February 23, 1948 - June 4, 2020
THE SWEET’S LAST surviving co-founding member has died of an as-yet unrevealed cause. Steve Priest - once warned by David Bowie: “You know you really are putting much too much make-up on?” - was the band’s king of pantomime high camp. The Middlesex-born bassist, who once appeared on Top Of The Pops wearing a sequinned jumpsuit featuring the words ‘fuck you’ on its reverse, was always on the lookout for an opportunity to offend. When the show’s producer tried to make Priest remove said garment, he flatly refused. On the Christmas 1973 edition of TOTP Priest dressed as “a gay Nazi”, daubed in layers of make-up and sporting an SS tunic, complete with swastika armband and a Hitler moustache.