Status
Quo are a phenomenon. Few bands can claim such longevity, and an ability to
survive all kinds of issues only to re-emerge with new strength. Few bands also
have such dedicated fans, and such divided factions among fans as "The
Quo". The band's roots go back into the early 1960s, when Francis Rossi
and Alan Lancaster first met and became friends, and went on to play together
in various musical groups. They were just teenagers then, but the love for
rock'n'roll and pop music was strong then, and the explosion of The Beatles
meant a huge boost to the whole British scene, which probably accounted for The
Spectres (Rossi, Lancaster, Roy Lynes and John Coghlan) getting a record deal
in 1966 after having entertained people at Butlin's Minehead, where they had
already met Rick Parfitt, who was playing in a cabaret outfit at the time.
Three singles didn't do much of anything, and neither did the name change to
Traffic Jam (originally Traffic, but Steve Winwood, Dave Mason, Jim Capaldi and
Chris Wood put an end to that!), although their single "Almost But Not
Quite There" was more commercial and got some airplay, as well as some
complaints because of the risqué lyrics. The band's manager Pat Barlow
suggested lots of new band names (including the totally ridiculous
"Muhammad Alis"!) , and eventually "The Status Quo" was
chosen because it was a very fashionable term back then.
Quo's
first single "Pictures of Matchstick Men" was an almost accidental
foray into psychedelic rock. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix' hit version of "Hey
Joe", Francis Rossi had written the song around four chords (plus a
beautiful middle section) on an acoustic guitar, but the addition of Roy Lynes'
organ, wah-wah guitar and lots of phasing made the song, which had surreal
lyrics that Rossi later admitted as "him imagining an acid trip", a
bonafide classic of 1967's flower-power era, and also a surprise hit in the USA
– to this very day, Quo's only chart success in the US. It was during this time
that Rossi's friend Rick Parfitt was added to the band because it was felt they
needed another singer, at the time his guitar skills were not particularly
developed yet! While "Ice in the Sun" gave the band another hit,
their "psychedelic" era was a bit forced; the debut album contained
some covers of then-popular songs and lots of attempts to re-write "Pictures...".
"Spare Parts" retained some of that flavour but moved in a more
"mature" direction, with the band trying to follow The Bee Gees'
baroque pop. "Are You Growing Tired of My Love" was a modest-sized
hit but overall, the band still hadn't found their feet. Live, they played a
lot of rock and soul covers, while in the studio they were now assisted by
strings and horns.
"The
Price of Love" by The Everly Brothers, a band that Rossi and Parfitt often
quoted as an influence on their singing harmonies, was another unsuccessful
single (Rossi later dismissed it as a horrible dirge, because Quo's rendition
was so slow), but it showed the heavier direction, which had already been
evident on some of The Spectres' material, peeking through, and it featured the
new band manager Bob Young on harmonica for the first time.
Eventually,
the band were so unhappy with the direction they had been following all this
time, that they made a brave move. Inspired by two songs in particular,
Steamhammer's "Junior's Wailing" and The Doors' "Roadhouse
Blues", and the effect those heavy bluesy shuffles had on people, they
decided to completely revamp their music and image. Well, in fact they
completely ditched "image" altogether by exchanging the colourful
frilly shirts for t-shirts and worn out jeans – but that would become a perfect
new "image" for the more grounded 1970s. Immediately the band sounded
much more comfortable and relaxed, and the musicians' skills were finally put
to better use: Rossi started getting into long, drawn-out and sometimes totally
crazy guitar improvisations, Parfitt developed his trademark axe-slashing,
hard-hitting rhythm guitar style, Lancaster pumped out simple, but effective
bass lines, and Coghlan showed that he was one of the best shuffle drummers
around in rock. Quo's three lead vocalists also developed their separate sounds
– Rossi's nasal, "talkative" whine that so perfectly countered the
music's hardness, Parfitt's sensitive singing as well as "rock god"
shouting, and Lancaster's bluesy "macho" growl.
With
hindsight it was the best move but I can only imagine how much doubt must have
surrounded the band and their management. Of course, it was a period when bands
could survive periods of re-orientation and come out much more successfully:
Pink Floyd and Deep Purple are great examples. Still, a lot of people had
pigeonholed Status Quo and it took a lot of heavy gigging to establish the new
sound and style. "Down the Dustpipe" (again with Young on blues harp)
and "In My Chair" (the first hit by the now firmly established
partnership Rossi/Young) were moderately successful singles, the first two LPs
"Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon" (the last outing with Roy Lynes, who soon
left the band as a quartet) and "Dog of Two Head" didn't sell too
well though. A change to the hipper and more album-oriented Vertigo label
coincided nicely with some ground-breaking appearances at big festivals, where
the band totally set the crowds on fire and finally proved that they had come a
long way since 1967, and the self-produced "Piledriver", still a
rather diverse album but with several heavy rockers & propelled by the
irresistible single "Paper Plane", was The Quo's actual breakthrough.
The band still worked incredibly hard, always with the nagging fear that it
might only last for five years or even less, and it would take its toll later,
but for the moment, Quo were riding an incredible wave of success. The more
well-rounded "Hello!" album was their first UK chart-topper and
produced another classic single in form of "Caroline", while the epic
"Forty-Five Hundred Times" showed just how powerful the band could
be. The more aggressive "Quo" (including the breath-taking
eight-minute monster "Slow Train") followed suit, "On the
Level" and "Blue for You" again topped the charts, as did the
single "Down Down". A raw double live album, simply called
"Status Quo Live!", recorded in front of an enthusiastic crowd in
Glasgow, summed up the imperial phase of Status Quo very well and also brought
forth several definitive versions of Quo classics.
"Rockin'
All Over the World", released in 1977, was a watershed album for the band.
For the first time since the early days, an outside producer was brought in
(although Roger Glover had already produced their non-LP single "Wild Side
of Life", and indeed this country tune showed a band starting to lose its
edge). Pip Williams helped to clean up the sound, with an eye to return to the
US market. The album still remains divisive among fans, but there are still a
lot of great tunes on it. It just doesn't have the hardness of the previous
material, and the almost constant presence of Andy Bown's keyboards (he had
occasionally guested on the band's recordings) changed the sonic picture quite
a bit. The title track, originally by John Fogerty, became Quo's biggest
anthem. "If You Can't Stand the Heat…" dramatically shifted the
focus. For the first time, Bown also contributed to the songwriting (including
the lead single "Again and Again"), and Rossi started writing with
Bernie Frost (the relationship with Bob Young had started to crumble) which
contributed to a "lighter" pop sound. Pip Williams added horns and
female vocals, which was later criticized by the band, but at the time embraced
as another effort to get some US airplay. However, it was affecting their
standing in the UK and Europe, with the disco-ish "Accident Prone"
being a lot less successful than envisaged. Aware that they were confusing
their fans and moving in an uncomfortable direction, Quo returned to the tried
and tested on "Whatever You Want", which manages to sound both
organic and polished at the same time and produced two hits in form of the
title track and the beautiful ballad "Living on an Island". This
time, they tried to square the circle by releasing an album that ticked all the
boxes for the discerning fans, and then letting it be remixed for the US
release, called "Now Hear This". It's a nice alternative, but either
the circumstances weren't right, or Quo were simply destined to not succeed in
the USA.
Dispensing
with Pip Williams' services but promoting his engineer John Eden (who finally
fulfilled a long-planned dream of remixing "Rockin' All Over the
World" in a rockier form decades later) to co-producer, the band recorded
two albums at once, "Just Supposin'" and "Never Too Late".
They were more one-dimensional than earlier material but still produced hits
like "What You're Proposing", "Lies", "Don't Drive My
Car", "Something 'Bout You Baby I Like" or "Rock 'n'
Roll". By this time, tension in the group were becoming obvious; Alan
Lancaster challenged Francis Rossi's self-assumed position as bandleader, but
after having moved to Australia, Lancaster's influence was dwindling and the
songs he wrote with various partners weren't always loved by the other band
members. Although the same thing could be said about the Rossi/Frost songs,
which were becoming poppier and sometimes "twee". Alcohol and drugs
also now started to damage the band. The first casualty was drummer John
Coghlan, who'd become more and more isolated from the rest of the band and had
various breakdowns. After one escalation during a recording session in
Montreux, he was basically told to get lost (or left out of his own will, the
explanations are conflicting). Pete Kircher was his replacement but the spark
was lost, the "1+9+8+2=20" album (referring to the twenty years since
1962, when Rossi and Lancaster had first played together) had some good songs,
but showed a band without direction, and the even more lightweight "Back
to Back" couldn't placate fans either. Curiously, though, it didn't hurt
the band's standing yet – "1982" was another #1 album, and "Back
to Back" contained several big hits. Those hits exemplified the problems
within the band: "A Mess of Blues" was an Elvis song, but with none
of the weight of earlier covers; "Ol' Rag Blues" was written but not
sung by Alan Lancaster (against his own wish); Lancaster also hated
"Marguerita Time" (as do a lot of fans).
Eventually
Francis pulled the plug. He didn't want to constantly argue with his former
friend. There were solo plans, and the band announced that they wanted to quit
touring. Fans were dismayed, and so was Rick. The final show in Milton Keynes
Bowl, for a lot of fans, signifies the end of "Real" Quo - although
Lancaster would later claim that Quo was already done when Coghlan left,
"only we didn't know it at the time". He also still thought that Quo
would continue as a recording act, hence some demos that he brought to the band
and worked on with Rick (Alan and Rick toyed with the idea of continuing Quo
without Francis). Parfitt worked with Pip Williams on his own solo record
"Recorded Delivery", and Rossi recorded a duo album with Bernie
Frost, called "Flying Debris". Neither were released: After Quo,
still in the 82-84 line-up had opened "Live Aid", the record company
insisted that the band owed them another album. Francis was adamant that he
didn't want to work with Alan anymore. Rick sided with Francis, knowing fully
well that Quo had already started to look like a duo act in the last few years
with several music videos missing Alan, who later called this a stab in the
back and retorted by taking the matter to court. He didn't only lose the case,
but also a lot of money, while Quo was reborn with the rhythm section from
Rick's solo project. And while the band initially didn't come up with a lot of
material (the cancelled first single "Naughty Girl", aka
"Dreamin'", was the first Rossi/Frost co-write and dates back to the
1970s), they could draw on good outside material: John David supplied
"Rollin' Home" and "Red Sky", while the band's unusual
choice of the Bolland brothers' "In the Army Now" gave them a big
international hit and showed that Quo could actually do something outside of
their well-known style and be successful with it. The sound again veered
towards something "American", though, the result was not unexpected.
Quo never broke through in the US. Possibly, a producer other than Pip Williams
could've done the trick; then again, perhaps not.
But while
it was a good start for the new band, trouble was afoot. The 80s, in some ways,
were like the 60s: Singles were more important, and Quo's albums had gone back
to being "hits and fillers". The musical climate didn't allow for
constant success like in the 70s, and there were still big issues in the band…