The Sweet/Troy Redfern –
The Adrian Flux Waterfront, Norwich, Friday, 20th December, 2024
Set List: Shakin'/Taking My Soul/Native/Dark Religion/Waiting For Your Love/Sanctify.
Troy Redfern got us warmed up very nicely aided by drummer Paul Annis. Our virtuoso gunslinger of a guitarist, has an enigmatic image, dressed all colour in a cool hat with a neckline of beads.
He delivers an unrestrained blitz of fretboard fingering that was almost over before it begun. It’s early curfew night at the Waterfront, meaning a 7pm start for our hotshot guitarist. He was allocated 30 minutes and attacked from the off with incendiary wizardry for his 6 songs.
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It was a non-stop rush of notes with Paul Annis doing his best from a standing position, to create a rhythm for Redfern to fly around. Troy introduces ‘Waiting For Your Love’ stating it is from my The Fire Cosmic album from 2021
As that finishes he launches into the frantic blues work out of ‘Sanctify’ also from Cosmic, it is a breathtaking finish! He then thanks the crowd before saying have a great night with Sweet, I will see you at the merchandise desk.
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Set List: Action/Hellraiser/Burn On Flame/The Six Teens/Don’t Bring Me Water/ Destination Hannover/Co-Co/Funny Funny/Poppa Joe/Circus/Set Me Free/Windy City/Ac/Dc/Teenage Rampage/Wig-Wam Bam/Little Willy/Love Is Like Oxygen/ Fox On The Run.
Encore: Blockbuster/Ballroom Blitz.
Tonight was one of six special gigs for Sweet. I say special but what I mean is surviving member, Andy Scott has not been able to appear at these shows for medical reasons. Andy will be resuming in the new year. Standing in for him we have FM guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick, who does a great job.
I have heard a few murmurs of discontent, some saying the gigs should have been cancelled. I wanted to see how Kirkpatrick fitted in. More importantly, Andy wanted the shows to go ahead and judging by the size of the crowd and their collective enthusiasm so did most of the punters.
I think it would be fair to say that all the members had to up their respective game for the show, I mean Andy is simply Sweet, maybe even Mr Sweet! Without his presence things could fall flat. It could become something of a tribute act performance. The fact that this didn’t happen is down to the performers on the stage.
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We got ‘Action’ followed by ‘Hellraiser’ from this point on it was more than clear we were in for a great night. There were many show highlights, mine being a super version of ‘Love Is Like Oxygen’. When your set consists of perennial favourites like ‘Teenage Rampage’ and ‘Fox On The Run’ you really can’t go wrong, especially when you can encore with 'Blockbuster' and 'Ballroom Blitz'.
There was a feel-good factor that emanated from the stage and throughout the crowd. There were smiles, even from Kirkpatrick! Mr. K. put on a great display! There was a camaraderie, a vibe that connected it to all. Singer, Paul Manzi really had his work cut out. He after all was the frontman and had to fill the huge void, he did it spectacularly.
Credit goes to Bassist, Lee Small, Guitarist/Keyboardist, Tom Cory and Drummer, Adam Booth. Together they kept the Sweet flag flying high in the absence of the main man and do Scott proud.
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The evening flew by, ending before 10pm. The clock or the time didn’t matter because collectively we had all had a great evening. It still makes me laugh to hear men in their sixties sing ‘Wig Wam Bam’ and ‘Little Willy’ but that is part of the magic. As a night it was fun, fun, fun. Actually, though this review is short it was GLAMTASTIC!
You will all be pleased to know Andy Scott is recovering well and surprised everyone with an appearance at the final show of these gigs. He will be back and so will Sweet in 2025, I know you will be there as well.
By Paul Mace