Alexis Petridis: Steve Priest - the outrageous Sweet bassist who presaged heavy metal - dies aged 72

Guardian's Alexis Petridis might not especially like Sweet, but he does see the influence British glam-rock band had: "British punk was staffed largely by people who had grown up in front of the glam-era TOTP, underlined when the Damned covered Ballroom Blitz. Moreover, they were a huge influence on 80s metal: Axl Rose claimed they were his favourite band, Def Leppard covered 'Hell Raiser' and 'Action', the nascent Mötley Crüe attempted to seek them out for career advice. You didn’t have to examine hair metal too hard to see the Sweet’s ghost, you just had to look at the photos: straight boys covered in makeup, possessed by a desire to shock, every one of them metaphorically Steve Priest’s offspring".