The Story Behind The Song: Sweet’s brutal true tale ‘Ballroom Blitz’
For a band to find its feet, it can take anything to get a song started. Whether combing through one’s mind to find something that works or finding a gimmick worthy of turning into a song, each artist has that one bolt of inspiration that sends them on their way to stardom. In the case of Sweet, though, they got one of their biggest hits out of any other band’s worst nightmare.
As the Flower generation dissipated at the start of the ‘70s, acts like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath guided rock and roll into a new era. Alongside the heavier stripe of music, there was David Bowie, whose approach to glamorous rock and roll resonated with Andy Scott and Brian Connolly when they were putting together their band.
At one of their first shows, things didn’t go well, with fans starting to hurl items at the stage. While the band tried to hold it together, it didn’t take long before the whole place dissolved into utter chaos as the group scrambled to either continue playing or face the brunt of a disgruntled crowd.
Instead of walking away from the show with their tail between their legs, Scott turned the incident into ‘Ballroom Blitz’, becoming one of the band’s greatest hits. As opposed to the chaotic portions of the show, the lyrics throw the listener into the melee, making up storylines such as a girl in the corner of the room that no one ignores because she thinks she’s the passionate one.
In this scenario, the chaos gets the gig going, blending the kitschy tone of glam rock with the aggressive edge of punk that was slowly rearing its head and would come to full fruition just a few years later. The vocal delivery from Connolly also owes a bit to the sounds of heavy metal, channelling a scream that falls a few notches below what Robert Plant was going for on Zeppelin’s first few records.
While those bands may have relied on blues structures, this was as pure pop as it gets, marrying the stabbing chords of rock and roll with some of the most infectious pop hooks in England. Even though things were looking grim for Sweet, Scott mentioned this energy helped them resonate with fans.
In the wake of the ‘60s coming to an end, Scott thought that many kids turned to acts like them to help get them through some of the harder times in their life, telling Metal Evolution, “England was having a harder time during the glam rock period. Usually, when that starts happening, the pubs fill up, and people generally want to have a good time that gets them away from the things that were going on in their life. We were probably very fortunate to be the outlet for their frustration”.
‘Ballroom Blitz’ ended up being the skeleton key for the band, going on to notch up even more hits on the hit parade like ‘Fox on the Run’, each having a less dour tone than what people were hearing out of the hard rock or progressive genres. Despite all the frustrations that got them started, Sweet was ready to entertain their audience no matter the cost. It may have been the best way to kick off their career, but leave it to one of the glam rock legends to turn a drunken bar fight into a roaring good time.
