Status Quo interviews and international press reviews
Taken from different newspapers, magzines & web sites and compiled by Patrick Specht.
Something to add ? send me a mail : quofrance@yahoo.fr
Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9
SIMPLY BRILLIANT
Last week one of the UK's biggest Status Quo fans said to me in
an iterview with him,( I wonder who that was )"you don't
know what it's like until you have been to see them". Now i
know exactly what he meant. Friday's gig among the trees of
Sherwood pines forest park proved to be something a bit speacial,
for the evergreen rockers-Messrs Rossi, Parfitt and co-puton an
outstanding show, blasting out all the old favourites to serve up
a real treat for the thousands who flocked to see their wrinkly
heroes. With the familiar sounds of tracks like Whatever you
Want, Down Down (deeper and down), Rockin all over the world,
plus a handful of tracks from their latest albuim Heavy Traffic,
the Quo could do no wrong. It's amazing when you think of the
variety of songs they have produced over the years by using the
same three chords. But what makes them so great is their never
ending enthusiasm for performing - they alway's looklike they are
having fun on stage which brings a unique freshness to their
music. And beleive me they are as good now as they ever were!
Wheather you were a Quo fan or not, you knew you were going to be
in for a good time from the outset as the tension built before
their long awaited entrance. But for nearly an hour and half,
from start to finish, the energy and the electricity they
generated on stage could not be questioned. So as far as this
summer's series of concerts in forest park is concerned,
organisers were spot on in making this the opening show...it
proved to be the ultimate curtain raiser. Let's hope the other
scheduled concerts provides as much entertainment as this one.
Well that's it, apart from the little three chord bit in the
middle, i thought he put it all down in words brilliant, he was
the guy who interviewd me last week and he would be about 20 to
23 years old, and has i told him come back and tell me your
reaction after you have seen it, say no more.
Veteran rocker Francis Rossi is on the road
again with Status Quo, this time playing a series of gigs in
British forests.
Famed for using cocaine during his wild years, Rossi, 54, says he
is now teetotal and finished with hard drugs.
Rossi says: "It suits me. I used to smoke dope all the time
but I stopped that earlier this year. I have the occasional joint
but I go to the gym a lot and work out."
Famous for his rock'n'roll lifestyle which saw him lose part of
his nose to cocaine abuse Francis Rossi has found more
conventional means of amusement.
He says: "I do the crosswords in The Times and Guardian
every day. If we're on tour, I get them faxed over. I don't do
the cryptic ones. I don't like following someone else's thoughts.
I like learning about the English language. It keeps the brain
awake. I don't want to fall asleep."
Francis Rossi says Status Quo's current tour of British forests
are not the most unusual concerts they have done.
He says: "We've played a quarry in Germany and on the backs
of trucks. We played in a sandstorm in Malta and we've played in
snowstorms before. Today's acts never get a chance to do that. As
soon as they appear they are thrown into arena gigs and never get
a chance to learn their trade. Pop is all done to a formula
today."
Status Quo have sold 112m records and spent 22 of the last 35
years on tour. Founder-singer Francis Rossi says they survived by
being committed to music.
He says: "When we started out, we just wanted to avoid being
one-hit wonders. Rick Parfitt and myself don't throw strops. We
carry on because we want to.Oasis got big quickly and they
started
to believe all the hype written about themselves. If you believe
you're the greatest, it leads to trouble."
Status Quo's Francis Rossi says he does not worry about being
called too old for rock'n'roll.
He says: "I remember when I was 25, some kid came up to me
in the Marquee Club and called me a boring old fart. I'd like to
know what he's doing now. Bands like us sell out tours but the
singles chart is nothing like it used to be. Our last single made
the charts but sold less in its entire run than we used to sell
in a day in the 1970s."
Status Quo were the first outsiders to enter a Big Brother house
during a contest when they played for housematesin the Norwegian
show in 2001.
Francis Rossi says: "We said no at first as none of us likes
Big Brother. Then they said our album was at number three in
Norway and might go to number one if we played.
So we said: 'What time do you want us there?' We like to push on
and keep making new achievements."
Status Quo's Francis Rossi says he likes many of today's British
guitar bands such as Travis and Coldplay.
He says: "I liked Radiohead but they'vedisappeared up their
own derrieres on the last three albums.My other favourites are
the Queens Of The Stone Age. They remind me of things
we were doing in the '60s and '70s. They throw little things into
the arrangements regardless of whether it's cool or not."
Francis Rossi of Status Quo enjoys a quieter life than on his
early tours and is kept busy by his eight children by three
different women.
He says: "I'm taking two of my younger sons to the cinema to
see X-Men 2. I've not been for about 15 years. I'm only going for
the hot dogs. I love the hot dogs they do."
Rock legends Status Quo are about to
descend on a quiet Yorkshire beauty spot. Jim Seton spoke to
rhythm guitarist Rick Parfitt.
If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big
surprise...well you will be if you head to Dalby Forest near
Pickering later this month expecting a quiet stroll in the
country.
Those dinosaurs of rock Status Quo are set to send the wildlife
fleeing for cover when they bring their Heavy Traffic tour to the
picturesque location.
The Dalby Forest gig on Sunday, June 22, has been organised by
the Forestry Commission as a vital way of raising funds for
forestry conservation across the North York Moors, and will also
feature a performance by Jools Holland and his band on the
Saturday, June 21.
For the Quo, a band whose legacy stretches back a record breaking
50 years, the Yorkshire date is something of a first. Having
played in almost every venue conceivable, it will be the first
time they have ever appeared in a forest. It's a prospect that
rhythm guitarists and one of the original 'wild men of rock' Rick
Parfitt is looking forward to.
"We've done the vast festivals in all sorts of weird and
wonderful locations but we've never actually played in England in
a forest. I'm really looking forward to it," says Rick.
"Over the years we've found ourselves committed to doing
European festivals and it's just lovely to play England."
Dodgy
The band are currently doing what they do best - playing live to
sold-out shows around the world. Nothing can keep the Quo down,
not even a dodgy roadside meal in Germany which saw frontman
Francis Rossi laid up for a few days with food poisoning.
So what can the Dalby audience - and the wildlife - expect from
the Quo when they hit the forest?
"It will frighten a few squirrels and rabbits away but it
will be the normal Quo show," says Parfitt. "It will be
rocking, it's 0 to 100 miles an hour right from the word go, and
it pretty much stays there for an hour and 45 minutes.
"I was talking to somebody the other day who went to see
Springsteen and he does three hours - all this walking off stage
after 40 or 50 minutes which some of them do because they've had
enoughÉI mean what a load of old b******.
"You've got a paying public out there who have worked hard
to buy their tickets to come and see you, you should be honoured.
We go out there and make sure they get their money's worth."
And there you have the Quo's winning formula in a nutshell - hard
work and a never say die attitude. Surprisingly for a band that
has 'been there and done that' during what a career which has
spawned more chart hits than any other British band, 2003 has
seen them break new ground - most notably in the Quo hotbed that
is Mexico.
Underground
Apparently the band's work has never been officially released in
the country but a thriving underground market in bootlegs and
imports has seen them become cult heroes.
Parfitt says: "We went there recently and it was just
wonderful, 15,000 people turned up. I think they got most of the
stuff from America, they go over the boarder to LA and pick it up
there. We've had this following down there for years which we
didn't really know about. It was the first time we'd played
Mexico and they're really crazy fans - we don't mind that."
Talking of fans, anyone who expects a typical Quo audience to
comprise of balding old rockers could be in for a surprise.
Despite having been shunned in recent years by the likes of Radio
One, the band are still attracting young and enthusiastic rock
fans who are rediscovering classic British rock following the
rise in popularity of retro rock bands like The Strokes and The
Datsuns. It's a situation Parfitt is pleased to see - although he
cheekily admits it has the potential to get him into trouble.
"The fans in England are anything from eight to 80 and it's
starting to get that way in Europe now," he says, "It's
really great to see and it's a really varied audience. If
anything in Europe the audience is getting younger, I mean it's
getting quite difficult sometimes because there's some lovely
young things out there and you feel like a dirty old man looking
at the birds at the front, but they're all into it and really
loving it, so it's really great."
Parfitt is no stranger to the excesses of the rock 'n' roll life
and is quite open about the "mistakes" he has made in
the now distant past, but despite still living life to the max he
does admit to having calmed down somewhat. All-night parties are
a thing of the past - but only if there's a gig to play the next
day, he says with a chuckle.
"I still have my nights but not like I used to. It sounds a
bit boring but you pay a bit more attention to the gig now,
whereas 20 years ago you could go out and get completely
slaughtered and do the gig the next day."
Despite 'calming down' as the years have passed by, Rick says
there are no plans for Status Quo to finally hang up their
guitars - and in fact he says there's still just too much to do.
After the Dalby Forest date the band, who have so far toured
Brazil, Mexico, America and mainland Europe this year, have dates
in the Channel Islands to complete before going into rehearsals
for their legendary Christmas shows and more of the same next
year.
Status Quo may well be the dinosaurs of rock, but extinction is
still a long way off.
That 'other' greatest rock'n'roll band in
the world is out on the road. Again. We talk to frontmen Francis
Rossi and Rick Parfitt
The Quo are cool again. With their new album 'Famous In The Last
Century' in the charts and a mammoth tour just started, Rossi,
Parfitt, Rhino and the boys are up for it once again. Gone are
the coke and sex binges of their heyday. Instead we find a group
of guys for whom the road is the natural environment; for whom
those two hours on stage represent the culmination of over 30
years' damned hard work. Quo ARE rock'n'roll. After years at the
butt end of a million three-chord-wonder gags, this band is what
many a guitarist and bass player would really like to be, whether
they care to admit it or not.
When Rick Parfitt was rushed to hospital for an emergency
quadruple bypass operation, many pundits thought it would be the
end of the road - the end of the band. But Parfitt, whose mane of
tousled blond hair still baffles his follically challenged
partner in Telecaster crime, Francis Rossi, is back in the saddle
and is apparently tucking into a grapefruit and muesli breakfast
with mineral water, as we prepare for our interview.
Parfitt's early, his new Merc parked just outside the stage door.
John 'Rhino' Edwards is already routining two new conscr1pts -
Matthew Letley and Paul Hirsh - since longtime sidekicks Jeff
Rich (drums) has left and Andy Bown (keys) isn't doing this tour.
Rossi's big BMW won't arrive for half an hour, so I interupt Rick
as he scoffs another mouthful of...
Fried egg, bacon and tea, Rick? And isn't that a Marlboro burning
away in the ashtray?
RICK: Yeah, well... life doesn't change for me. It's got to carry
on the way it was. You can't rock on an empty stomach, can you?
So we always have a bit of breakfast before we start. It's
civilised; get to rehearsals, have breakfast and then get it on.
You're the archetypal rhythm guitarist. But it's a largely
forgotten art.
RICK: We call it the engine room in Quo. When the two guitars are
playing the rhythm, we're locked on to one another, and obviously
when Francis breaks out to do a solo, it's still got to pump. So
my role then becomes very important; to keep that drive. And this
is why I use such heavy strings, because I can beat the fuck out
of them and they won't give.
Did you grow up as a rhythm guitarist?
RICK: Yes, I had a guitar when I was 10 and I'd go and watch
bands and learn one chord per week - so I went for three weeks,
didn't I? Ha, ha! Anyway, I'd watch these chord shapes and go
home and learn them, and I built it up from there. Then I went
into the clubs singing and playing and never really thought about
lead guitar. And that's how I became, and stayed, a rhythm
guitarist.
You're also the 'tunings' man, aren't you?
RICK: Yes. When I started doing it, I didn't know that G tuning
was common in slide playing and blues. But it just seemed logical
to tune a guitar to a chord - barre-ing it all the way up and
experimenting with chord shapes worked very well. With my heavy
strings and especially with a capo on, it sounded fantastic.And
then I came up with the B tuning. The top four strings are the
same, and then you tune the A up to B and then the bottom E down
to a B below it. And it's a really thumping sound. But it has to
be controlled, because if you let that bottom E go it wobbles all
over the shop.
Did you look up to anybody else as a rhythm guitarist?
RICK: Right in the beginning, when I was literally asking for my
first guitar, I used to love The Shadows; not Bruce particularly
and not Hank particularly. But that's what really made me want to
get a guitar. But I never really listened to anybody. I've
developed my own thing now which is different from anybody that
I've heard, because I think most people would try to develop it,
take it further.If I'm sitting at home and I've had a couple of
drinks, then it can go to other places, but where my bread and
butter is concerned, it stays where it is and it just drives. I
will add that, if anybody tries to play it, it takes a lot of
drive and energy.
Doing a gig must be like a marathon. Sometimes in your career you
must have got half-way through and thought, my hand can't
actually do this any more.
RICK: I'd certainly like a pound for every down-stroke I've done!
But it's horses for courses, isn't it? I mean, I couldn't run
five miles, but I can stay on stage for an hour and a half,
leaping, jumping, running, skipping and singing, with this
constant down-up rhythm. It's muscles and energy for different
things.
At this point Francis arrives, grabs a cup of tea and joins us.
Looking slim and fit for his 51 years and with his hair looking a
tad thicker than when I last saw it. I wondered if Rick's heart
problem had made Francis re-assess his own lifestyle.
FRANCIS: No. I'd started that idea about 1988 anyway. Somebody
who was working for us had a gluten problem and couldn't eat this
and couldn't eat that, so I started eating a lot less meat and I
eat a lot of fruit; try not to mix carbohydrates with proteins...
Doesn't sound like Quo.
FRANCIS: I don't give a fuck what it sounds like; I feel better.
And I started doing a lot more exercise. My main problem with
Rick was that they just let him go into hospital. I said:
"Shouldn't there be a second opinion?" and the doctor
said: "Too late, they've started." No chance of a
second opinion then.
The new album went straight into the charts, which must've
pleased you after the recent row with Radio One about airplay.
But why did you choose to do covers?
FRANCIS: Well, we did one in 1995 and it was very successful. We
didn't want to do a covers album, but situations have got us to
the position we're in, and rather than just lie down and die,
we're going to make sure our head comes up now and again. And if
it means doing a covers album, that's it. We did another album -
'Under The Influence' - and everybody was very pleased with the
production, the sound, which was much more like Quo. So we
approached this album in that way. I think we've got the
raunchiness that's meant to be us.
RICK: They're always fun to do, too, because they're tracks
you've known all your life and wanted to do all your life. Like a
version of Memphis Tennessee, which has always been one of my
favourites, and Roll Over Beethoven.
FRANCIS: Once the interplay between the two guitars starts - and
I don't know why it starts or how it starts - the track builds
around that and it becomes Quo.
RICK: We didn't want to take away from the original magic of the
songs. We wanted to portray the original song but with the Quo
stamp on it. I think the most diverse one on there is Hound Dog.
Although it's a simple thing, the actual rhythm of the song is
quite different. Apart from that, we've left things basically as
they were, because you can't change the magic formula of a song
like that. Just colour it Quo.
FRANCIS: We've talked about doing that track live, but I'm not
sure we can find what we did on the record. When we were making
the record, something happened on various tracks. He mentioned
Roll Over Beethoven; well I didn't really want to do that. I like
the track, I like Chuck, but everybody's done it and I've got to
play that bit at the front. Oh my God! But once we started
putting the track down and he did his vocal, I thought, woa! This
is great.
RICK: It's like a lot of Quo stuff; no matter how simple it is,
you can't help but go, 'Right, give me some of that.'
FRANCIS: We always say, if you're coming to see Quo, leave your
cred outside. I remember I went to see The Everly Brothers years
ago, and the encore came up and I wasn't going to get up and clap
my hands. What I was saying was, no, I'm too cool for this. Or
someone might be looking at me. But then you do actually let go,
which is great, and that's what we want people to do.
You often take a snipe at yourself about the 'three chord'
business. Your songs, largely, are based around the three chord
rock'n'roll format, but there's a lot more sophistication there.
FRANCIS: We either have to play with it or get annoyed. So we
play with it. We can't say we're a lot more sophisticated than
that. But yes, there's a lot more to it.
RICK: I'll challenge most people to listen to Living On An Island
once, and then play the chords. It's pretty tricky.
FRANCIS: At the moment, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Lopez,
Kelis, even George Michael and Whitney Houston have songs with
the same sequence, but no-one seems to notice when all these
people do it.
RICK: Most rock songs are based on that. All Chuck's stuff. And
look how much enjoyment that's given the world. So to knock us
for it is a bit of a liberty, really.
FRANCIS: But that's when the profile becomes bigger than the
band. Three chords, blonde hair, bald head... fine, but at least
they know who you are.
We've talked about Rick's playing, but what about you Francis?
You're a better lead player than the media machine would have us
believe.
FRANCIS: I'm better than I was. I'm about as good now as I should
have been when I was 25. But I just refused to learn anything.
Pip Williams, our old producer said: "Why don't you learn
these scales?" And I said: "Because I don't want to,
that's why." Jack The Lad! I was only ever interested in
strumming. And then my number three son, I'd given him some Roy
Buchanan and Rory Gallagher and some early Fleetwoods to listen
to and he got into it a bit, then he got into Iron Maiden.
Then I came home one day and I could hear (sings widdly lead
playing) coming from my music room and I said: What the fuck is
that?' And it was Paul Gilbert. I thought: "That boy's never
been out, he's never had a bird, he's never had a wank, he's just
been playing guitar'. So I started to learn things like my son. I
got Arlen Roth videos, learned a couple of things off him and
then started to practise all the time.
But would it have been Quo if you'd learned guitar 'properly'
back then?
FRANCIS: No, probably not.
RICK: Whether it's good or bad, everything happens for a reason.
And whatever we've done or haven't done, and whether we've
practised or haven't practised, it's all led us to being what we
are now. And to be approaching 40 years in the business, still
playing to packed audiences and doing a Top Of The Pops tomorrow,
it's fantastic.
FRANCIS: We set out to try and achieve something and we forgot to
look around at what we had achieved. Someone told me the other
day that we'd had 36 chart albums. Have we really?
RICK: And complacency has never set in. The album went in at 19
this week. It's bloody fantastic and we're all up about it.
And you still perform with just as much, probably more, gusto.
FRANCIS: In 1985, when we got the new band together, we had some
serious rehearsals and I said to Richard: "What we should do
is get the 'End Of The Road' show from the previous band, just to
let them see how visual this act is. So we got the video brought
in and got everybody sat down and said: "Now guys, watch
this, because this is what we've got to do." And me and him
watched it and said: "No, that's not what we do, wait a
minute." I don't know whether it was all the coke, the
feeling within the band or whatever...
RICK: ...But we had just become static.
FRANCIS: We weren't doing anything, and yet in our minds there
was this big thing going on. Whereas now, there really is this
thing going on. As Rick often says, we go from nowhere to a
hundred miles an hour in a couple of seconds. You're on, you
whack into Down, Down or Caroline, from sitting in the dressing
room three minutes before, and you're manic.
And is it true that you have really turned into a bit of a
jazzer?
FRANCIS: Well, two of my sons are great guitar players, so I
started practising, and I still practise two hours every day.
When we were kids, the only way I could find out was ask some
other bloke and a) I wasn't going to ask him and b) he wasn't
going to tell me. But I have been studying this Joe Pass thing
for a long time. He waffles on about how many substitutions you
can use in a 1, 6, 4 sequence and I'm going: "Yeah,
yeah." And he says: "Of course, I'm not into the theory
of music." No, no, of course you're not, are you?
"But I grew up on pop music. I loved it; I didn't want to
intellectualise about it or get elitist about it, I just loved
it. I love the Melanie C record. I didn't want to like her
records; you're not supposed to, are you? Everyone knocks Steps
and yeah, some of them are crap, but one or two of them I go:
"Hmm, that's really nice." Pap? But they use great
songs; they did Tragedy and I couldn't see much difference from
when the Bee Gees did it.
"Actually, the Bee Gees wrote some of the best songs and
suddenly they're out of fashion again. What's wrong with us? Are
our lives so bad that we have to knock everyone? We're on the
butt end of that most of the time. When we did Burning Bridges,
the amount of people who said it's twee, it's this, it's that.
But it's an Irish jig. Go out any night in Dublin and thousands
of people are doing them. I can't figure out how that song's not
hip and Rockin' All Over The World is. If we ever had a hip song
it's Rockin' All Over The World."
That's hip, is it? Sorry, I don't understand...
