QSP - Quatro, Scott & Powell

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QSP - Quatro, Scott & Powell

Warner Music Russia (!)

Released 2017

Get three of the top 1970's Pop/Rock Superstars together, with over 150 years of musical experience between them, stick them in a studio and let the magic happen!

(Don, Suzi and Andy)

It's kind of how it went with the collective known as QSP that features Suzi Quatro - Bass and Vocals, Andy Scott (The Sweet) - Guitar and Vocals and Don Powell (Slade) - Drums.

All three were a huge part of my musical life back when I was a kid. There was always the debate as to who was better Slade or The Sweet (Slade won it hands down every time in my book!) and of course the Detroit Dynamite Suzi Quatro was probably one of the first posters on the wall for many a young boy back then! I had seen video of Suzi and Andy working together before back in the 1980's so it was a real surprise to see Don joining them and making a classic little Supergroup!

The album was released in Australia earlier this year when the band were touring and it's only recently been issued here in Europe as a Deluxe Edition. Whilst a number of Cover versions are included on the album the band actually wrote some songs specifically for the album.

I was actually very impressed with it.

QSP

Listen Here:

Tracklist

 1 Slow Down 3:45
2 Long Way From Home 6:14
3 Tobacco Road 3:42
4 If Only 4:42
5 Bright Lights Big City 5:45
6 Pain (Band Version) 4:08*
7 Just Like A Woman 5:12
8 Mend A Broken Heart 3:24*
9 The Price Of Love 5:05
10 Broken Pieces Suite 5:54*
11 I Walk On Gilded Splinters 5:57*
12 Late Nights Early Flights 3:52
13 Little Sister 3:09
14 Fever (New Track) 5:38*
15 Tossin' & Turnin' (New Track) 3:17*
16 Pain (Orchestral) 4:03

* Not included on the playlist due to not being available on You Tube.

Stepping Back to the 1970's

Suzi, Andy and Don!

Five of their Best

Click on The Links To Watch/Listen

Suzi Quatro

01 The Wild One

02 Devil Gate Drive

03 48 Crash

04 I May Be Too Young

05 Mama's Boy

The Sweet

01 Ballroom Blitz

02 Teenage Rampage

03 Hell Raiser

04 The Six Teens

05 Blockbuster

Slade

01 Cum on Feel The Noize

02 How Does It Feel

03 Get Down and Get With It

04 We'll Bring The House Down

05 Shape of Things To Come

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 209 Sweet

The Ballroom Blitz & More Sweet Hits - Sweet

BMG (Australia)/Arista

Australian Chart #19

01. The Ballroom Blitz
02. Fox On The Run
03. Wig Wam Bam
04. Little Willy
05. Co-Co
06. Alexander Graham Bell
07. Funny Funny
08. The Sixteens
09. Lies In Your Eyes
10. Poppa Joe
11. Blockbuster
12. Hell Raiser
13. Teenage Rampage
14. Action
15. Peppermint Twist
16. Stairway To The Stars
17. Jeanie    
18. Chop Chop
19. Spotlight
20. Love Is Like Oxygen

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Sweet (Left to Right)

Mick Tucker - Drums and Backing Vocals, Brian Connolly - Lead Vocals, Andy Scott - Guitars, Backing Vocals, Keyboards and Synthesisers, and Steve Priest - Bass and Backing Vocals

On this day in musical history The Sweet (as they were known up until the end of 1973) had their American and Canadian Debut released on Bell Records entitled The Sweet. In essence it was just a compilation of some singles and B-sides and a couple of other tracks thrown in for good measure. It peaked at #46 in Canada and #191 in the USA. The minimal chart success they had in both Canada and the US had come from Little Willy (#1 Canada and #3 US) and Blockbuster (#30 Canada, #73 US).

I was going to put together a playlist of the album but decided instead to provide another Compilation of music from Sweet, this time a 1992 album that was released in Australia that reached #19 in their charts. The reason for this particular choice was I was having a listen to it last night (I have no idea where I acquired the album from - maybe a charity shop) and I liked the great mix of songs that were on it.

Many of these songs were my favourites when I was a kid. Next to Slade, Sweet were my second favourite band. What was really amazing about Sweet though was that pretty much all their hit singles were penned by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman whilst most of the B-Sides were written by the band and they were very different to the Pop tunes they were having hits with, more rock and even heavy rock at times (especially from 1974 onwards)! They were also known not to play their hit singles in concert, resorting more to B-Sides and Album Tracks! This didn't always go down well with the fans!

These days though with the two versions of Sweet that are going around some of these classic songs can be heard. If you go on their Wikipedia page you can read about all of that!

I posted back in March this year about stumbling across their New York Connection album from 2012 that I did even know existed before. A really impressive album from the Andy Scott line-up of the band.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

New York Connection - Sweet (2012)

So I was listening recently to a newish compilation from Sweet called Action: The Ultimate Story (2015 RCA/Sony) - they were, alongside Slade, one of my favourite bands when I was a kid. A few tracks into it comes a song that I know quite well because it was recorded by a band called Hello back in 1975 (I think) - New York Groove. The Sweet version threw me for a loop because they cut Alicia Keys' New York into it (or to sound cooler you'd probably say Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind)!

I had to investigate this further because I was really quite blown away by it, and so I found a video of them performing in Poland in 2013 doing Blitzkrieg Bop!! I know, very strange! I discovered this also was on the album New York Connection which was a self-released album from 2012.

Finally manged to track down a copy of the album and have to say I was very impressed indeed. The covers of Because the Night, Sweet Jane, Blitzkrieg Bop, and Join Together I thought were absolutely stunning.

If you haven't heard the album yourself then you can do so below. Enjoy.

The only original member of the band these days is Andy Scott.

 Andy Scott's Sweet are:
    Bass, Lead Vocals – Peter Lincoln
    Drums – Bruce Bisland
    Guitar – Andy Scott
    Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Tony O'Hora

Tracklist

01: A cover of Hello - New York Groove
02: A cover of The Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling
03: A cover of Electric Frankenstein - All Moving Faster

04: Originally a B-side to Sweet's 1972 Wig-Wam Bam Single - New York Connection
05: A cover of The Yardbirds - Shapes of Things
06: A cover of Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round
07: A cover of Patti Smith - Because The Night
08: A cover of The Velvet Underground - Sweet Jane
09: A cover of The Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
10: A cover of The Cookies On Broadway
11: A cover of The Who - Join Together