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'Brian Francis Connolly' (5 October 1945 - 9 February 1997 [1]) was a Scottish rock vocalist, best known as the lead singer for the glam rock band, Sweet.

Contents

Early life

Early music career and Sweet

After Sweet

References

Early life

Brian Connolly was born in 1945 in Govanhill, Glasgow, (some early Sweet biographies claim he was born in 1949). After having been left in a Glasgow hospital as an infant he was fostered aged two and took the name Brian McManus. When he was aged eighteen he discovered his lineage and changed his surname to his mother's, Connolly. His brother was not the late actor Mark "Taggart" McManus as is occasionally claimed. Mark's father and Brian's foster father Jim were brothers, thus making Mark McManus his (foster) cousin. The confusion is largely due to the fact that Jim McManus also had a son named Mark, and he and Brian grew up together.

Early music career and Sweet

At the age of twelve Connolly moved to Harefield, Middlesex and replaced singer Ian Gillan (later of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath fame) in a band called Wainwright's Gentlemen, which included drummer Mick Tucker. Wainwright's Gentlemen split up in 1968 without releasing any recordings. Connolly and Tucker remained together and then recruited guitarist Frank Torpey, and bassist Steve Priest, they named the new band Sweetshop. The group recorded several singles and eventually shortened their name to Sweet; Andy Scott joined the line-up in late 1970, just as the band started to become famous. Over the next thirteen years Connolly recorded albums with Sweet until his drinking problem caused him to leave the band in 1979.

After Sweet

After leaving Sweet, Connolly launched a solo career that had little success. In 1981 he survived multiple heart attacks in a single night, but his health was permanently affected. Despite this Connolly toured with his backing bands New Sweet and Brian Connolly's Sweet. In 1988 Connolly reunited with former bandmates Scott, Priest and Tucker to rework studio versions of "Action" and "Ballroom Blitz". The four reunited again in 1990 for the promotion of a music video documentary. However, by the late 1990s Connolly's previous drinking problem had taken a toll on his body, and he died of liver failure on 9 February 1997. He was survived by two daughters, Nicole and Michelle, and a son Brian James (BJ).

References

★ Biography at Hot Shot Digital