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Its difficult to say which band actually copied the other. Personally I think they both played to their strengths regarding vocal harmonies, though I do believe that Sweet did them better. Brian was as good a singer as Freddie Mercury, albeit with a different vocal style, Steve had a better voice than Brian May as the second vocalist, and Andy's general singing was at least on a par with Roger Taylor, if not slightly better. However, Andys falsetto's were a hundred times better than Rogers who tended to squeak rather than hit the high notes properly. And finally, Sweet had Mick Tucker who could also handle the microphone very well both as a lead and a backing singer, whereas John Deacon was never heard uttering a sound from his gob. I'd say that given that evidence, Sweet wins hands down in the vocals department.

For me, Queen went on to greater things and Sweet to virtual obscurity for three main reasons. Firstly, Queen never had the legacy of following on from having throw away bubblegum pop tunes. They first came onto the scene with the storming Keep Yourself Alive. It wasn't a brilliant song by a long way, but it was on a par with the B sides that Sweet were singing and holds its own when sang live.

Secondly, all their singles featured on albums. Sweets biggest failing at this time was not having a hit single or four on Sweet Fanny Adams. Just a couple of months before SFA hit the shops, Queen had hit the album charts with Queen 2 (Queen 1 had bombed and didn't chart itself until after Queen 2 was released) which had the minor hit Seven Seas Of Rhye on it.

Thirdly, although they were still having hit singles and albums in the late eighties, I believe that their street cred was really on the wane until Bowie teamed up with them for Under Pressure. Without that song being a massive hit, mainly because of Bowies personality, I reckon they'd have had a slow death.

From then on, they were assured of star status for eternity, helped immeasurable firstly by their headlining performance at Live Aid and also sadly because of Freddies death from AIDS.

There is something else that sticks in my mind as well. I remember them performing live on TV in the mid 70's, possibly before Bohemian Rhapsody was a hit, around Christmas time. Sweet never got that break and you can't beat that kind of prime time exposure, especially when so few other bands were getting an airing like that apart from on Top Of The Pops, which isn't as good a showcase as a complete live performance.

Cheers. Ewan.