By: Kevin Smith
‘New York Connection’ bursts forth from the creative brilliance of original member Andy Scott (guitar and vocals) alongside his stellar current line-up of Pete Lincoln (lead vocals and bass guitar), Tony O’Hora (guitar, keyboards and vocals), and Bruce Bisland (drums and vocals). This NYC album is not just a collection; it’s a thrilling journey through the captivating material originally crafted by other artists, all infused with the band’s unmistakable flair. So, is it just another mundane covers album? Absolutely not! This time, it offers an exhilarating twist that promises to captivate and surprise.
NEW YORK GROOVE
“New York Groove” is the song that Sweet would have had a smash hit with if the band had recorded it in the heyday of the 70s. Pete heard a club band in Germany perform the song and he immediately felt that it could be given the “Sweet” treatment and it obviously had the “NYC” connection. When he returned home, he wanted to demo the song for the other guys but was struck by the fact that the original doesn’t actually ‘go anywhere’ and is in fact just a groove, hence the title. While making a cup of tea he came up with the idea of perhaps mashing it up with another New York song. BINGO!. Groove meets Empire State of Mind! The original backtrack had a longer intro but this was edited down and replaced with “New York Street” sound effects. At first the idea was for Pete, Andy and Tony to feature on lead vocals in the different sections of the song but when Pete did his vocal it became apparent that it worked better with just two lead voices. Andy’s tremolo guitar, Bruce’s “Hammer of the Gods” gated drums and multi-layered counterpoint backing vocals created a powerhouse of a track. The day Tony laid down his lead vocal part, the song just came alive and actually bought tears to Andy’s eyes. The band had not been in the studio for ten years and in that overwhelming moment he started to realise the potential of the “new” recordings.
GOLD ON THE CEILING
On the 12th of January 2012 Andy was interviewed by Laurent Rieppi from the Belgian radio station, RTBF/Classic21, who suggested that he should check out the Black Keys latest CD, “El Camino”, which had been reviewed in the then current issue of Uncut magazine giving The Sweet a big plug. “These are direct, accessible, ruthlessly hook-heavy songs. “Gold On the Ceiling”, with its wide-bottomed boogie, campy handclaps and high-pitched Flo & Eddie-style Halloween screams, is like The Sweet gone feral”. Of course this makes you want to listen to the song so we did check it out and wholeheartedly agreed that we should at the very least routine it. As soon as we got into it we realised that this would have been a smash hit for The Sweet in the 70s! Two versions of the song were recorded. The first few takes were slightly slower with a more modern harder rock edge. Andy then suggested that the track was given a more Sweet (glam era) treatment. The next take was slightly faster with several layers of guitar, then the drums double tracked and big hand claps for pure 70s authenticity. Finding the right keyboard sound on this track was quite challenging and after a few blind alleys and to save time, Cal (Our Studio Engineer) suggested that a microKorg was used to record midi info giving us the opportunity to change sounds later. The keyboard part was then layered up with five different synths and sounded pretty good but given the lateness of the hour, we felt we should sleep on it so we called it a day. “Gold on the Ceiling” was one of the few songs that needed a remix. Andy took the first mix home with him, listened to it in the car and still felt that the keyboard sound wasn’t quite right. Enter the iPad. This was Andy’s Christmas present from his family and he had installed an app called Alchemy which produced fantastic vintage synth sounds. The next day he came to the studio and replaced a couple of the synth sounds from his iPad and the song was remixed.
IT’S ALL MOVING FASTER
Damian had been listening to Electric Frankenstein and “All Moving Faster” leapt out each time and with the added “NYC” connection this track was in! Rehearsals were pretty frantic but when Andy added the “Burn On The Flame“ tribute guitar riff the whole thing came together quickly. If you listen to the original backtrack you can hear that the arrangement differs slightly. Two major changes were made, firstly Bruce with Cal’s expertise edited the drums at the intro to intensify the rhythmic feel and kick the track into gear. A couple of days later Andy had been listening to the track and felt that it needed some clever cutting to create a “jungle drums” middle section followed by a vocals and guitars section bouncing off each other building to a crescendo. Cal and Andy created a part of the song that wasn’t previously there and all done without a razor blade or a sea of gash tape on the floor! Kevin then suggested that Tony screamed an extremely high vocal octave in the chorus which was instantly a hit with everyone. Finally the “one note” heavy guitar part was added to the chorus for the full back to the 70s paradigm. The sound effect at the start is an Aston Martin [Andy’s passion for Bond again] and the car crash at the end was originally slightly longer as it featured an ambulance arriving, sirens blaring. This appeared to be such a fast response time, only two seconds after the crash that after much laughter, the obvious decision was to edit it out.
YOU SPIN ME ROUND
Moments of magic don’t come round very often so when they do you need to make the most of them. One such moment happened after a show in Scandinavia. There was a knock at the dressing room door then in walked the promoter, “great show, very happy etc etc”, followed by his lady friend with arms full of champagne. The room fell into stunned silence as she popped a cork or two and started pouring the fizz. Everyone, to a man, was singing the same song in their head – “You Spin Me Round”. You see, she had had a bit of “work” done which left her looking like Pete Burns’ twin sister! As soon as they left, as a joke initially, we all agreed that “Spin” would have to be included in the short list for the album much to Damian’s chagrin. He changed his mind once he heard Pete’s demo with Andy’s suggestion to spin off the first word of each verse a la “Fox on the Run”. Changing the focus of the song from “disco” synth to “heavy” guitars a la “Sweet FA” helped put the Sweet ™ firmly in place. Another magical moment and Sweet trick happens after the guitar solo [played by Pete!] with Tony’s explosive Gillanesque stratospheric scream. As the track was developing Bruce realised that the drums could sit better with the newly overdubbed instrumentation so he replaced them [the wonders of digital] and the result was brilliant. At the mix the intro was changed from a barrage of guitar feedback to the spinning reversed gong [reminiscent of the intro from “Keep It In”]. So there you have it – Sweet’s “You Spin Me Round” breaks the mould, the same way that “I Was Made For Loving You” by Kiss. Heavy Metal Disco – the next big thing!
BECAUSE THE NIGHT
Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, “Because the Night” – how much more of a “NYC” connection could you ask for? As it happens the song was put forward with some trepidation and rejected a couple of times because it was considered to be too iconic and therefore difficult to change. However once the album rehearsals were in full swing we decided to bite the bullet and kick it around. Firstly it became obvious that guitar not piano was the way forward which gave the song that recognisable “Sweet” sound. Kevin suggested that Tony should sing the lead and the result was brilliant. His vocal fitted perfectly with the stripped down backing track which was reminiscent of “The Six Teens” [timpani rolls a plenty] and gave us the missing link when it came to mixing. Attempting such songs as “Because the Night” can be both dangerous and rewarding if you can pull it off. I believe that we succeeded this time but thinking back I am very glad we didn’t try to put a Beatles or John Lennon track on the record – say no more.
SWEET JANE
“Sweet Jane” was almost an also-ran for the album. Time was running out and at rehearsals we couldn’t get a grip on a direction for the song. Andy really liked the Lou Reed “live” version from Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal but the intro guitars ramble on and this was not what the new Sweet album was all about. We were nearing the end of the recording process when Andy suggested we take one more look at the song. After a brief discussion with Kevin, Andy stripped the song arrangement down and we found it was now 4 minutes – almost perfect. Bruce and Andy came in to the studio the next day and laid down a very basic backtrack, arguably the best drum sound on the album. Tony arrived later that day for the backing vocals session. Tony, Andy and Bruce were the team [yes – Bruce!]. The next day was spent dubbing on the various guitar parts and creating the backwards middle section with a little help from the iPad again. The Who tribute “arpeggio” that runs throughout the song is actually guitars, quite a few guitars but nonetheless just guitars.
ON BROADWAY
Once the New York “Connection” theme had been established for the album it became clear that a couple of well known “NYC” songs, if at all possible, would make the cut. “On Broadway” is one such track. Andy had found another song called “Broadway” by The Foxboro Hot Tubs [Green Day] and felt that a mash-up of the two songs could work, like satin meets steel. The guitar riff from the “Hot Tubs” song when Andy started to play with it became eerily familiar with undertones of the “Love Is Like Oxygen” riff. It was originally intended that Andy would sing this song, but when the time came he had a virus which affected his normal voice [he never loses his high falsetto thankfully] and with the deadline for the CD release fast approaching to coincide with the 2012 Australian Tour, Pete stepped up and did the lead vocal and a mighty fine job he did too. The guitar solo in the middle added new colours as the “slide” guitar battled against the “strat” in a kind of jigsaw duet. Bruce still says that adding the latin american percussion to this track was the most fun he has had in a recording studio. The backing vocals on this song are immense. All parts by Pete, Tony and Andy [32 tracks approximately] were recorded individually away from the studio and then compiled for the mix.
BLITZKRIEG BOP
This song was always going to be a Bruce Showcase. It was his suggestion for the album and with the title “Blitzkrieg Bop” it was irresistible. The Ramones version is extremely fast and pretty short so an expanded arrangement was necessary. Some “kitsch” effects were added, a Stuka dive-bomber plane at the intro, a western gunshot ricochet into the guitar solo and a “nod” to the other “Blitz” with the obligatory guitar riff before the final verse. Blitzkrieg Bop was the first song finished in terms of recording/mixing and it set the tone for the rest of sessions. When Bruce did his lead vocal on this song it was hilarious. Various accents were previewed from Scottish to Cockney right through to Punjabi. It was always the band’s intention that each member would sing a song and Bruce’s contribution is magnificent.
JOIN TOGETHER
After returning from the Australian tour in 2011, Damian was playing about with drum loops and the Who song Join Together he had stripped the song right back and created something that had a great feel to it. Andy suggested that it was emailed to everyone (2nd of April 2011). At the about the same the band were approached to appear on Fernsehgarten a German TV show. Sweets Tour Manager Stefan Muhl suggested that instead of doing to old hits that band do a new song. Within 3 weeks the band had knocked up a demo of Join Together. Because of the bands touring schedule it became apparent that recording Join together was going to be difficult. Kevin & Damian discovered Huntenhull studio and the decision was made to record there. When Kevin emailed everyone with the dates Steve Grant unfortunately had other commitments. But all was not lost as Tony had recently stood in fora couple of gigs. So he was asked to help with backing vocals on the song.
Photo: Kevin Smith & Stewart Roney – (C) All Copyrighted