Since my book ‘The Sweet In the 1970s’ was published in the summer, not only have I been bowled over by sales (the first print-run sold out even prior to publication date) I’ve been hugely encouraged by the reviews, too.

Jason Ritchie at Get Ready To Rock was first to review:

“An excellent overview of The Sweet, appraising the band’s 70s output and tracking the band’s ups and downs during that decade. Well researched and referenced too, with the final part of the book giving a whistle stop tour of what the band did from 1980 to the present day.”

You can read the full Get Ready To Rock review here

Then over in the US, Dave Thompson gave the following review in Goldmine magazine:

“Certainly this is not the first Sweet biography to appear in recent years, but it’s sharp, it’s concise, and it doesn’t spend half its time moping around the not-happened-yet sixties and the oh-dear-are-they-still-going beyond. Well, not much. We skip the first ten pages, covering the “early years,” and the last ten detailing “what happened next.” Don’t care. But there’s close to a hundred pages between those bookends that are just non-stop blockbusting, hell raising, teenage rampaging little willying, with every album and single spotlighted for special examination, key quotes highlighted and individual song titles telling their own stories, too. Throughout, author Darrell Johnson (sic) captures the excitement of the great records; can usually find something nice to say about the less great ones, and doesn’t try to kid us that Cut Up Above the Rest was even remotely well-titled. It’s a book for fans, then, but one for the curious, too. Nicely done.”

Dave Thompson produced his own well-written Sweet biography a decade ago, of course, so I was particularly pleased to get his endorsement. I’ll even forgive him getting my name slightly wrong!

You can read the full Goldmine review here

Back on to the British magazine racks, Mick Gafney at Powerplay magazine also had some very nice things to say:

“What comes across in spades in this book is the author’s unwavering love and passion for the band, and whilst it might not be the weightiest of tomes, Johnson still manages to fill it with plenty of well-researched facts and insightful opinion.”

You can read the full review here:

And Steve Swift at Fireworks magazine also gave it the thumbs up:

 “Johnson clearly loves the band and the tone is warm and welcoming; Johnson does something simple but lovely…”

You can read the full review here:

Over on Amazon it’s been picking up some very encouraging customer reviews, too:

“The Sweet In The 1970s is an excellent and concise book about rock’s most underrated band who transformed from ‘bubblegum’ to ‘glam rock’ to ‘hard rock’ to something a little more progressive throughout the aforementioned decade. It also reminds the reader how Sweet managed to ‘snatch defeat from the jaws of victory’ on many occasions.”

“Fabulous book. It does what it says on the cover it tells the Sweet story in the 70s. That doesn’t mean that the 60s and 80s are totally ignored.”

“Whether you a big Sweet fan or not this is a really interesting story written and presented very well. I’ve learnt a lot!”

“Draws together from many sources it borders on the academic, yet reads easily. Clearly a fan, our author is not blind to the weaknesses of the band and is never modest on their behalf either. I learnt quite a bit and it’s a great reference book for the material recorded by the band.”

At one point it made it to number three on Amazon’s UK best sellers list for music history and criticism, as well number ten in its popular music books and number fourteen in its rock music books.

When I first began writing the book I never dreamed it would do so well and writing for Sonicbond Publishing had been an extremely positive experience.

You can read how I first came to write the book here

Better, still you can read the book!

‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ is available from the following outlets:

UK

You can order ‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ direct from the publishers via the Burning Shed on line shop here

It’s available from a number of other UK retailers including: WH Smith, Waterstones, and Bookshop.org

You can order from Amazon UK here

US

You can order via Walmart and Amazon.com

Sweden

You can order via Adlibris