Friday April 30th1976

Sweet Sensation was an eight piece British soul group who had some success between 1974 and 1977.

Formed in Manchester in 1973 the band came to prominence after appearing on the ITV talent show New Faces.
Under the guidance of panellist Tony Hatch the band signed to Pye Records. The debut single "Snow Train" failed to reach the charts, but the follow up "Sad Sweet Dreamer" was a UK number one single in September 1974, also reaching #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 the following spring.

The follow up "Purely by Coincidence" reached #11 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1975.

Follow-up singles "Hide Away from The Sun", "Mr Cool", "Sweet Regrets" and "Mail Train" all failed to make the charts over the next couple of years.
In 1977 the band participated in Song For Europe in an attempt to represent the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Their song "You're My Sweet Sensation" ended in eighth place. Subsequently, they were then dropped by Pye and disbanded shortly after.
However, they were the forerunners of many similar acts from The Real Thing to Imagination.

The youngest member and lead vocalist, Marcel King, tried to resurrect a solo career in 1985, and with Donald Johnson (A Certain Ratio) and Bernard Sumner (New Order) recorded "Reach For Love" in 1991 on Factory Records without commercial success. He died of a brain haemorrhage on 5 October 1995 at the age of 38.
The tragedy deepened two years later when his son Zeus, 19, was shot dead in an outbreak of gang warfare in South Manchester.

Bass guitarist, Barry Johnson later joined Quando Quango and then Aswad.

25.08.2008. 21:09

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