FOR a boy born a stone's throw away the Racecourse Ground, there was only ever one team for the young Andy Scott to support.

"Cut me and I'm Wrexham all the way through," laughs Andy, who went on to find huge fame as the guitarist with 70s rock trailblazers The Sweet.

"I first went with my father when I was five or six so I've been supporting them for nearly 64 years. "I remember when Wrexham reached the fourth round of the FA Cup in 1957 where they played Manchester United's Busby Babes. We were allowed to take our life in our own hands as small boys and sit on the wall and I remember Tommy Taylor coming over to pick the ball up right in front of us. A year later Munich happened."

This week Andy brings The Sweet back to Wrexham for a special 50th Anniversary gig with the life-long supporter also donating all ticket profits from the show to his hometown football club.

Andy, who is brother of Wrexham AFC commercial manager Geoff, says: "I'm really looking forward to doing the show in Wrexham, we all are.

"It's an added bonus being able to return to my hometown and help the football club at the same time.

"It must be over ten years since we last played another benefit for the club and that was back when they were in real trouble.

"My brother is the commercial manager at the club and Wrexham is his passion so to get involved has been really good for him and the club."

Andy was only 21-years-old when he joined The Sweet in the summer of 1970, but by then he was a veteran of the North Wales music scene. His first gig was at St Peters Hall in Wrexham with The Rasjaks in November 1963 before playing with the likes of Guitars Incorporated and 3Ds. He then played with other bands including The Saints, The ForeWinds, and The Missing Links before he joined The Silverstone Set, who won the TV show Opportunity Knocks five weeks running, and supported Jimi Hendrix in Manchester in 1967.

When The Silverstones split, Andy went on to form The Elastic Band, who recorded a highly collectable psychedelic album called Expansions of Life before he then played in the backing band for The Scaffold, which also included his brother Mike on bass and saxophone.

"Back then you went through your apprenticeship playing town halls and clubs and functions," says Andy. "The Silverstones even played the Christmas Ball at the Duke of Westminter's place near Chester. We played in his grounds in a tent - he loved our band!"

Andy replaced Mick Stewart in The Sweet after an audition in front of Brian Connolly, Steve Priest and Mick Tucker, as well as group managers and legendary songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman.

"They played me some songs that Brian had sung on that had been written by Chinn and Chapman and when you turn professional the first thing you want is success," says Andy.

"I remember asking them when I joined 'what are we here for?' and they replied 'to go as far as we can' and that was good enough for me."

A year later songs like Little Willy, Wig Wam Bam and Poppa Joe hit the charts before the classic Block Buster became the Sweet's first single to reach number one in 1973.

"We received a tremendous reaction wherever we played," recalls Andy. "I’ll never forget a gig in Glasgow where Brian and I were pulled into the audience and carried along on a sea of bodies."

To promote their singles, The Sweet made some memorable appearances on Top of the Pops including one where Priest aroused complaints after he appeared wearing a German uniform and displaying a swastika armband.The band capitalised on the glam rock explosion, rivalling Gary Glitter, T. Rex, Queen, Slade, and Wizzard for outrageous stage clothing with Andy even managing to sneak a bit of Wrexham regalia into the nation's front rooms.

"The year when Wrexham got to the quarter finals of the two cup competitions we were on Top of the Pops with Love is Like Oxygen and I thought this is the ideal opportunity and on went the Wrexham rosette," he chuckles. "We'd almost got banned for our previous outfits!"

After their last hit in 1978, Connolly left the group in 1979 to start a solo career and the remaining members continued as a trio until disbanding in 1981. From the mid-1980s, Scott, Connolly and Priest each played with their own versions of Sweet at different times before tragedy struck when Connolly died in 1997 and Tucker in 2002.

Now living in a converted barn near Devizes, Wiltshire, Andy was diagnosed with prostate cancer but following treatment, he is now in remission and determined to enjoy life on the road with the frequent appearances of hits like Ballroom Blitz and Fox on the Run on film soundtracks ensuring new audiences keep discovering their superb back catalogue.

"Footballers and musicians back then had a similar kind of lifespan," he adds. "You'd hit your 30s and you'd be wondering what to do but the Rolling Stones have changed all that and now here I am aged 69 and I've no intention of stopping.

"I've had many conversations with my counterparts and we all say if we can still do it why not? If there's an audience who want to hear the stuff why would you stop?"

The Sweet play at Wrexham Glyndwr University's William Aston Hall on Friday March 16, 2018. Tickets are on sale from www.glyndwr.ac.uk/en/events/allevents or http://www.thesweet.com/tour/