Original subtitles

January 1978 saw the release of love is

like oxygen a song for which Andy Scott

received an Ivor Novello nomination the

avant-garde style of the song contrasts

to the sweet sound of the past

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[Music]

I can't shake up my city blues

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everywhere - now

the lovers that oxygen thing the the

whole thing surrounding it we had

basically been to the chateau in France

to record the album we come back to

London to do some finishings and

somebody there was a song that we've

been tinkering with my old sound

engineer a guy called Trevor I had been

tinkering with this thing on a piano and

I'd been putting some guitar stuff to it

and I said to him I think I can do

something with this you know so I

recorded me and him just playing the

various bits of love is the oxygen of

which there were more parts than this so

it needed some editing down because he

was being a little bit wreck man and off

with what he wanted it you know it's

like a bit of a symphony going on in his

head you know and I was saying well that

bit that bit and that bit those are the

three main character bits and we got him

a producer arranger involved a guy

called Jeff Wesley who I don't think

Mick and Steve took took two very well

he was a bit austere and you know aloof

you know knew his onions and knew his

classical composition you know spacings

and you know the way you can play an A

in the bass but have a b-flat up here

you know something like that some

something very obscure you know but I

liked his ideas a lot and when we

started to bounce someone heard this

basis of love is like oxygen and the

other guys they probably didn't like

that I got Jeff Wesley involved to do an

arrangement for love is that oxygen this

guy has got a classically trained mind

so he's putting it in a classical

environment not in a rock band

environment where the bass follows the

notes of the chords so it's all all over

the place so musically we're already

into a different area than we've ever

been before I I loved it I thought it

was absolutely

fantastic and I got I virtually got the

song finished in my head by the time we

done the backing track and we had a

weekend off and I went home and on the

Monday when I came back I played them

love is like oxygen with all the lyrics

and all the melody and all the words and

they were like wow so I then basically

it's just started to transfer what I'd

done at home on to the multitrack

because there was no point in you know

re-recording all of it we just stuck

some of it across then but Brian had to

sing something

so the verses were were possible

somebody got him in early one morning

and he went in there and within two or

three takes he'd done the verses of

lovers laughs and it was absolutely

brilliant when you've got a song like

lovers the oxygen the breaks into the

top ten in every country virtually in

the world you know you've got a big hit

you know and that's what happened with

Fox on the run and that's what happened

with love is that oxygen I came up with

love is like oxygen which was a great

record and and I thought to myself ah

well you know maybe I was wrong and

maybe they can move on from there but

they didn't and of course it was after

that point that the band really started

to get into chaos and and you know Brian

had leavin and whatever love is like

oxygen peaked in the charts at number

nine and gave the band hope of

rekindling their previous success

however such were Brian's alcohol

problems that he began to find it

increasingly difficult to fulfill his

role as lead singer of the band once the

lead singer starts to be unreliable and

show up drunk and then and and whatever

and he really I was terribly fond of

Brian I liked him very very much as a

person but the drink did get ahold of

him Brian was a highly insecure man and

in a way that was part of his appeal as

a person because he was vulnerable he

you know he was a real

nice guy and it was part of his appeal

but the drink got a hold of that I mean

part of sweet folklore is that he was

taken into hospital one night and has

something like nine cardiac arrests and

survived pretty strong guy and of course

that contributed a huge amount and bit

by bit he became a shadow of the garden

he was so the band couldn't have gone on

with him ultimately anyway even though

we were aware that things weren't right

you still couldn't tell us that the best

thing that could happen is the brine

should leave the band we were still not

at that stage until I guess it had got

to that point where more and more Steve

and myself was singing ensuite albums

because he never showed up at the studio

or when he did he was a bit worse for

wear from either the night before or

what had happened this lunchtime and the

frustrations that the vine within your

realizing that you're not getting the

best out of everything because he's the

lead singer and it should be his voice

on this particular track for example on

love is like oxygen I son the whole all

the parts in the chorus because I it was

quick quicker and easier for me to just

do it

Brian sang the verse um it's it's it's

what happens in recording it you know as

I said it's it's what you hear on

records it's not always the person that

you think it is that singing singing all

the parts because we were all very

malleable and interchangeable without

you know with our vocal ranges I think

that you do yourself no favors when in

front of the management team and in

front of 20,000 people in Alabama you go

onstage absolutely wrecked and you can't

even start the first song and this is

what happened to Brian and our manager

pulled him off the stage when we

finished as the set as a three-piece

band which we had done a couple of times

previously I think that was the big

of the end for everything everybody

where unless this can be fixed now he

has to go there was a um we pulled out a

few American dates which I wasn't

pleased about because it was felt that

we needed to get ourselves back together

write some new material and see how it

was going to work out with Brian it was

all kind of coming to a head where I

basically said well I remember me and

Steve were basically at that point of he

must go on and I understood Mick's stand

100% you know we've been together this

long we can work this out and and I said

well I can't work it out with him you

know if somebody else has to do it you

know and we even tried different people

going in the studio to record his voice

not me and he still wasn't you know what

wasn't getting there and the best

decision was that this is the time where

there are things that you can do but not

with us and well I was hoping it was

going to get too nasty but you know I

did did for a moment or two but I think

he probably saw the I've since spoken to

his his then-wife you know Marilyn and

she's um you know she said to me that at

that time you know it was it was it was

extremely difficult to you know to get a

full focus on what was going on but now

you've had time to think about it and

look back at it that was the only

decision that could be made it was

probably not the right decision because

we had three more albums in us it was

never going to be quite the same

once Brian had gone it was better

musically and it was better from a band

point of view but we were never going to

have the same impact again because we

were just a damn good Bend rather than a

band with the oddball characters here

and they're all doing their you know all

we've done is we've knuckled ourselves

down into becoming a good hard-working

rock band rather than the band that's

got the

if uh the guy who's going to hit the

press every you know every other week

Brian Conley officially left the band in

February 1979 the band continued as a

three-piece sharing the vocals but they

were never to enjoy the same amount of

success as they had previously in 1982

following the release of three

unsuccessful albums levelheaded cut

above the rest and identity crisis the

suite officially split during the 80s

and 90s

Brian Connolly toured extensively with

various lineups on the 9th of February

1997 Brian Connolly tragically passed

away at the age of 52 from a suspected

stroke in heart attack

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Micke Tucker sadly lost his long fight

against leukemia on Valentine's Day 2002

aged 54 Andy Scott still tours today

with his band AAS sweet and Steve priest

now lives in America

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this is a band that were successful on a

worldwide basis they had hits everywhere

including America where a lot of acts

around that time didn't and they were

massively successful and I think made

one or two records that were landmark

records and I remember when Brian died

and they did a Top of the Pops too

special on him and Johnny Walker called

him the Godfather of Glan and in a way

that in itself says how much of an

impact they had

[Music]

five words to describe sweet talented

energetic excessive very difficult

arrogant would be one single-minded

would be another definitely talented

sometimes difficult but when there was

women around always affable