Tag Archives: The Sweet in the 1970s

Farewell Frank Torpey – the last surviving original member of The Sweet

Glam rock, Music culture & history, Music news, Rock music, , , , , ,

Frank Torpey, the last surviving original member of The Sweet, has sadly passed away. His family have posted the following message on Facebook.

“Frank passed away in his home surrounded by family at 1AM on Saturday 23rd March 2024. He will be missed and remembered by all his friends and family, rest well xx”

Frank, along with Brian Connolly, Steve Priest and Mick Tucker, was one of the founder members of The Sweet.

Torpey, Connolly and Tucker had previously been part of the Middlesex-based band, Wainright’s Gentlemen. Torpey and Tucker were unceremoniously sacked and an infuriated Connolly decided to quit of his own accord. The three musicians then opted to find themselves a bass-player and form a band of their own. Steve Priest was recruited, the four of them meeting up in the Swan pub in Ruislip in January 1968 to discuss plans for a new band.

Frank Torpey (seated) with myself and other Sweet fans in the very pub where the band was first formed

Rehearsals began and as well as working up their own cover versions of well-known and not so well-known songs, the four also devoted considerable time to coming up with a suitable name, eventually alighting on The Sweetshop. Priest wrote in his autobiography: “There were many bands around at this time that had silly names like Marmalade, Strawberry Jam or Strawberry Alarm Clock, and so we managed to come up with a silly name too. We thought that Sweet Shop would do it.”

Although the band were still only semi-pro at this stage, Frank and the rest of the newly-christened Sweetshop would play their debut gig on 9th March 1968 at the Hemel Hempstead Pavilion. Things appeared to be moving fast as soon after, the band were recording their debut single, ‘Slow Motion’, after impressing producer Phil Wainman.

The release of the single necessitated a shortening of the band’s name to The Sweet after someone else nabbed the name for another release before they got their own single out. It was to be Frank’s only release with the band. Although the four continued gigging throughout 1968 and the first half of 1969, tiring of the quality of the venues and the lack of money coming in, Frank decided to call it a day with the band to be replaced, initially, by Mick Stewart and then, more permanently, by Andy Scott who joined in 1970. Indeed, very permanently, Andy is still at it now!

Frank Torpey’s role in the history of The Sweet was a small one but, nevertheless, an important one. Moreover, as well as continuing to play and record, he was always happy to engage with fans about The Sweet’s very early days.

It was in February 2022 after Steve Priest’s memorial service that Frank met up with Sweet fans in The Swan in Ruislip, the very pub where the band was formed back in 1968. When I presented him with a signed copy, he was delighted when I told him he got more than just a passing mention in my book The Sweet In The 1970s, even though it primarily focused on the band’s hit-making decade. “Just tell me which chapters I’m in,” he joked. “It’ll save me reading the whole thing!”

Related posts:

‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ published by Sonicbond Publishing is available from all major book retailers – visit here

Death of a glam icon – Steve Priest: 1948-2020

Review: Sweet 50th anniversary concert – Berlin

Review: Sweet live 2017, London and Bilston

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

Before glam: the debut 60s singles of Bowie, Bolan, Slade, Mud and Sweet

Reviews roundup: ‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ – a huge thank you!

Book reviews, Glam rock, Rock music, , , ,

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 

‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ now also set for publication in the US on 24th September

Book reviews, Glam rock, Music culture & history, Music news, Rock music, , , , , , ,

I’m delighted to report sales of my book, which was published in the UK by Sonicbond on 30th July, have been brisk.

Amazon and other retailers will be dispatching to customers in the US from 24th September. When writing the book I did take care to ensure the book would be relevant to US readers – putting Billboard chart positions in as well as UK ones, for example, as well as explaining some peculiarly English turns of phrase like w*nk and Sweet FA…

My book also picked up a very nice review from Jason Ritchie at Get Ready To Rock recently:

“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.”

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!”

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. All beyond my wildest dreams really. When I began writing and researching the book it very much became my lockdown project. Any success in terms of sales was going to be the icing on the cake rather than the main reason for doing it.

However, I’m really pleased it’s selling so well and it’s been a very positive experience working with Sonicbond Publishing who have an excellent range of other music books in their portfolio.

On with the next one!

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

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 

The Sweet in the 1970s: publication date for my book is getting close – out on 30th July!

Book reviews, Glam rock, Music culture & history, Music news, Rock music, , , , , , ,

Just over a year ago I had a dream that I had written a book about The Sweet. When I woke up I was more than a little disappointed to release I hadn’t written any such book. But with the idea still fresh in my mind I decided to fire off an email to the publishers Sonicbond to see if they were interested in me writing one. Amazingly they came back and said yes.

Starting work last summer, writing and researching ‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ very much became my lockdown project during the latter part of 2020 and the early part of 2021. I finished it back in February, delivered the manuscript and my mind, which had been so utterly pre-occupied with all things Sweet for several months, pretty much moved on to other things. In recent weeks, however, it’s all started to become very real again. There were proofs to read, images and the cover blurb to check through and so on. And although, it’s not in the shops until July 30th I took delivery of some advance copies this week!

I also did an interview for the excellent Glam-themed fanzine Wired Up – talking about how I came to write the book, how I first became obsessed with The Sweet as a teenager in the early 80s trawling through second-hand albums in Preston’s Action Records – as well as a little bit on what readers can expect from the book. You can find out more about the Wired Up fanzine here.

I’ve dedicated the book to my dad. I know he would have enjoyed reading it.

UK:

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

A number of other UK retailers are also taking orders including: WH Smith, Waterstones, and Bookshop.org

Amazon are also taking orders here

US: you can order via Walmart and Amazon.com

Sweden: you can order via Adlibris 

‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ by Darren Johnson – published by Sonicbond 30th July 2021

Book news: ‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ by Darren Johnson – published 30th July 2021

Glam rock, Music culture & history, Music news, Rock music, , , , , , ,

Followers of this blog will be aware that my love of 1970s glam icons The Sweet is pretty well documented. They’ve featured heavily on Darren’s Music Blog over the seven years of the blog’s existence. I’m therefore very pleased to be announcing the publication of my first book due out this summer: ‘The Sweet in the 1970s’.

It’s published by the excellent Sonicbond Publishing who’ve been running the On Track series, where they look at a band’s entire recorded output track by track, and more recently the Decades series, where they look at a band’s history and development through a key decade. I’d already reviewed a couple of Sonicbond publications (on Fairport Convention and Hawkwind) when I had a dream that I’d just written my own book about The Sweet. With the dream still fresh in my head the following morning I thought it might actually be an idea to see if this could perhaps be turned into reality.

I emailed Stephen Lambe at Sonicbond that morning with the synopsis that was formulated in the dream still in my head to see if they were interested. Happily, he came back and said that they were and a contract soon followed. It became my lockdown project starting last summer and after several months of feverish writing, researching and listening I completed it at the end of February.

It’s now available to pre-order direct from the publishers via Burning Shed here

A number of other retailers are now also taking pre-orders including: WH Smith, Waterstones, and Bookshop.org

Amazon are also taking pre-orders here

From the Amazon synopsis you hopefully get a taste of what’s in store:

The Sweet’s look, sound and attitude became an instantly recognisable hallmark of the early 1970s glam rock era. But the band did not start the 1970s as a glam band and certainly didn’t finish as one. This book charts the band’s journey through the decade that made them a household name, from their initial rise as purveyors of manufactured, bubblegum pop to their metamorphosis into harder-edged glam rock icons. The Sweet in the 1970s takes a look at both their successes and their struggles in their quest to be recognised as a more serious rock act in the latter part of the decade, once the sparkle of glam and glitter had begun to pale. The decade saw them score fifteen UK Top 40 singles, release seven studio albums and tour several continents. Unlike many bands of the era personnel changes were few. The Sweet begin the 1970s with the arrival of new guitarist, Andy Scott, and end the decade with the departure of frontman, Brian Connolly, and an ultimately ill-fated attempt to continue as a three-piece. This book is an unashamed celebration of the music of the Sweet and charts the lasting impact they had on many of the bands than followed them.

And of the author, Amazon has this to say:

After acquiring a second-hand copy of Sweet’s Give Us A Wink album from Action Records in Preston as a teenager in the early 1980s, Darren Johnson has been a dedicated fan of the band ever since. A former politician, he has written for a number of UK national newspapers but after stepping away from politics, he has been able to devote more time to his first love: music. A keen follower of both rock and folk, he maintains a popular music blog Darren’s Music Blog and has reviewed albums and gigs for a variety of publications. He lives in Hastings, East Sussex, UK

Other outlets:

A number of retailers are now also taking pre-orders including: WH Smith, Waterstones, and Bookshop.org

Alternatively, the book (and all others in the series) will be available from ‘all good bookshops’ and via Sonicbond’s own online shop at Burning Shed here

‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ by Darren Johnson – published by Sonicbond 30th July 2021