Classic Quo are back

[Basvarken]

Never cared for the "new" Quo line-up. Too much of a cabaret for me.

But now they've announced a reunion tour and album.
With Lancaster and Coghlan.


http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/classic-quo-are-back/

[uwe]

Heysannah, quosannah, sannah, sannah,  sannah, Quo!!!

I will die a content man after having seen them again. No one, absolutely no one plays root note eights with the same pummeling urgency as Alan Lancaster. And I always missed his voice - on the legendary Quo Live album fro 77 he sings the majority of the material, Rossi being relegated to the hits with his pop voice, Lancaster (and in part Parfitt) doing the rockier stuff.

Großartige Neuigkeiten!!!

[uwe]

Rossi has always been an unusually frank interview partner, what he said to Classic Rock is no exception.

[Highlander]

Now that's tempting...

[daan]

OK I keep hearing about these guys and apparently I'm the last person on earth to hear any of their music. ("But I'm hearin' good things, maaan..") What's a good starting point for them? Is this just another case of "music industry shenanigans" that I've never heard them, or is it just because I'm from rural Wisconsin?
I inherited my father-in-law's record collection and I've been going on kind of a "70's music binge" lately. It'd be nice to add some more I'm not familiar with to the pile.

[clankenstein]

boogie down with the quo! i liked dog of two heads myself...

[Dave W]

OK I keep hearing about these guys and apparently I'm the last person on earth to hear any of their music. ("But I'm hearin' good things, maaan..") What's a good starting point for them? Is this just another case of "music industry shenanigans" that I've never heard them, or is it just because I'm from rural Wisconsin?
I inherited my father-in-law's record collection and I've been going on kind of a "70's music binge" lately. It'd be nice to add some more I'm not familiar with to the pile.

You haven't heard of them because you're in the US. They're a one-hit wonder in the US: Pictures of Matchstick Men, from late 1967 - early 1968. And that's apparently not representative of their music since.

When someone starts a discussion here about them, you usually won't find any Americans joining in. We don't know 'em.  Probably won't find them in your father-in-law's collection.

They probably don't tour with these outfits any more either.   

[uwe]

Imagine Herman's Hermits morphing into Grand Funk Railroad in the early seventies - this is what happened to Quo who went from singles pop to live high energy rhythm & blues boogie rock around the same time. The comparison to Foghat is not entirely without merit.

When we Yuropeans talk about Classic Quo, we mean this here (even though that clip from 83/84 already lacks the original drummer from the classic seventies line up):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoXweFcFM74&feature=related

Between 71 and 77 they were one of the top rock bands in Europe (and incidentally Australia) who ruled the rock festival circuit.

[Basvarken]

Not very representative for their impact on the Dutch airwaves Uwe....

Their biggest hits in The Netherlands were:




and





and the inevitable soccer stadium rocker:

[Highlander]

Too many hits here when they were in their prime but Down Down was the only number 1 they ever had... surprised myself with that one ...

Two I've always loved...





This was a popular stage number...



Quo always suffered with the 3 chord wonders tag, or if you have one you've got em all, but they were very much a Brit institution with the denim-clad hordes...

[uwe]

Not very representative for their impact on the Dutch airwaves Uwe....

I chose a Lancaster sung song because I always liked his voice best and the album on which he wrote the most - Quo from 1973 - is my favorite (and Rossi doesn't like it because it's too heavy for him). Rossi sang 80% of the singles, Parfitt the other 20%, but live throughout the seventies, Lancaster sang most of the material - the concert classix so to say. Of course, Quo's greastest worldwide hit was this here, a Fogerty penned song, Lancaster deemed too lightweight, but which Rossi wanted to cover, he was proven right as regards commercial prowess:



The Status Quo feud between Rossi and Lancaster is also a musical one, Rossi sees Quo as a pop band (and turned it into one after he ousted Lancaster) and essentially doesn't like like hard rock, much less minor chords and dark or "too serious" music in general and Lancaster is the other extreme, he always wanted Quo to be perceived as this earthy "serious rock band" and despised Rossi's novelty and even c&w leanings:


Status Quo in Lancaster mode:




Rossi  drove Lancaster mad with stuff like this:

[nofi]

i should like quo given my fondness for british boogie and blues rock but i don't and here is why. imo they lack the blusey element the other bands have so i hear more of a standard rock band then a blues/rock/blues thing. but most of all i find their guitar tones weak and a bit thin sounding. not enough power if you will.

or maybe it's the fact that francis said nothing to me when i saw them in 1974.

[godofthunder]

 The Foghat reference is very audible. In the early 70's a friend of mine was a French exchange student, he went on and on about Qou. I have not heard some of these songs in many years. I noticed the bass player in the Rain clip playing a mirrored pg Mustang, a influence on Steve Harris perhaps?

[nofi]

yeah foghat is there but maybe not enough so.

[uwe]

 "or maybe it's the fact that francis said nothing to me when i saw them in 1974"  


 

Ah, the twin Tele sound, not fat and thick and sustain-rich or very distorted, true. And you probably find the blues missing because Rossi tends to solo in major keys giving Quo poppy/folky charm but not dark blues feeling.

Rossi has explained that after their early sixty pop hits the band felt marooned in the British blues boom and not taken serious by its comtemporaries, they were seen as a singles band in the coming era of the album LP. People would drool over old US Delta and Chicago blues recordings "and we had no idea what it was, we didn't know any of that music, not any of the great black blues artists" says Rossi (an Italian immigrants son). So off they go and buy blues records and listen to them, trying to understand the music and be hip. It's learning by doing and copying and Lancaster has said that "since Rossi basically did not know what he was doing on the guitar fretboard he started playing solos in major keys where any other guitarist would have played minor, he wasn't even aware of it, it just became his sound and style, and of course it made us more accessible to people".