Music Legends - Brian Connelly

For todays post I thought I'd pay tribute to a Glam Rock Legend Brian Connolly of "The Sweet" one of the most underated groups in English Rock Music history.
He was born in Glasgow in 1945 to a teenage waitress Francis Connolly (Father unknown) and was fostered by Jim and Helen McManus and grew up known as Brian Francis McManus. One popular story is that he was step brother to the late star of Taggert fame Mark McManus. Actually this is inaccurate he was actually a step cousin as Jim was Marks fatehers brother (hope that makes sense).

Anyway when he started to perform around the local Pub scene he reverted to his mothers name Connolly. In 1965 he joined a group called "Wainwrights People" whose drummer was Mick Tucker, Connolly actually replaced Ian Gillan who later became well known for his roles with Deep Purple & Black Sabbath.

In 1968 Connolly & Tucker (who was a brilliant Drummer) formed a group called "The Sweetshop" later to be shortened to "The Sweet". Sadly neither Connolly or Tucker are with us today so is a short video tribute to both :-

One or two mucisians were tried before The Sweet got their well known line up of Connolly, Tucker, Steve Priest & Andy Scott and success was found.

The group only had one Number one single the superb "Blockbuster" in 1973 but had a unbelievable five songs reach the number 2 spot. They had many other great hits in the glam glory years between 71 & 76.

The group had World wide success and had a string of chart its including many Number ones in many countries around the World including USA, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Australia, etc.

Ask most Glam fans what is the best Glam song of all time, I reckon the majority would go for the classic "Ballroom Blitz" it just doesn't get any better than this :-

Back to Connolly he left The Sweet in 1979 to pursue a solo career but didn't have the same success, in 1981 he suffered multiple heart attacks which left suffering health wise.

Connolly eventually passed away in 1997 at the age of 51 due to liver failure, years of alcohol abuse in his earlier life had taken its revenge. He is survived by three Children, two daughters Nicole & Michelle plus a son Brian James.

Finally just got to play one more Sweet classic so here it is "Little Willy" :-

RIP Brian a true Glam King