the origin of the band’s name. Short and sharp clipped names were the new thing in reaction to the longer names that preceded them, Andy says but as to the exact title The Sweet got its name in one of those little twists of fate. The bands original name was Sweetshop so named because the founding members rehearsed above a relative’s sweet shop. One night performing at a youth centre the person that wrote the band’s name on the board could only manage ‘Sweet’ because he said his handwriting was too large! So a name was born.
The Sweet were one of the early groups that can be described as ‘glam rock’. Andy says that a lot of these titles were formulated when a journo heard a proponent talk about being ‘glammed up’ and so the look became ‘glam’
In some ways the glam rock phenomenon was a reaction against the austere times of recession that had gone before, and people wanted something bright to take their minds off of glumness so in point of fact ‘glam’ replaced ‘glum’. Lush images like long hair, make up and crushed velvet attire came together to form the glam rock persona which was androgynous. Glam rock, like a lot of movements was one of rebellious youth wanting to achieve their own look and character, a reaction to against authority and what society expected young people to look like.
The Sweet have made a new album featuring cover versions of many songs with a New York theme. They have also rerecorded an album, of their old hits.
If that doesn’t keep Andy busy enough he is often performing live and also does a show called ‘unsweetened’ which is an ‘interesting, oddball’ view of music. It has been ten years since he has done that.
The Sweet were in Australia last year performing a concert at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide. Andy has admiration for the skill and daring of the participants in the event. I think Andy and The Sweet were pretty daring too in being the precursors for a new look in rock music!
The Sweet, with Andy Scott will be performing at Wrest Point Casino on March 14th at 8pm.
Paula Xiberras
