Tag Archives: Birmingham

Live review: Sweet at Birmingham Town Hall 4/12/25

Glam rock, Live reviews, Rock music, , , , , , ,

A rare occurrence for me but I missed Sweet on their tour last December. As it turned out, however, so did band-leader, lead guitarist and the last surviving member of the classic ‘70s foursome, Andy Scott. A fracture in his pelvis (on top of a debilitating long-term cancer diagnosis) left him completely unable to move so his place was ably taken by Jim Kirkpatrick. Never one to be kept down for long, however, Scott resumed touring in the Spring and as well as a hectic live schedule this year, there’s an impressive roster of European dates lined up for 2026, too.

On previous Christmas tours over the past few years I’ve tended to catch Sweet either in London or down here on the south coast at the De La Warr Pavilion. However, with nothing scheduled for the South East on this tour, I cunningly worked out I could spend a night in Birmingham en route to a pre-Christmas family get-together up in Preston. In fact, this is not the first time I’ve made the long trek to see Sweet in Birmingham. I was here back in 2017 to see Andy & Co. supporting Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow at the Genting Arena.

At the time, I expressed a slight degree of disappointment that the then line-up stuck to a tried-and-tested greatest hits setlist, rather than exploring some of the more hard rock-oriented deep cuts that were likely to have particularly appealed to an audience made up of hard-core Ritchie Blackmore devotees. It was only much later that Scott revealed to fans that he’d had to begin a gruelling course of chemotherapy that very week, obviously leaving no time to rehearse a revised setlist. I felt bad about making my disappointment known once we’d all learned the truth but there is absolutely no such complaint about the setlist tonight.

Ever since the current line-up was unveiled (fronted by ex-Cats in Space lead singer, Paul Manzi), there’s been a much greater emphasis on the album-oriented hard rock side of the band’s DNA, besides the more well-known glam-era big hits. Plus, there’s been an album of brand-new, hard-rocking material, too. Accordingly, we get an explosive set on this tour, featuring incendiary versions of tracks like ‘Lost Angels’, ‘Windy City’ and ‘Set Me Free’ and a couple of songs from the excellent new album, Full Circle, as well as all the well-known big hits.

After praising Scott’s incredible feats of endurance, Manzi summed up his current state of health as “85% back to full fitness” meaning he had to take a scheduled breather part-way through the set. Accordingly, the rest of the band remained on stage to deliver a sing-along medley of ‘ Co-Co’, ‘Funny Funny’ and ‘Poppa Joe’ while Scott caught his breath. Observant Sweet fans will already know that Scott never played on the studio versions of these early bubblegum hits anyway so it was the obvious place in the set for a well-earned break. Elsewhere, however, wherever Scott’s familiar signature guitar sound is heard on the original records, he’s up there on stage delivering those pounding Sweet riffs and searing Scott solos.

For anyone seeing them on this tour, it’s an incredible line-up of the Sweet performing these days. In my mind, even though 2002’s Sweetlife remains my absolute favourite post-Brian Connolly Sweet album, what we have on stage now is one the strongest live line-ups of Sweet since the demise of the classic foursome. Whatever life has thrown at him in recent years, Andy Scott shows no sign of giving up quite yet. Here’s wishing him a good few more tours!

My book ‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ is available from Amazon here

Setlist:

Action
Hell Raiser
Burn on the Flame
Circus
The Sixteens
Don’t Bring Me Water
Lost Angels
Windy City
Set Me Free
Co-Co / Funny Funny / Poppa Joe
Teenage Rampage
Wig-Wam Bam / Little Willy
Love Is Like Oxygen
Fox on the Run
Blockbuster
The Ballroom Blitz

Related posts:

Review: Sweet at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire 2025

Review: Sweet at Islington Assembly 2021

Book reviews roundup: ‘The Sweet in the 1970s’

Interview with Andy Scott

Review: Sweet at Bexhill 2019

News: All change at The Sweet

Review: Sweet 50th anniversary concert – Berlin

Review: Sweet live 2017, London and Bilston

Review: Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and Sweet at Birmingham Genting Arena 2017

The Sweet versus Bowie: the riff in Blockbuster and Jean Genie – origins and influences

Review: Sweet at Dartford 2015

Review: Sweet at Bilston 2014

Review: Mike Garson performs Aladdin Sane at Birmingham O2 Institute 25/11/17

Glam rock, Live reviews, Rock music, , , , , , , , ,

Lovers of 70s-era David Bowie have been in for a real treat this year. Not only have we had Tony Visconti and original Spider from Mars, Woody Woodmansey, touring the Ziggy Stardust album in full, we now have virtuoso Bowie pianist, Mike Garson touring the Aladdin Sane album in full.

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Joining Garson on this tour are former Bowie guitarist, Kevin Armstrong; award-winning vocalist Gaby Moreno, Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey band) on sax and guitar; along with the current Iggy Pop rhythm section of Ben Ellis and Mat Hector. It’s a stunningly good band. From a fabulously groovy ‘What’s That Man’ through to a poignantly dramatic ‘Lady Grinning Soul’ they bring to life the full Bowie masterpiece in all its glory.

For ‘The Jean Genie’ we get an extra treat. Deep Purple’s Roger Glover (whose talented daughter Gillian Glover is providing backing vocals tonight as well as being the solo support act) is taking a night off from the Purple tour and takes the stage to play bass for this song. Sadly, I never got to see Trevor Bolder doing the bass-line of ‘The Jean Genie’ but seeing Roger Glover doing it has got to be the next best thing. We even get a cheeky snatch of Purple’s ‘Black Night’ at the end!

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After a magnificent performance of Aladdin Sane, Garson introduces a second set of other Bowie favourites, kicking off with a stunning Space Oddity. Then it’s on to ‘Life On Mars’.The piano is as prominent on ‘Hunky Dory’ as it is on ‘Aladdin Sane’, albeit in a very different style. But after the jazz-infused piano of ‘Aladdin Sane’ Garson moves on to deliver a truly majestic version of ‘Life On Mars’ that even manages to out-Wakeman Rick Wakeman. An extremely gifted composer and musician it’s nothing less than an absolute pleasure to see the great Mike Garson in action this evening.

Another treat is seeing Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel fame take the stage to guest on vocals for a few numbers, including a superb ‘Changes’ and a wonderfully frenetic ‘Absolute Beginners’ as well as two of Harley’s own songs ‘A Friend For Life’ and ‘Sebastian’.

Like all great art the songs celebrated tonight will live on long after the demise of their original creator. They will undoubtedly carry on being performed many years into the future. Inevitably, there will come a day when no-one who actually performed alongside Bowie is around any more. For now, though, let’s be thankful that people like Mike Garson and Kevin Armstrong are celebrating his legacy and the unmistakable part they played in it.

Set-list:

First Set – Aladdin Sane album in full:
Watch That Man
Aladdin Sane (1913-1938-197?)
Drive-In Saturday
Panic in Detroit
Cracked Actor
Time
The Prettiest Star
Let’s Spend the Night Together
The Jean Genie
Lady Grinning Soul

Second Set – Bowie Favourites:
Space Oddity
Life on Mars?
Changes
A Friend for Life
Absolute Beginners
Sebastian
Rock’n’Roll Suicide
Five Years
Wild Is the Wind
Ziggy Stardust
Under Pressure
Let’s Dance

http://www.mikegarson.com/

Related posts:

Holy Holy perform Ziggy Stardust in full
The riff in Blockbuster and Jean Genie – origins and influences

Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and Sweet at Birmingham Genting Arena 28/6/17

Glam rock, Live reviews, Rock music, , , , , , , , , , ,

When I was a teenager getting seriously into rock and metal in the early 80s I was lucky enough to see some of the biggest acts around: AC/DC, Sabbath, Quo, Ozzy etc. One band I never got to see, however, was Rainbow and one guitar wizard I never got to see (in any formation) was Ritchie Blackmore. For some inexplicable reason (and I am normally really on the ball with this) I failed to get myself a ticket when Blackmore revived the Rainbow name and announced a tentative return to rock ‘ n’ roll last year. So when a further tour was announced this year I made absolutely sure I was going to be there this time.

The evening was going to be made even more special when I found out the support act would be Sweet, who I have been following for as long as I’ve been following Rainbow. Unlike Rainbow, I have seen The Sweet many times before over the past twenty-odd years – but usually in small rock venues or provincial theatres, never in an arena with a 15,000 strong crowd. In some ways, both Rainbow and The Sweet summed up the music of the mid 70s: the albums-based rock was brilliant and the singles-based pop was brilliant, too. Perfection!

Tonight would give Andy Scott and co the chance to rekindle their relationship with many older rock fans as well as hopefully winning over some newer fans, too. ‘Hellraiser’, ‘Teenage Rampage’, ‘Blockbuster’, ‘Ballroom Blitz’ et al all go down an absolute storm. My only complaint was that the set was heavily weighted towards the old hits, with little time for the harder-edged album-oriented rock of which the band have an impressive, if less well-known, back catalogue. However, we did get stunning versions of ‘Set Me Free’ and ‘Love Is Like Oxygen’ and hopefully Andy Scott’s continuing version of The Sweet has a good few more fans after tonight.

“I’m playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order,” Eric Morecambe once famously said. No-one in their right mind could ever accuse guitar god, Ritchie Blackmore, of that. But funnily enough I was reminded of the old Morecambe & Wise gag when I was thinking about Ritchie Blackmore’s set-list at Birmingham tonight. Pretty much all of the songs that I very much hoped he’d play were in there – but the set order seemed to be in random shuffle mode with little attempt at any sort of thematic approach. We jumped from the polished commercial rock of Joe Lynn Turner-era Rainbow, to Coverdale-era Deep Purple, to the infectious pop-rock of Graham Bonnet, to the heavy prog-tinged majesty of Dio-era Rainbow and so on and so on. I suppose the main message was: “I have been involved with creating some amazing music in different bands with different vocalists and different styles – and whichever order you put them in they are all amazing…” Which is true!

After years away from doing gigs of this type and making albums like this Blackmore’s stunning guitar skills have not dimmed. Never guilty of being flashy for the sake of being flashy or of putting technical prowess ahead of creating beautiful melody, there is an elegance about his playing that is a joy to see live. Ronnie Romero, too, I thought was a good choice of vocalist. Of all the iconic vocalists Blackmore has worked with over the years, Romero probably sounds closest to Joe Lynn Turner in style, but he handled all of the material well from Gillan through to Coverdale, Dio, Bonnet and Turner. Towards the end a keyboard solo seemed to go on forever but that is a minor quibble. At the age of 51, the teenage rock fan in me has finally got see Ritchie Blackmore live on stage and has finally got to attend a Rainbow gig. He is happy.

Set-list – Sweet:

Action
Hellraiser
The Six Teens
Set Me Free
Teenage Rampage
Wig Wam Bam / Little Willy
Love Is Like Oxygen
Fox On The Run
Blockbuster
Ballroom Blitz

http://www.thesweet.com/

Set-list – Rainbow:

Spotlight Kid
I Surrender
Mistreated
Since You Been Gone
Man on the Silver Mountain
Soldier of Fortune
Perfect Strangers
Difficult to Cure
All Night Long
Child in Time
Stargazer
Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll
Lazy
Catch the Rainbow
Black Night
Carry On… Jon
Burn
Smoke on the Water

http://www.ritchieblackmore.info/

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