Andrew David Scott (born 30 June 1949) is a Welsh musician and songwriter. He is best known for being the lead guitarist and a backing vocalist in the glam rock band Sweet. Following bassist Steve Priest's death in June 2020, Scott is the last surviving member of the band's classic lineup.
Andy Scott was born on 30 June 1949 in Wrexham, North Wales; his father was a children's entertainer. Scott attended Grove Park School. Scott became acquainted with the guitar when he was a teenager and a family friend, having bought a new guitar, left the old one at Scott's house; he started playing around with it. The first record Scott bought was "The Frightened City" by The Shadows and the first band he saw was The Searchers, who were performing in his home city of Wrexham.
Scott's first gig was at St Peters Hall in Wrexham with The Rasjaks in November 1963. He then performed with other bands in Wales such as Guitars Incorporated and 3Ds.
He moved to guitar and played with other bands including The Saints, The ForeWinds, and The Missing Links. In 1966 he joined The Silverstone Set (later shortened to The Silverstones), who won the TV show Opportunity Knocks five weeks running, and appeared in the all-winners show for Christmas 1966, losing to Freddie Starr. One of their further highlights was to support Jimi Hendrix in Manchester in January 1967.
When The Silverstones split, Scott went on to form The Elastic Band, who recorded an album called Expansions of Life. Lead singer Ted Yeadon left to join Love Affair, however, before the album's release, the band folded. During this time they also recorded the album Pop Sounds, under the name The Cool.
Scott then played in the backing band for The Scaffold, which also included brother Mike Scott on bass and saxophone. He went on to join Mayfield's Mule, who recorded three singles, "Drinking My Moonshine", "I See a River" and "We Go Rollin'". An album was also released in Uruguay called Mayfields Mule with the song titles translated on the sleeve into Spanish. He moved out of Wales in 1970 to go to London.
In the late summer of 1970, Scott answered an advertisement in an issue of Melody Maker of a band looking for a new guitarist; the band was based around the corner from where Scott lived so he went. He passed the audition and replaced Mick Stewart in The Sweet after an audition in front of Brian Connolly, Steve Priest and Mick Tucker, as well as group managers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman. He was one of the last guitarists to audition. According to Steve Priest's autobiography Are You Ready Steve?, Scott turned up looking pretty untidy, with very long hair and scruffy clothes. He plugged his guitar in and immediately the amplifier began to feedback. He eventually performed his piece and the members of the band thought he should join The Sweet. On that same day, Scott had also auditioned for The Alan Bown Set.
Scott debuted with The Sweet at the Windsor Ballroom in Redcar, in September 1970.
Within six months of joining Sweet, they had their first hit, "Funny, Funny" which got to number 13 in the British chart, which was followed by "Co-Co", "Alexander Graham Bell", "Little Willy", and "Wig-Wam Bam". The band, who had previously been a psychedelic pop group, had started producing bubblegum pop records from Scott joining in 1970 until "Wig-Wam Bam" in 1972, from 1973 onwards they found higher fame as one of the leading glam rock artists, and had a number one with their first glam rock record, "Block Buster!".
Brian Connolly left in 1979 after the release of their last hit "Love Is Like Oxygen", and after contemplating on finding a new lead singer, Scott and Priest eventually both sang vocals. By 1982, Priest was living in America and Tucker did not want to tour anymore so they disbanded.
Scott's first single release in 1975 was a reworked version of the Desolation Boulevard track "Lady Starlight" backed by "Where D'Ya Go?". Both songs, recorded during the Give Us a Wink sessions, were written and produced by Scott and Mick Tucker and featured Scott playing all instruments except the drums (Tucker). Scott made a promotional video for the track and also appeared on Mike Mansfield's British television program, Supersonic.
Scott released his second solo single, "Gotta See Jane", in 1983 under the name Ladders. It was a cover of the R. Dean Taylor Motown hit and was produced by him and Louis Austin, who had worked with Sweet as their engineer on past ventures. The B-side "Krugerrands", co-written with Chris Bradford,
was subsequently released as the follow-up single (as Andy Scott this time), but like its predecessor, failed to chart, except in Australia where it peaked at number 89 and South Africa where it was a top 10 hit. In 1984, Scott released two more solo singles, "Let Her Dance" and "Invisible". A compilation of all his solo projects, including demos, was released by Repertoire Records in 1993, under the title 30 Years.
Paddy Goes to Holyhead and record production
Scott produced a couple of demos for Weapon, which was then fronted by Danny Hynes who went on to form Paddy Goes to Holyhead and Scott played with them now and again. Scott then produced, played on and appeared in the video for their single "Green Green Grass of Home" and then joined the band on a regular basis until reforming Sweet.
He produced the Suzi Quatro album, Back to the Drive, released in February 2006.
In 1985 Scott and Tucker re-formed Sweet with new members Paul Day (ex-Iron Maiden) on lead vocals, Phil Lanzon (ex-Grand Prix now with Uriah Heep) on keyboards, and Mal McNulty (ex-Weapon) on bass. This band became "Andy Scott's Sweet" following Tucker's departure in 1991.
Andy Scott's Sweet have released six albums, A (1992), The Answer (1995), Sweetlife (2002), New York Connection (2012), Isolation Boulevard (2020) and Full Circle (2024). Scott has stated that Full Circle was to be the last studio album they put out.