Steve Priest gets ready for the return of Sweet to North America
By Alex Lloyd Gross
For some people they have waited 40 plus years, others have waited their entire life to see the band Sweet. The waiting is just about over, especially locally . April 27 2018 ,they will play at Havana New Hope. “It will be a party won’t it”, Steve Priest said, when the club was described for him over the phone. The bass player is a founding member of the 70,s glam rock band. A nice intimate venue with great acoustics and a promoter that knows and loves the music. When asked about the show in store for Havana, he was enthusiastic about it. “We get a great age group, from kids up to adults like to come out to see us.”
“The show will be about 90 minutes, we give you a lot of the hits from Desolation Boulevard forward,” Priest said. For their older songs, you can expect a medley of songs, “About three of four of them,” he said. One question that was on peoples minds was the correct name of the band. Is it SWEET or THE SWEET. Priest sets the record straight. “The only way we could get the trademark in this country was to do The Sweet. We call ourselves Sweet, but officially, we’re The Sweet,” he said.
This is being billed as the 50th anniversary for the band. There have been some line up changes and different variations of the band but Steve Priest has not been involved with those. The line up for this band is Rich Oroni on drums, Steve Stewart keyboards, Pauli Z on lead vocals , Mitch Perry ( from Lita Ford’s band) on guitar and Steve Priest is on bass.
As for meeting the band, Priest is not sure if there will be any meet and greets . “Hopefully, we can do a signing,” he said. The band is selling merchandise. When bands sign merchandise, the merchandise sells. Steve Priest has never played Havana before, but he did visit the town as a tourist. The band toured in the 1970,s but that was a long time ago. “I wanted to show people what this band is all about. When we toured in 1976 and 78, we really did not tour enough.”.
When they did tour, they were the opening band. Such acts like Bob Seger , “We were such a cross section of music back then,” he said. Tickets for the Sweet headline show are still available. Do not wait to buy it at the door. It will be sold out by then, Go to this site to make sure you have yours.