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Glitz, Blitz, and Hitz: The Sweet (2003) | |
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Andy: "I'd say if any of us were gay, it was Steve." |
Steve: "Don't mistake stylish for gay, Paleface." |
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Altho the talky trio do an
admirable job of explaining how Sweet went from hopelessly cheesy
bubblegum pop to hopelessly cheesy glitter rock superstars, to be honest,
all three are kinda dull to listen to, ‘specially grandpa Wainman.
I mean, Chinn’ s just a rattlesnake, it takes about 15 seconds to
figure that out, but Wainman is pretty convinced that his knob
twiddling is what MADE the Sweet, and that kinda misguided
wishful thinking wears on ya after awhile. And good ‘ol Andy, well,
the cat’s just too eager to please, ya know. If they woulda just chopped
down all the shop talk (do you really wanna hear about who sang in what
register?), this’d be a super-solid 1 hour chunk o’ good stuff, but at 92
minutes, it gets a little gangly. But to hell with the interviews, forget
about ‘em. What we’re here for is the footage. It’s all culled from Brit
TV, and sometimes clipped at half-point, but for a lot of us, I reckon,
it’s the first time we’ve ever even seen the Sweet in
action. And “Action”, of course, is what these cats are all about.
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Pre- cool: The 'Poppa Jo' Experience. |
Why guys dress up in dopy outfits. |
| Ah,
but then, as explained by our narrators, the Sweet began asserting
themselves beyond the bubblegum wrapper they were placed in by the
writing/production team, and the fun really starts. A frustratingly
half-there glimpse of “Wig Wam Bam” is rolled, with Steve Priest
in full Indian head dress, and the band just rockin’ out like crazy.
By then, the band had neatly progressed from kid-stuff to the Sweet
we all know and love- crunching glam rawk with insane pop hooks, three
part harmonies on the choruses, dive-bombing guitar solos, and all sortsa
WEIRDNESS, like Priest’s Snagglepuss rants and air raid
sirens and the roar of teenage girls, all wrapped up in capes and
mirrorshades and 8 inch heels and red leather and silver vinyl pants.
Amazing. Once they hit their stride there was no lookin’ back, and the
hits kept coming. And goddamn if they’re not all here, care of the BBC.
“Blockbuster”, “Teenage Rampage”, “Hell Raiser”,
“Ballroom Blitz”, “Action”, “The Six Teens”, and
“Fox On the Run” are all represented, as is the rarely seen
“Turn it Down” (banned cuz Bri said “For God’s sakes”, or
some such nonsense), and, finally, their last hit, ‘78’s oddball,
Abba-esque “Love is Like Oxygen”. Not only are these clips a
blast to watch, they also serve as reminders of just how GREAT and
influential (ask Wrathchild, Manic Street Preachers,
Silver, Darkness, etc.) this band was, and how seminal the
glitter rock era was, ‘specially when you keep in mind all the
OTHER plastic-fantastic bands that were operating at the time- T
Rex, New York Dolls, Slade, Bowie, Alice
Cooper, Queen, Mud, Wizzard, Suzi Quatro,
Silverhead, etc. I mean, how GROOVY must it have been
growing up in 1972? Pretty goddamn groovy, I reckon. Anyway, like I said, they coulda chopped out some of the gabbing, but otherwise this DVD is the tits. Every single one of us- unless yr 15 years old or somethin’- has gleefully sung along to just about every one of the songs on this, and when you see ‘em vamping it up on stage, it all makes complete sense. The Sweet rocked, and this low-budget-but-effective documentary shows you exactly how. No self-respecting glam fan oughta be without it. So get one, wouldya? Ok, so let’s get to Gary Glitter next, man. Then we’ll REALLY be having some fun. __________________________________________________________________________ | |
| -Sleazegrinder __________________________________________________________________ | |
A real gooey, sugar-coated treat of a glam rock-doc here. From
the vaults of the recently re-conned, re-vamped Creem Magazine
(although how yer gonna crank up Creem again without me n’
Pepsi is a mystery, but whatever), “Glitz Blitz and Hits” is
a perfectly linear history of proto-glam superstars The Sweet,
arranged chronologically, hit by hit. The hits they had footage of,
anyway. Along for the ride is Sweet guitarist Andy Scott,
and he’d have to be, seeing as how both Vox-man Brain Connelly and
drummer Mick Tucker are with the angels now (Brian died of a
heart attack, and Mick of Leukemia, both in the late ‘90s. Both
were in their early 50’s), and cape-wearing, bass-playing freak Steve
Priest is lost in America somewhere. S’ok, tho, Andy does a great job
of spinnin’ the glittery tales, even if he’s all jowls now, and still has
the same wacky shag haircut that he did in 1972. He is joined (via
separate interviews; I don’t think anybody involved was actually talking
to each other at the time this doc was made) by songwriter Nicky
Chinn, flashing a big, toothy Dracula grin every five seconds, and
sniffing constantly, like a coke burnout; and producer Phil
Wainman. Amazingly, the stories pretty much jibe ‘twixt all three,
which is something you usually can’t even accomplish with three band
members, even if they’re all in the same room together. Part of
this is ‘cuz they pretty much stick to the facts here, quickly glossing
over the Sweet’s homo-erotic tendencies and their predilection for
carnal and liquid excess. The latter they do end up covering at toward the
end, because they pretty much have to, since Connelly’s whisky
fever killed both his career in the band, and the band’s career as hit
makers. Otherwise, they leave the ugy stuff for ya to dig up in old back
issues of Creem.