Venue: The Camden Underworld         Date: Friday 20^th Feb 2004

Setlist (approx):  Hellraiser; Who Loves You?; The 16s; Everything (new); You're Crazy (new); Lost Angels; Teenage Rampage; Eighteen; Love is Like Oxygen /Fanfare for the Common Man; Action; BlockBuster; Fox On The Run; My Woman from Tokyo; Ballroom Blitz

In the UK in the early 70s 'Glam Rock, meant T Rex, Slade, The Glitter Band and The Sweet. I favoured the first two over the latter and even when a classmate leant me a copy of 'Love is Like Oxygen', I had difficulty considering The Sweet as a 'proper' rock band.

They started out as a rock act, but were taken under the wing of the successful writing team of Nikki Chin and Mike Chapman who wrote a string of hits for them including the excruciating 'Little Willy' and 'Wigwam Bam' (This was the 70's folks). Later on they produced harder sounding hits like 'Ballroom Blitz', 'Blockbuster', 'Hellraiser' and 'Fox on the Run', but it was hard to avoid their pop past and they never fully made the transition to a proper rock act in the UK.

So, tonight's gig was going to be a bit of a nostalgia trip for me. It was advertised as being a 'rock gig' and there was a clear sense of excitement about the gig at some of the other boards I visit. Unlike the  Dragonforce gig the week before, this wasn't quite sold out – and most people there were over 40, so I felt right at home.

The support was provided by local glam-rock 4-piece Freewheeler. Although at one stage every song seemed to be about drugs the band proved themselves to be more than a one-trick pony by adding a few about alcohol too. Nothing groundbreaking, but sufficiently toe-tapping to make me consider going to see them again, sometime.

Just after 9PM, out came The Sweet. Only guitarist Andy Scott remains from the original lineup and he is now supplemented by Steve Grant on guitar and keys; ex-Praying Mantis skins man Bruce Bisland and Tony O'Hora (also ex-Praying Mantis) on bass and vocals. They came in to the theme from James Bond and blasted into 'Hellraiser', which managed to animate the venue full of 40 year olds, many of whom seemed happy to sing along just as they had, as teenagers.

The sound was terrific. Nice and heavy, particularly in the guitar department and Andy Scott seemed to be really enjoying himself. The vocals too were top-notch. Tony did a decent impression of Brian Connolly and Andy's distinctive backing vocals were very good too. All of this was way better than I'd expected and I was soon rocking along and losing my inhibitions.

Andy Scott made it clear early on that they wouldn't be playing the pop stuff  ('Papa Joe', 'Little Willy', 'Wigwam Bam' etc didn't feature at all. phew!). They also mentioned that they released a new album last year and if the couple of songs that they played from it were anything to go by, it seems like it will be worthwhile checking out. The sound was nice and heavy while sounding modern. It certainly wouldn't seem out of place alongside the likes of Royal Hunt or something similar.

Later on in the set they merged 'Love is Like Oxygen' with 'Fanfare for the Common Man' and then a little later there was a bit of Purple's 'My Woman from Tokyo'. The 80 minute show reached a predictable climax with 'Ballroom Blitz' and the crowd left buzzing with excitement.

Top show. If they return later in the year then you can count me in for a ticket and well done to Drew at the Underworld for organising it!