So, if you’re reading this, I guess you’ve a passion for music. And you will have had a start point on your own musical journey. For me, it was Top Of The Pops on a Thursday night – an absolute staple in our house – the whole family sat around the TV every Thursday night, along with 15 million others in the UK. Born in 1965, my earliest memories of the show are The Sweet singing Little Willy and Wig Wam Bam in 1972 – my musical journey started at 7 years old. This article is not intended to be an expert insight into Glam, it is simply my story of a musical journey with Glam. It started in 1972 but got ignited in 1973, when Blockbuster hit number 1 and I was on my way to Woolworth’s to make it the first single I ever bought. My first album followed in 1974 in the form of Sweet’s Desolation Boulevard. Yeah, there were others who had me singing along – Slade and Suzi Quatro immediately springing to mind. Sweet, though were my band and I think what really got me hooked wasn’t the Chinn-Chapman penned singles but the B-sides and album tracks that were all self-written and to be quite frank rocked like nothing I’d ever heard on my beloved Top Of The Pops. Probably my favourite track off Desolation Boulevard was, and still is “Breakdown”.
If you get chance, check out the rest of this concert on You Tube – better still, buy the DVD. It really showcases how good the musicianship of these guys was, and in Andy Scott’s case, still is.
Did I ever get to see Sweet in their prime ? No, did I bollocks !! Did I have the chance to ? Indeed, yes !! There I was, 8 years old, the family staying with my Grandma in London for my birthday. The Evening Standard comes out – “What would you like to do for your birthday ?” Lo and behold, staring me in the face is an advert for Sweet – playing The London Palladium – 21 July 1973. “I want to go and see Sweet”. My Mum’s answer – “You’re too young. You can go and see the new James Bond Film” – Live and Let Die had just been released. My 8th birthday still grates to this day !! It wasn’t until Sweet had split and I saw “Andy Scott’s Sweet” and “Brian Connolly’s Sweet” that I finally got to see them live. In between times, they continued to make incredible rock albums, in particular “Give Us A Wink” and “Off The Record”. Check out Andy’s insane guitar work on “White Mice”. Mick Tucker’s drumming isn’t far behind.
These guys may have minced it up on Top Of The Pops but make no mistake they were bad boys. They were banned from Mecca Ballrooms for outraging public decency with their over the top stage show and sexually referenced lyric changes. “If We Don’t Fuck You, Then Someone Else Will” became a staple in their live set. This lot were The Sex Pistols of original glam rock. Classic Rock journalsist, Dave Ling, sums them up nicely as “womanising, drug taking, hell-raising, macho alcoholics”. Steve Priest (bassist) describes one of their more adventurous stage props “a six-foot dick came swinging down from the ceiling, spraying the audience with confetti. It was a realistic looking affair, with all the attributes of the male appendage. It was huge, with coloured veins and a subtle 1,000-watt bulb inside.” Without Sweet, there would have been no Kiss and no Crue – both bands hail Sweet as hugely influential. “Without The Sweet there would not have been a KISS” – Gene Simmons – Kiss. “We wanted to be The Sweet” – Nikki Sixx – Mötley Crüe. “This is the band I wish I had been in” – Joe Elliot – Def Leppard. For more tales of excess, you can’t do much better than checking out Dave Ling’s article.
While Sweet (and in particular Brian Connolly) were drinking themselves into oblivion in their silver booted campness, the original queen of noise, Suzi Quatro, was brought over to the U.K. from her native Detroit by legendary record producer Mickie Most. Now I can’t say I was a massive Suzi Q fan but she definitely deserves a mention as the original female rock ‘n’ roller. Suzi’s influence is beyond compare in the female rock world. “The Wild One”, as were most of Suzi’s singles, was penned by none other than Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, the guys behind Sweet’s early singles. Mike Chapman eventually went on to work on Blondie’s biggest albums.
No Glam list would be complete without Slade. Yeah – they figured in my early listening but never had the same influence on me as Sweet. Bovver Boys playing raucous rock ‘n’ roll, dressed in mirrored top hats and glitter. Which leads me onto the question of what is “Glam” ? Well Sweet desperately wanted to be a hard rock band. Slade’s image evolved into a glam band from skinhead roots and Marc Bolan was a mod before he became a cross-legged, folk pixie and then a feather boa’d glam prince. At this point, to me, Slade are a rock ‘n’ roll band. I’ll come back to them again later, when they really developed credibility as a metal band at Reading Festival. For now, here’s “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” in all it’s rock ‘n’ roll glam glory.
I knew of T.Rex from Top Of The Pops but pop ditties like “Ride A White Swan” didn’t really do it for me. However, once I started to take command of the family record player I decided to have a rifle through my parents very small and limited record collection. Lost in the middle of such appalling music as Andy Williams, Doris Day and Fiddler On The Roof, was this …
What the hell ? Well, whatever I thought to T.Rex at that point, that cover grabbed me by the balls and I just had to stick it on the turntable. Not only did what came out the speakers grab me, but the incredible, insane lyrics on the inner sleeve too. This album is an absolute classic of any genre. Every song is killer and one of those albums that I have played for 40 years plus. So here is Marc Bolan in his prime – dancing from cradle to grave “I danced myself right out the womb, Is it strange to dance so soon … I danced myself into the tomb”. To do this day, my parents have no idea where that album came from !!
1976 came. The Sex Pistols turned music on it’s head and punk’s “Filth & Fury” filled the airwaves and newspapers. Did Glam die in 1976 ? Maybe. If not dead, it was dying a slow, painful death in the UK. Not so, over the pond. In 1976, Kiss followed up their big breakthrough album, Kiss Alive, with in my opinion their finest ever moment – Destroyer.
Master producer Bob Ezrin transformed the raw, face painted, incenduous live act into a recording band of incredible talent. After a slow start, the album started to pick up with the release of Peter Criss’ ballad, Beth, as a single. The flip side was Detroit Rock City. All of a sudden the whole of the U.S. was Kiss’ for the taking. Destroyer’s cover, the most over the top stage show ever created and the other-worldliness of Destroyer’s music literally transformed Kiss into superheroes. The fact that no-one had ever seen their faces only reinforced the mythology. As well as Bob Ezrin, Kiss’ manager, Bill Aucoin has to be credited as the ultimate mastermind behind creating the monster that literally ruled the U.S. in the mid to late 70s. I challenge anyone to show me more iconic album artwork than Destroyer and the inside of Kiss Alive II’s monstrous gatefold cover.
It wasn’t until 1978 that I discovered Kiss and that wasn’t by the obvious route. While Kiss owned America, they were not big in the UK and had only graced these shores once. Certainly I had never heard them on the radio. 1978 saw the release of the solo albums and for some reason Gene Simmons’ Radioactive got a bit of Radio 1 airplay. I had no idea who Gene Simmons was nor who Kiss were for that matter. Having graduated from Woolworths to HMV for my record purchases, I duly trundled into town to buy Radioactive – a pretty cool song, I thought. Now in my bag was a picture cover, red-eoactive vinyl single. Not only that, the Kiss marketing machine was in full swing with posters of the band on the walls, 4 different coloured singles and a huge stack of discounted Alive II albums, complete with booklet and badge. Now, at the tender age of 13, my pocket money only stretched to the said single and I had to save up for my first beloved Kiss album, Alive II. To this day, one of my favorite Kiss albums – the raw power of side 1 is untouchable.
By 1980 I was 15 and I’d seen two live bands – The Boomtown Rats and The Jam – both fantastic gigs and I was well into the whole punk thing (whilst still listening to the likes of Sweet and Kiss). Lo and behold, Kiss make their second trip to the U.K.. None of my 8 year old disappointment of not seeing Sweet at the London Palladium, I had a coach and ticket package booked for Stafford Bingley Hall the day they came on sale !!
Now, however good The Boomtown Rats and The Jam were live, there are simply no words to describe that Kiss show. If you ask anyone who was there, it was quite simply the most unbelievable Kiss show they have ever played in the U.K. Rumours abound of video footage existing but it has never been uncovered. I was simply blown away. Kiss were not a band – they were quite simply the real life superheroes that the media and their own PR machine had made them out to be. Stanley was indescribable as a front man. Put that with Gene’s fire breathing & blood spitting, plus Ace’s smoking, rocket firing guitar – this was a schlock horror film out of all proportions with the most insane rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack. Life was never the same again and Kiss took over in a massive way. Every penny went on the back catalogue and I caught Kiss on every trip to the UK until Ace left for the second time.
Kiss’ popularity was waning in the U.S., as was original glam in the U.K., but something most unexpected was brewing on the horizon. Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Oz pulled out of 1980’s Reading Festival. Glam has-beens, Slade, were drafted in at short notice and overnight became heavy metal heroes. From the SladeInWales site: “Slade went out and kicked everyone’s ass so hard they completely stole the show.” The day is best summed up by Vintagerock’s article …
I had the pleasure of seeing Slade with Noddy on 12 December 1983 at The Palais in Nottingham – they really were an immense live band.
Slade Nottingham Palais Setlist
Sweet struggled on in various guises, Slade were resurrected and a bunch of snotty upstarts in L.A., called Motley Crue, kickstarted a whole new wave of Glam and what was to become known as Hair Metal. Some, however. would say that the guys that started the whole thing off weren’t from L.A. at all but from far flung Finland. Tim Sommer describes their influence perfectly …
Cue one of the biggest regrets of my life. So, I moved to Nottingham in 1983 and come 1984 one of my mates harassed me over and over to go and see this ace band “Hanoi Rocks” at The Palais. Don’t ask me why, but I’d never heard of them. And what on earth could I have been up to that night to warrant me not going ? History is history and I never went. Here it is in all it’s glory – The Nottingham Tapes …
Now I did had the pleasure of seeing Crue at Nottingham Royal Concert Hall on 12 Feb 1986 but I have to say, I wasn’t blown away and my memories are more of the punters’ clothing than the band. Sunset Strip had nothing on Nottingham that night. A glam piece wouldn’t be complete without one Crue track though …
Nottingham at that time had spawned it’s very own glam scene and there were a lot of local bands building up big followings. In my view, the best of the lot were Deuce and their live shows have stuck in my mind far more than Crue’s night at The Royal Concert Hall. The first time I caught Deuce was at Nottingham Basford Hall, I’m guessing in 1985. This was a Glam festival headlined by yes, that band again, Sweet. By this time it was just Brian Connolly’s Sweet and it was Brian that I had gone to see. This would have been the first time I had caught any formation of the band. Sadly Brian and his band were a no-show. I can only guess that this was due to Brian’s health. His alcoholism is well documented and he was a sad figure in his later years. Not to be disappointed, the Nottingham faithful got well into the night with a host of home-grown, glam talent. The two bands that stood out head and shoulders above the rest were Brazzen Huzzey, with a certain Iain Dilley on bass. Deuce became the headliners in Sweet’s absence and blew everything away bar the roof. At this point Punkie Wayne Richards was the lead singer and Gregg Russell lead guitarist. These guys made Crue look like Duran Duran and as far as home made pyro goes, early Kiss had nothing on these guys – just ask my mate, who’s hair went up in flames after a few stray firework sparks flew into the crowd.
Having foolishly missed out on Hanoi, there was no way I was going to miss The Cherry Bombz at The Palais on 26 Feb 1986. Featuring Andy McCoy and Nasty Suicide from Hanoi, Cherry Bombz were a fantastic live band but once again, it was the support band, Deuce, who I remember most. This time, Iain Dilley from Brazzen Huzzey had replaced Punkie Wayne on vocals. No footage exists of this line up but the recorded version of “Seven Years” is testament to their quality …
… and it would be rude not to play the headline band that night …
Deuce split after releasing Queen Of The Night …
Punkie Wayne had formed the aptly named “Sleaze Patrol” and Gregg Russell formed “Wraith”. Wraith lost a lot of the glam image and were more of a traditional metal band, making some cracking albums along the way …
Iain Dilley started APB.
