06 05 07 525 W, 1 I - + 11 - 5 Sweet Day Break on YouTube
YouTube continues to yield up all kinds of unexpected treasures. One recently discovered treat is a truly fabulous 1986 version of The Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz featuring the very wonderful Paul Mario Day on vocals.
Now, as far as I can recall, The Sweet - indeed all the great ‘70s glam bands - were deeply unfashionable by the mid ‘80s, which may explain why I’d never even heard of Paul Mario Day until I chanced upon this splendid video while browsing around on YouTube.
In this video, he looks like a strange blend of Adam Ant and Frank N. Furter - but never mind that - just listen to the voice! The thing that I really love about this performance is that it isn’t just a rehash of the ‘70s version of the song. Paul Mario Day neither looks nor sounds anything like the Sweet’s original vocalist, Brian Connolly. This is no mere ‘tribute’ - it’s a total reinvention of the song. And I love it.
Mind you, the original version isn’t too scabby either. For the sake of comparison, watch it HERE.
I have to say that, for the last thirty years or so (ah, how time flies!) I have been unfairly prejudiced against The Sweet. I associates them with all those daft songs from the early ‘70s such as Alexander Graham Bell, Wig Wam Bam and the teenybop song with the strangest lyrics ever, Little Willy.
Back in the days when I used to write for the ‘80s pop magazine, Number One, a chap who worked in the office was forever going on about how great Sweet were. What struck me as odd was that this chap was a Heavy Metal devotee; what struck me as odder was that he would have me believe that Sweet were Heavy Metal Gods. “What, the group that sang Little Willy?” I would gasp in astonishment. “Yup,” he’d say, “The very same. Only they got heavier after that...”
Thanks to YouTube I can now verify that he was not telling me fibs. For example, try out the vid of Sweet performing Turn It Down. I must admit that until I found them again on YouTube, I never realised they were such a good band.
Sadly, Brian Connolly is no longer alive, nor is the drummer, Mick Tucker. Andy Scott is the only original Sweet member still performing and Andy Scott’s Sweet tours regularly. It is Andy Scott’s Sweet which features Paul Mario Day in the ‘80s YouTube video I mentioned earlier (back in the ‘80s Brian Connolly was touring with a different version of Sweet).
Paul Mario Day, I discover, was the original singer with Iron Maiden and later went on to sing with other mental bands. He now lives in Australia and has a band called Gringos.
Funny thing is, looking at that vid of Paul singing with Andy Scott’s Sweet, I keep asking myself why wasn’t that band with that singer a bigger success? The answer, of course, is fashion, my dear...
