Of all the things I expected from Sari Schorr, these words were not top of the list: “I’ve been learning a lot about your country, HP Sauce, PG Tips, and Status Quo”.
I’m more a Daddies man myself, and I’m not a proper Brit according to my late nan because I don’t like tea, but Francis Rossi’s boys are a different matter altogether. So when Sari takes on “Down Down” it’s very welcome.
Playing acoustic, with FM guitar man Jim Kirkpatrick as her sidekick, suits the New Yorker. She’s got a gorgeous voice, but she’s also got a laid-back, free-spirit thing that suits being stripped down.
And, as I always say, a great song is a great song no matter how it’s played so “Damn The Reason” and “Beautiful” are just that, while I always wonder whether “Valentina” the tale of a woman who lives in a trailer by the sea but who left her heart in Tennesee might be autobiographical? Whatever, and whether acoustic or with a band, any time Sari Schorr plays it is a captivating thing.
Before she’d left the stage Schorr had called The Sweet “a national institution” and to be fair, she’s not far wrong.
Over half a century has passed since their debut album (and one of them still sounds great when they play it tonight) and it’s 30-odd years since Wayne’s World came along and awakened another generation to “Ballroom Blitz” but they sound fresh and invigorated here.
Every year they turn up and play banger after banger, hit after hit, like “Action” or “Back In The New York Groove” (on which Lee Small, the bands bass player excels with his vocals. He is later outed as a West Brom fan by Andy Scott), or “Hellraiser”, but there’s more to it than that.
This line-up of the band has mostly been together for five years (drummer Bruce Bisland isn’t on this tour, replaced by the multi-talented Adam Booth) and they are excellent. “The Six Teens” nods to the past, but there are a couple of new tunes too. One- possibly called “Don’t Drink The Water” – especially augers well for the forthcoming record.
At the centre of this is Andy Scott. Now in his mid-70s, he remains the beating heart of the group. He might not be as young as he was, joking that he’s only on 14 pills a day these days and that we’re lucky he found his way to the venue, but he’s superb.
Scott takes a break as the band play “Co-Co” and “Poppa Joe” in a summery type way, but he’s back for the metal-tinged “Set Me Free” and the few that take this up a gear.
“Teenage Rampage” is arguably the highlight, but “Love Is Like Oxygen” is wonderfully done with Tom Cory to the fore, and it has a real ELO flavour.
In between these, there’s a Medley. “Wig Wam Bam” still struts and “Little Willy” does double entendre as well as you like.
Singer Paul Manzi, as ever, looks like he was born to front The Sweet, and he carries “Fox On The Run”, which sort of closes the set, but they don’t even bother to go off because everyone knows they haven’t done “Blockbuster” and “Ballroom Blitz”. And when they do them – especially the latter – it’s a moment of joy.
And that word “joy” is perhaps the one that best sums tonight in particular, but The Sweet in general, up. There’s not a person who leaves into the freezing Black Country night without a smile, and honestly, if this is the last full tour, as the band suggest it could be, what better legacy is there than that?
