Classic Quo are back

[Highlander]

... and Foghat took the British blues boom back to where it came from... that was always the irony of it for me, being that they came fro two Brit blues bands... Rod Price was even Kossoff's replacement in Black Cat Bones before teaming up with 3/4's of Savoy Brown...

Rossi's family were in the ice-cream (van) business around London...

[Freuds_Cat]

all very acurate observations so far IMO.

The band didnt need to  have thick (phat) sounding guitars when they had such a thunderously big rhythm section in Lancaster and Coghlan. Uwe is right, the best album IMO is the Live one from the late 70's. Killer version of "45 hundred times" on that album. The studio album from around that time "Blue for You" had some great tracks too, like Rain, and Mystery song.

[Highlander]

Can't agree more, Bret... can't agree more...

[Dave W]

It's a mystery to me.

Hi Bret, we've missed you.

[Basvarken]

I know you Yankees don't care about Status Quo, but what the heck;
Here's a video of them getting ready to perform in the original line up again.

[uwe]

This is heart-moving, Rob, vielen Dank, where may I kiss you first?

No one, absolutely no one plays root note eights like Alan does. Man, has he turned frail, he used to be the most muscular one among them. Hope his MS condition allows him to tour next year. I'll see them wherever they play. Who knows, Francis might still spot that kid from the Wiesbaden audience in 1976 ...

[Big_Stu]

I saw the original line-up just the once as a kid, and they looked like this............


....... this song is still a dance-floor filler for any UK pub-band even now, it was their regular starter for a while & I believe is again now.
Alan wanted to carry on in this vein but Francis especially wanted to move with the times & escape from the 3-chord-wonder tag that they'd been given in the media. I think it was Margeurita Time which was the clincher for Alan, he refused to appear on Top Of The Pops to play it & they had Slade's Jimmy as a dep, who was appearing on the same show.


There was another single around the same time where they had a life-size puppet on strings instead of Alan.
The "new" Quo is/was a cabaret band, Beach Boys covers etc. No matter how they dressed it up it was still Francis & Rick and A.N. Others in the band. But they have such a huge live fan-base that they're still a massive draw.

[Aussie Mark]

Quo have always been big in Australia.  But, I guess they really need the money ....

[Big_Stu]

That's really sad; The two of them are very good at sending each other up so I'd like to hope it's something along those lines - but I doubt it!
As one YT comment goes, it's as bad as the time that Noddy Holder made their classic far Far Away into a "Youngs" frozen fish advert. Their song to do what they like with, how they expect to keep any cred afterwards is beyond me.

[Freuds_Cat]

Thanks Dave  

Mark, I've been dealing with Coles a lot lately as we have finally managed to get them to stock our product. The marketing dept are saying that the Down Down campaign has been the most successful marketing strategy they have ever run.

[Aussie Mark]

Mark, I've been dealing with Coles a lot lately as we have finally managed to get them to stock our product.

That's easy - just make sure your wholesale price is the lowest.  That's how Coles and Woolworths' precurement departments decide what gets stocked.

[Freuds_Cat]

Thankfully and amazingly that is no longer the case

[uwe]

Quo have always been big in Australia.  But, I guess they really need the money ....

Love that vid - it's cute. Quo were never above making the mickey of themselves, I find that extremely likable. I find earnestness grating. What distinguishes us from animals is the ability to laugh.

[gearHed289]

I noticed the bass player in the Rain clip playing a mirrored pg Mustang, a influence on Steve Harris perhaps?

I always figured that was Phil Lynott's influence, but I guess we'd have to ask Mr. Harris. 

[uwe]

Lancaster played a Mustang as early as 1970 - whether that had a mirror pickguard I honestly don't remember. Eric Bloom had a mirror on the back of his "stun guitar" before anybody else had come up with the reflection idea.

That Backwater vid is so painfully honest ... Kudos to them for leaving everything like that and not patching things up, it's from the Alan Parker documentary about them, an official release. It has hesitant singing and playing, you can tell that Francis Rossi is not really comfortable anymore playing that kind of synchronized riffy stuff that was prevalent on the Quo album (and makes it my favorite, songs were mostly written by Lancaster and Parfitt on it), Parfitt's second vocals are off, there are awfully cocked up chord changes everywhere and Rossi can barely pull off the solo which sounds out of tune at first ... the list goes on.

But no worries - when their tour starts next year, they'll have it down pat again. And this is how Backwater used to sound: