Sweet’s 2023 Full Circle tour kicked off in Andy Scott’s birth town of Wrexham the previous night before making its way to Wolverhampton. Opening the show is Sari Schorr who must rank as one of the most hard working artists visiting the UK this year. We’ve already caught her twice both with full electric band as a headliner and as a pared down duo supporting Kiefer Sutherland. Tonight is another acoustic set where she is joined by FM’s Jim Kirkpatrick.

‘Freedom’ and a cover of Paul McCartney’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ open the show with the pair both in fine fettle. ‘Damn The Reason’ is powerful and emotional, while the soulful ‘Valentina’ loses none of its’ potency in this stripped down form. A cover of Quo’s ‘Down Down’ proves to be a winner with something everybody recognises and to get them geared up for the main attraction.

The last couple of months of the year have traditionally always been a busy time on the gig calendar filled with clashes and bands vying for your business, and this Saturday night had plenty of options across the Midlands. However, following Sweet‘s triumphant show last year at KK’s Steel Mill it made for an easy decision. Sweet have always boasted some great mutli talented musicians but the current line up has to be one of the strongest in years. This is evident immediately on the hard hitting opener of ‘Action’ with stand out harmony vocals from messrs Manzi, Scott and Small. Lee Small then takes the lead on ‘New York Groove’, the Russ Ballard track made famous by Ace Frehely. It’s 50 years since Glam classic ‘Hellraiser’ almost topped the UK charts and it still rocks hard with Manzi’s enthusiastic performance guaranteeing a worthy response.

I can recall when Sweet supported Rainbow that Andy Scott announced to the audience “Don’t worry if you don’t know what to expect, you’re going to know every song”. That’s something that has been true, as the casual listener would probably be surprised with how many songs are actually ingrained within them. However, the current line up have a new album, Full Circle, due early next year so we get to hear some songs from that. ‘Don’t Bring Me Water’ has been out a while and makes use of those stellar vocal harmonies, but ‘Circus’ we are told is getting its’ first live airing. Along with ‘Everything’ the new album promises to be something very special. Scott takes a moment to recognise Paul Manzi stating how lucky he feels to have one of the best vocalists in the country at the moment in his band. A fact with which you cannot argue. Scott then takes a break while the rest of the band go right back to the start of Sweet and run through a trio of ‘Co-Co’, ‘Funny Funny’ and ‘Poppa Joe’ that show yet another side of Sweet away from the hard rock and glam, but one that Mazi says was very important to the history of Sweet.

Andy returns and mentions how much he enjoys playing the Midlands and draws on the list of all the great bands that came from the area, including Sabbath, Slade and Priest amongst others. He then tears through a scorching ‘Set Me Free’ which has him using a bottle for the slide on one of the heaviest songs of the night. Its no wonder Saxon chose to cover this on their Crusader album.

It’s the massive hitters though that brings the crowd to a frenzy; ‘Teenage Rampage’ is the point at which most people stand up to dance. ‘Wig Wam Bam’ continues in the same vein and ‘Love Is Like Oxygen’ finally sees Tom Cory more up front away from his spot at the back providing rhythm and keyboard support.

A trio of timeless gems that is ‘Fox On The Run’, ‘Blockbuster’ and ‘Ballroom Blitz’ is the only way to end the evening with everybody out of their seats dancing and singing along. Sweet yet again proving they are still at the top of their game providing a supremely enjoyable night out.

Full Circle seems to suggest that Sweet are starting to wind things up and it’s no secret that Andy Scott isn’t keen on doing tours that take him all over European for long periods of time so whether this is indeed their last tour remains to be seen. But if this does turn out to be Sweet’s last hurrah for Wolverhampton, it’s one hell of a way to be saying their goodbyes.

Setlist:

Action
New York Groove
Hell Raiser
Burn on the Flame
The Six Teens
Don’t Bring Me Water
Changes
Co-Co
Funny Funny
Poppa Joe
Everything
Circus
Set Me Free
Teenage Rampage
Wig Wam Bam / Little Willy
Love Is Like Oxygen
Fox on the Run
Blockbuster
The Ballroom Blitz