Sweet still brings the heat: Glam-rock veterans bring decades of hits to Park City

Stevie Stewart says the band’s enduring songs, high-energy performances and growing appeal to younger fans keep the spirit of ’70s rock alive.

PARK CITY, Utah – When Sweet launches into “Ballroom Blitz,” the expectation isn’t that audiences will sit back and appreciate a faithful recreation of a bygone era. Instead, the band will be hoping for a reaction and to see people get up and move.

“We do not phone it in,” said Stevie Stewart, the band’s keyboardist-turned-bassist. “We just love playing these songs, and we bring more energy to them than even on the records.”

That energy will arrive at Park City’s Egyptian Theatre Nov. 6-8, when the British glam-rock band takes the stage for a three-day run packed with songs that helped define the 1970s, including “Fox on the Run,” “Little Willy” and “Love Is Like Oxygen.”

For Stewart, the appeal is straightforward: The songs are still a blast to play, decades after they first became hits.

“You can’t not enjoy these songs, this music,” he said.

Sweet rose to international fame during the glam-rock boom of the 1970s, when theatrical performances, flamboyant fashion and big, catchy hooks helped set the band apart. Its catalog has endured well beyond the decade that produced it, with songs appearing in films and television shows and finding new audiences through streaming and social media.

Stewart said the band is seeing younger fans turn up at shows alongside those who remember the music the first time around, crediting social media for expanding Sweet’s audience.

He also sees a generational curiosity about an era when bands built their identities around a distinctive sound and personality.

“Music is so different today,” Stewart said, describing a landscape dominated by solo artists and home recording technology. “To see a real ’70s band of guys that are pretty well-oiled, it’s a cool thing.”

He expects newcomers to leave the show feeling their ticket was worth it.

Keeping Sweet’s legacy alive

The Sweet touring today is not the original lineup that rose to fame in the 1970s. After the original group disbanded in 1981, founding member Steve Priest eventually returned to the road, bringing Stewart and drummer Richie Onori into the project in 2007 to carry the band’s music forward.

Stewart and Onori became Priest’s business and musical partners. When Priest died in 2020, they faced a decision about whether to continue.

They, along with Priest’s family decided to keep the band going, in part because they still had a business to run and musicians depending on it.

The current lineup features lead singer Ari Kamin, guitarist Jimmy Burkard and keyboardist Dave Schulz alongside Stewart and Onori.

Stewart said the musicians’ shared enthusiasm is what keeps the show alive. The songs remain fun in rehearsal as well as onstage, and the musicians bring their own experience and energy to the material.

For Stewart, the role has also meant a change of instrument. A keyboard player for most of his career, he took over the bass role associated with Priest after discussions with the band and Priest’s family.

A different kind of ’70s nostalgia

If Stewart could bring one thing back from the era that made Sweet famous, it wouldn’t be the platform boots or the extravagant stage costumes. It would be the sense that every band was trying to sound different.

He remembers a musical landscape populated by acts including Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, The Who, David Bowie and Queen, each with a distinctive identity.

“It was a very experimental time,” he said. “Everybody did something different.”

Record companies still wanted hits, Stewart said, but artists and engineers were also exploring new sounds and recording techniques. Making a record required collaboration, craft and focus — and the results helped shape popular music for years afterward.

Sweet’s own identity was more complicated than its bubblegum-pop reputation might suggest. “Little Willy”  and “Ballroom Blitz” helped make the band famous, but Stewart said some members bristled at being pigeonholed as a teen-oriented act.

Songs such as “Fox on the Run,” which the band wrote itself, and harder-hitting tracks including “Set Me Free” and “Sweet F.A.” showed another side of the group.

The upcoming shows draw from that range, Stewart said, balancing familiar radio favorites with material that packs a heavier punch.

From freestyle skiing to the Egyptian

Stewart has yet to perform in Park City, though he said some of his bandmates have visited. The city may be new to him as a concert destination, but the mountains are not entirely unfamiliar territory.

During the interview, Stewart shared his connection to the early days of freestyle skiing. Stewart grew up in Minneapolis and participated in aerials, ballet and other forms of freestyle skiing, back when skiers were experimenting with ramps, short skis and techniques that later became more commonplace.

The conversation turned from music to makeshift training ramps beside frozen lakes, practicing tricks on trampolines while wearing skis, and cutting and reshaping ski tips to make certain moves possible.

It was an unexpected detour from glam rock, but a fitting reminder that the 1970s were a time of experimentation well beyond the recording studio.

Now, Stewart is looking forward to playing the Egyptian Theatre, which he understands to be an intimate venue. He said the band is excited for the three-night stand.

The promise is a show built around enduring songs, seasoned musicians and a band that still rocks.

For longtime fans, it’s a chance to revisit the soundtrack of an era. For younger listeners, it’s an opportunity to see what made those songs last.

And if Stewart has his way, the audience won’t just recognize the music. They’ll feel it.