Brian Connolly of " Sweet " -- Sad Farewell

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Brian Connolly, singer and songwriter: born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire on
the October 5, 1945. He married (two daughters; marriage dissolved; one
son by Jean Dibble) and died in Slough on the 10th of February 1997. Brian
Connolly, the blond lead singer with the Seventies glam-rockers Sweet, saw
both sides of the coin. His band sold over 50 million records, but he fell
from grace and ultimately couldn't capitalise on the recent renewed
interest in all things glitter. He was born in Hamilton, near Glasgow, in
1949, Connolly was probably the half-brother of the actor Mark McManus
(who played the Scottish television detective Taggart). The young Brian
was fostered by the McManus family, having been abandoned by his mother as
a baby; however, when he moved to Middlesex in his teens, he dropped the
surname McManus in favour of Connolly. (Rumours persisted that his father
was "Mark's dad. I think Mark was my half-brother." Whatever the truth
behind their common lineage, he and Mark McManus both later admitted their
resemblance to each other was uncanny.) Connolly studied to become an
engineer but music was more of an attraction for a youngster keen to make
his mark on the world.