Status Quo: Thirsty Work deluxe edition

"Thirsty Work - The Re-Filled Edition"

This is how I christened the deluxe edition. Alas, it turned out that the glass is maybe not half empty, but only half full. Let me explain.

When I threw together lots of ideas for how the later Status Quo albums could be reissued, I firmly had the 2-CD template in mind. For a start, the deluxe digipacks only have space for two discs. "Never Too Late" was an exception, but still. "Ain't Complaining" (which accommodated the third disc by having it shoved into a pocket of the cardboard) was not possible without including 3 CDs, since the b-sides and 12" mixes took up almost an entire disc, and it seemed a given to include the live gig from the BBC too. Encouraged by this, I supplied the powers that be with a 3 CD tracklisting for "Rock 'Til You Drop", and two alternative versions of "Perfect Remedy" – one 2 CDs, one 3 CDs – the latter was OK'd, with some changes. (The digipacks also are laid out accordingly, like "Never Too Late" was.) I really should've done the same for "Thirsty Work" but I was possibly afraid that there might not be interest in 3 CDs covering that album. With hindsight, a stupid idea, but I thought it'd be best to just cover live versions of the new songs and be done with that.

I was also blissfully unaware of the fact that the whole Royal Albert Hall concert existed in professional sound quality. This would've also smoothed over the fact that live versions of "One Man Band" and "Rock 'Til You Drop" are now sadly missing from the "Rock 'Til You Drop" deluxe edition, as I explained in my previous post, as those songs were still in the set in 1994. Including it in full would've led to some problems though: Quo only played "Restless" from the new album at that point - "Going Nowhere", "Soft in the Head", "Rude Awakening Time" and "Queenie" all slipped into the set some months later. So how could you cover those songs AND include the full Albert Hall gig? The only possible solution would've been adding yet another CD (unlikely) or shoving some bonus tracks onto disc 1 (which might've worked out, but so far the deluxe editions have avoided this – I even had to point out that disc 1 of "Rock 'Til You Drop" should reproduce the CD, not the LP...).

That's not to say that there wouldn't have been better options. Sadly, I figured it out way too late, when my drafts were already OK'd. It would've been good to include the full Stockholm broadcast (60 minutes) on a third CD, then add a couple of rarely played live songs in various versions ("What You're Proposing", "One Man Band", "Queenie", "Rock 'Til You Drop", "Restless") to disc 2 and 3. Now that would've been an all-around interesting set, even for people who aren't so hot about "Thirsty Work".

What was also dropped (and accounts for the free space left) is the four songs with Manchester United. Those weren't necessary, but I thought they would be an interesting addition. Apart from the original singles, these tracks have only been released on the 4-CD edition of "Pictures - 40 Years of Hits", and that only included the two a-sides, not the respective b-sides. It's worth pointing out that "Come On You Reds" actually gave Quo their second (and last) UK #1 hit, twenty years after "Down Down"… despite there being a lot of football fans in England that support other teams! Of course, both "Come On You Reds" and "We're Gonna Do It Again" are re-workings of existing Quo hits ("Burning Bridges" and "Again and Again"), which helped their success.

All is not lost though, we're still missing a reissue of "Live Alive Quo" and I've long suggested reissuing it in a similar box set style as the box set version of the 1976 Live! album. This could contain the full 1994 gig (across two discs) and/or Knebworth 1990.

I also realized that while I'm relatively (relatively!) good at thinking like a fan, I was certainly not approaching things from a marketing perspective. Although it might be annoying for devoted fans, the sad fact is that a casual buyer is much more likely to pick up a CD if it contains a couple of the "greatest hits", i.e. "Rockin' All Over the World", "Caroline", "Whatever You Want" or "In the Army Now". Of course, the deluxe editions of "Ain't Complaining" (four versions of RAOTW!), "Perfect Remedy" and "Rock 'Til You Drop" tick those boxes, even if almost by accident. (I'm also not sure how many of these deluxe editions actually make it into stores. I've not seen many of them – in fact, I had to order virtually all of these online.) But as I said before, it's a Catch-22 – or to be more bluntly, like doing a puzzle… knowing fully well that a) you have too many pieces and b) some of the pieces might simply turn to dust after you've already completed the puzzle!!

Of course, it doesn't help when you rely on dodgy sources. In this case I'm unfortunately partially responsible for two typos on the outer package, which embarrasses me a lot. If you find them, you get the chance to win an imaginary bottle of whatever that is on the cover…! It's also something I've been thinking about a lot recently. Maybe I should have never gotten involved at all? Undoubtedly, there are other Quo fans who could've done a better job. It does make me feel like I'm out of my depth. On the other hand I'm glad that some things have come out pretty well (the Ain't Complaining deluxe edition is perhaps the best example) and that I could also push some projects that are rather dear to Quo fans (including one that might come out later this year, if all works well).

So, the deluxe edition of "Thirsty Work" still has advantages over the 2006 remaster. Two non-album b-sides (one being a Leonard Cohen cover!) that didn't fit on the 2006 reissue, four alternate versions/mixes of album tracks, and four live recordings of "Thirsty Work" songs (alas, "Queenie" couldn't be salvaged). That's ten new bonus tracks, and if you only have the original album, you can add the five bonus tracks that already appeared on the 2006 remaster. Just as with "Rock 'Til You Drop", Status Quo actually recorded enough music for a double LP (84 minutes!), but curiously elected to cram almost an hour of songs onto one vinyl 12", in the exact same order as the CD, and use the rest as b-sides.

Needless to say, if you don't like the album… this isn't for you. But although it's definitely not without weak spots, I think "Thirsty Work" might actually be underrated. It shows the band trying out some new ideas, some successful, some others not so much. (Andy Bown's synth sounds are sometimes really not so beneficial to the overall experience.) The album was extremely long for a vinyl LP (almost an hour!) and it would've been good to throw off some of the inferior tracks. Alas, given that "Sherri Don't Fail Me Now" and "Restless" were released as singles (both poor choices IMO, and not representative of the album as a whole) I think it would've once again led to the better cuts dropping off as b-sides.

An interesting tidbit: The so-called acoustic mix of "I Didn't Mean It" (which still contains a lot of electric guitars), alongside the earlier Steve Wright radio session (once earmarked for the deluxe edition of "Perfect Remedy"), had been Quo's only concession to the MTV Unplugged craze of the 90s. Quo unplugged? No way! Unthinkable! Well, it just took until 2014, and then all things went "Aquostic", so much that the band even claimed to stop working as an electric band and to continue only acoustically. Even then, I thought that was a load of bollocks, and it turns out I was right…

(I actually wanted to link the version from Aquostic II but couldn't find it on YouTube!)

On a sad note, Bernard "Bernie" Frost, Francis' main songwriting partner during this period (actually from 1978 'til 1999), died on August 4, 2019. He co-wrote a lot of songs across these three albums – if I'm not mistaken, it's a whopping 22 tracks! This set of deluxe editions is dedicated to him. It's especially poignant because "Sorry", the last track on "Thirsty Work" and recorded by Demis Roussos (backed by Rossi/Frost) many years earlier, was written for Bernie's wife Sylvia, whose grief over Bernard's demise is shared by Quo fans all over the world. So long, Bernard…

Status Quo: Rock 'Til You Drop deluxe edition

"Rock 'Til You Drop - The World Record Edition"

As has been said before, "Rock 'Til You Drop" was advertised with one of David Walker's brilliant marketing campaigns, which included Quo setting a new world record by playing four concerts in four different cities in one day! Hence the title, and the band were really ready to drop by the time of the final one. But at least the concert marathon earned them a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, and helped to return Quo back to the charts (it helped that the album was much stronger than "Perfect Remedy", of course). All four gigs were recorded and a VHS containing excerpts from the live event, as well as a documentary about it, was released. Ideally, this should have finally been released on DVD for this reissue but it seems that DVDs are a perennial weak spot of deluxe editions (I'm not ruling out the possibility of something coming out as a separate DVD or Blu-Ray at some point though…). Instead, the third disc serves up a pretty good audio representation of the live event. It's not to be taken for granted that this CD has turned out as good as it has – I have to thank Luke for insisting upon improving the disc to a point when it couldn't be improved anymore! The CD now contains every song that was performed by Quo on 21st September 1991, sequenced in a way that approximates the live setlists in chronological order while representing all four gigs roughly by an equal amount. In essence, it's an expanded version of the VHS. Since Quo played two different setlists on the day (even a band as notorious for playing a static set like this wouldn't play the exact same set four times in one day!), it's physically impossible to recreate concert order, but I did try to merge both setlists together. If you want to program your CD player or arrange a playlist, this alternate order is at the end of the post.

But although it's just a "sampler" of the four nights, the CD is an amazing listening experience. Quo were really in great form (well, mostly), and the recordings capture that brilliantly. In my humble opinion, this is one of the highlights of the entire deluxe series! Having two songs that Quo almost never played live, in pristine audio quality (the mixing is much better than on the VHS release), is an extra bonus, even if they're "just" covers (Wilbert Harrison's "Let's Work Together", made famous by Canned Heat, and "Price of Love" by The Everly Brothers, a song Quo themselves had already recorded in 1969, and that had already been played live as a snippet in the Roadhouse Medley on the 1989 tour).

This leaves us with disc 2, which opens with five non-LP studio recordings (the RTYD sessions produced a lot of material!). It's worth pointing out that neither of them appeared on the 2006 remaster of the album, simply because that replicated the original CD… and that was already full with the six tracks that weren't on the LP. This says nothing about their quality; any of the four non-album tracks could've been on the album and replaced the unnecessary re-recording of "Tommy" or some other album tracks. "Heavy Daze" and "Better Times" are still semi-rarities, as the "Fakin' the Blues" CD single was withdrawn and the two tracks only saw a reissue on the 4CD box set "Rockers Rollin'" from 2001. You may remember the riff from "Better Times" being played in front of "Rain" in 1987…labelled (partially due to my fault) as ZZ Top's "La Grange" on the "In the Army Now" 2CD. On the other hand, the riffs are almost identical, so there. (Apparently this was also already tried out during the "Perfect Remedy" sessions but the recording remains unreleased, as does a rehearsal of Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" which eventually became the title track of the 1996 covers album.)

Then there is a medley of Quo's four greatest hits (Caroline, Down Down, Whatever You Want and Rockin' All Over the World) that was released on the "Rock 'Til You Drop" single and used for radio and TV promo purposes. Of course, there have been "mixes" before like the "Christmas Cake Mix" or those bizarre Spanish promo versions of "Anniversary Waltz" but this is an actual new recording by the 1991 line-up. It wouldn't be the last time that Quo re-recorded those songs: Apart from "Down Down" (which later got an update as "Prices Are Down" for the Australian Coles ad), all of them were redone for the 2003 album "Riffs". "Whatever You Want" also had a 1998 re-recording and "Rockin' All Over the World" was already remade in 1988 for the US market and the Sport Aid benefit campaign (as "Running All Over the World" – see the deluxe edition of "Ain't Complaining").

The deluxe editions have been a bit undecided when it comes to single edits, and they've often been left off in favour of more interesting versions (especially 12" mixes in the case of "In the Army Now" and "Ain't Complaining"). In this case, they should all be there. Except an edit of "Forty-Five Hundred Times" that appeared on the "Rock 'Til You Drop" single and later the compilation "The Other Side of Status Quo" + the 7" versions of "The Anniversary Waltz", which really could've fit here… as I said in the post on "Perfect Remedy", they're on several compilations, but still… at the time I was compiling first drafts, I thought they wouldn't fit on disc 2! There IS a live version of "Part 1", which may seem superfluous since there's a better sounding version from the live event. Even though this has the benefit of Rick's voice sounding much better (he was really done at the end of the gig marathon), you may wonder why it's here at all. The answer is that it's a holdover from an early draft that wasn't dropped!

Compiling these reissues can be like a Catch-22, especially from a fan's/outsider's perspective… you never know what's going to work and what not, and usually tracks drop off during the making. Unfortunately it's much easier to drop a track than to add one, as it means the whole disc has to be "cleared" again (Universal's internal regulations). On the other hand, it doesn't make much sense either to supply lists that break the limit of one CD – because if everything gets OK'd, what do you do with the tracks that don't fit on the disc?

So that's the reason why disc 2 is so short. Regretfully, I have to take some responsibility for that. I wanted to represent the RTYD album as well as possible: Across various occasions, Quo played no less than eight tracks off the album. Two were played at the live event and are thankfully represented on disc 3.

Five songs were played on the actual tour, although not at every concert. The idea was to get the best-sounding audience recording of these tracks. Alas, it couldn't be found. An early test disc still had "Like a Zombie", "One Man Band", "Fakin' the Blues" and "No Problems", recorded live in Blackpool. Not in keeping with the latter title, we were already missing a live version of "Rock 'Til You Drop" even though I had included one in my draft, but for some reason the test disc actually contained the short intro tape that Quo played at the event. This is now on disc 3 but as I said, it's just a shortened studio version that was played over the PA. Not a live recording. There are good (not audience) live recordings of the track as well as "One Man Band". It's hard even for me now to reconstruct what exactly went wrong.

The Blackpool tapes were technically poor quality, but not any less listenable than the recordings appended to the deluxe editions of "Hello!" or "Quo" (both of which were before my involvement with the series), and they showed a band on fire and an absolutely hilarious Rossi announcement. Sadly, they were all dropped, and no replacement versions were sought, even though I did have a note in my draft pointing out that there are multiple good-sounding live versions of "One Man Band"… just not from the 1991 tour. Unusually for Quo, the song stayed in the setlist for a relatively long time (at least until 1995). With hindsight, I should've included that song in my draft for the "Thirsty Work" deluxe too, just in case. You live and learn…  or maybe not, since the same issue had already arisen on "In the Army Now". Sigh.

You may have been doing your maths and notice that I was speaking of eight songs played live. Well, the other elusive one is "Can't Give You More", a song that originally comes from the 1977 album "Rockin' All Over the World" (a pretty stunning extended version appeared in the guise of John Eden's remix – if you don't have the RAOTW deluxe yet, get it immediately!!) and was one of a handful of re-recordings done by Quo for the "Rock 'Til You Drop" album. This one actually had a reason for its existence, as it was supposed to be used in an advertising campaign for a French mineral water ("Eau Eau Eau" - you get it? Oh well...), but even though this didn't happen, the song did see a single release and was a modest hit. (In 1985, Bob Young had already recorded his country-influenced version, which also started with the "oh oh oh oh" chorus, but that's another topic.) In order to promote the single, Quo appeared at some TV stations in France and actually performed the song (plus some other such as "Whatever You Want") live, including a guitar solo!

I thought (and still think) that this would be a worthwhile addition to the album, and a good way to wrap up disc 2. It was included on the aforementioned test disc, but had some dropouts and wasn't amazing sonically. By the time I had managed to track down a better sounding recording, it was dropped. Le sigh c'est moi.

Of course, a point could be made that disc 1 offers more value than any other "first discs" in the series so far. Indeed, an early version of the tracklisting had only the ten original LP tracks on disc 1! I thought, at the time, that that would be a right ol' waste of space, especially with all the stuff I wanted to include on disc 2… if only I'd known! But I didn't see the point in making an album that had always been a long CD into a replica of the vinyl, just for the sake of vinyl revivalism. The epic re-recording of "Forty-Five Hundred Times" (twelve minutes of madness!) does feel like a proper ending of the album, having it in the middle of disc 2 would've defeated the point. Interestingly enough though: If you count the CD bonus tracks (11-16) and the four non-album b-sides, you end up with 50 minutes of material – more than the "main album"! Quo were productive in 1991, no doubt. Even without the covers and remakes, it's still about an hour of new music.  (The Thirsty Work sessions were similarly productive, giving us about 86 minutes of music!) The new liner notes reveal that the band actually toyed with the idea of recording two albums from the 1991 sessions, á la "Just Supposin'"/"Never Too Late" a decade earlier.

Anyway – whichever way you spin it, the 3-CD release of "Rock 'Til You Drop" is still a very worthwhile release highlighting a great "return to form" album for Quo. I just think disc 2 could've been better.

When I first came across a Quo forum, a deluxe edition of Rock 'Til You Drop was one of the hot topics. When I later got in touch with "master-of-all-reissues" Steve Hammonds and started to send him some of my dream deluxe edition lists, I really wanted the series to continue beyond the classic years, mainly in order to reach RTYD.

To finally have it in my hands is a surreal feeling. To admit that it isn't as good as it could have been, though, and even partially due to my fault, is very painful for me.

With hindsight, I'd have suggested a much better disc 2:

1. Dead in the Water 3:50
2. Mysteries from the Ball 3:48
3. Heavy Daze 4:12
4. Better Times 3:26
5. (Brit Awards) Medley 3:56

6. The Anniversary Waltz Part 1 (7" Version) 5:32
7. The Anniversary Waltz Part 2 (7" Version) 5:29

8. Can't Give You More (Single Edit) 3:59
9. Fakin' the Blues (Single Edit) 3:16
10. Forty-Five Hundred Times (B-Side Edit) 6:24
11. Can't Give You More (Promo Edit) 3:05

12. Don't Stop (1991 version) [supposedly tried out during the RTYD sessions, but it's not clear whether a recording of this exists]

13. Like a Zombie (Live 1991) [Blackpool or Glasgow…probably wouldn't get through either way, sadly; there are only four audience recordings of this great song]
14. One Man Band (Live at Royal Albert Hall 1994, Skanderborg or Brasov 1995)
15. Fakin' the Blues (Live 1991/1992) [Wembley, Peterborough, Gothenburg, Borlänge?]

16. No Problems (Live 1991/1992) [Wembley, Peterborough, Gothenburg, Borlänge?]

17. Rock 'Til You Drop (Live in Madrid 1992, or Royal Albert Hall 1994)

18. Can't Give You More (Live at Paris TV 1992) 4:37 [if a better sounding source could be found]

"Anniversary Waltz" is a bit of a Janus-headed single. The 7" edit was released on the 2006 remaster of "Perfect Remedy" but the single also paved the way for "Rock 'Til You Drop", not just because it included a short snippet of Wilbert Harrison's "Let's Work Together" as well as the (already recorded by Quo) Dion track "The Wanderer". The whole sound and production are more in line with RTYD.

The problem remains... there are no professional recordings of "One Man Band" (or the other RTYD tracks) that fit the album's timeframe. There ARE bootlegs that have better rating in the bootleg indices than the Blackpool tracks that were on first test discs, though –  Wembley (3 nights in December 1991), Petersborough, Borlänge (January 1992), Dornbirn (March 1992), Hannover (April 1992), Östervåla (July 1992), Glasgow, Wembley (December 1992), Telford (November 1993), Brighton (December 1993)... not that I've heard all of them! Rock 'Til You Drop was also played at most of these gigs, and as mentioned above exists as a FM broadcast from Madrid.

To finish, here's the "smashed together" setlist that you may want to try out for an alternate listening experience of disc 3:

5 - Rock 'til You Drop (Intro) [2nd gig, Glasgow]

6 - Down Down [2nd gig, Glasgow]

1 - Paper Plane [1st gig, Sheffield]

7 - Roll Over Lay Down [2nd gig, Glasgow]

9 - Little Lady [3rd gig, Birmingham]

2 - Price of Love [1st gig, Sheffield]

8 - Let's Work Together [2nd gig, Glasgow]

12 - Burning Bridges [4th gig, Wembley]

3 - Mystery Medley [1st gig, Sheffield]

4 - Rain [1st gig, Sheffield]

10 - Whatever You Want [3rd gig, Birmingham]

11- In the Army Now [3rd gig, Birmingham]

13 - Rockin' All Over the World [4th gig, Wembley]

14 - The Anniversary Waltz [4th gig, Wembley]

15 - Rock 'n' Roll Music/Sweet Soul Music/Bye Bye Johnny [4th gig, Wembley]

One "error" that also originated with me is the titling of "Encore Medley". This was always only meant as an internal reference and didn't take up as much space in a spreadsheet as "Rock and Roll Music / Sweet Soul Music / Bye Bye Johnny" would've taken. It wasn't totally wrong, as usually this combination of tracks was the last encore at a Quo gig (and, without "Sweet Soul Music", stayed in the set until very recently)... only not during this event, where it ended the set. And of course they didn't do any encores!

We end with Luke's preview videos:

Status Quo: Perfect Remedy deluxe edition

"Perfect Remedy - The Perfect Edition"

Jokingly, I've given each of these deluxe editions a humorous title. "Perfect Remedy" is far from a perfect album, and even the deluxe edition is far from perfect (more on that later), however I think the expanded deluxe edition adds a lot of value, even if you think the original album doesn't amount to much.

The first disc is taken up with the remaster of the main album, as usual done by Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham. According to producer Pip Williams, "Perfect Remedy" wasn't fully finished when it was released. The mix has always seemed a bit "tinny", and the remastering goes some way to rectify that, without compressing it quite as much as Tim Turan did in 2006 (although the new version is also a lot louder than the original – not one for purists, I'd say). Of course, it doesn't improve the quality of some of the dodgy songs on there; "Address Book", "Going Down for the First Time" or "Tommy's in Love" are probably the main reasons why "Perfect Remedy" has such a bad reputation. One does wonder why they were considered good enough for the LP, especially when there was obviously better material available.

Disc 2 opens with the tracks that had already graced the 2006 remaster… with two exceptions. The first three songs are non-album tracks that appeared on the b-sides of "Not at All" and "Little Dreamer" – two of them, the Rossi/Bown collaboration "Rotten to the Bone" and especially the funky Parfitt/Williams tune "Doing It All For You" (electric piano & slap bass on a Quo record!) would've improved the original album quite a bit.. The remixed and edited version of "The Power of Rock" was lined up as the third single, but the new manager David Walker put an end to that – the version eventually slipped out as the b-side to the "Anniversary Waltz" singles. The song was inspired by Quo's own past, but also by John Farnham's recent hit "You're the Voice". Tantalizingly, John "Rhino" Edwards mentioned the fact that Quo had worked on a cover of that song (written by Manfred Mann's Earth Band vocalist Chris Thompson), but ditched it when the original became a chart hit.

"The Anniversary Waltz", the medley of various rock'n'roll classics performed in Quo's signature rock style, had also been on the 2006 remaster… but only in the form of the 7" version, aka "Part One". The follow-up single, "Part Two", was absent, but both parts have been included on various compilations through the years. What has been curiously absent from Quo releases, though, is the 12" version, which clocks in at over ten minutes and basically is the ultimate "Anniversary Waltz". Interestingly enough, what was released as "Part One" is actually the second (not first!) part of the full 12" version and vice-versa. So while you won't find the 7" versions on here, the 12" makes its first appearance on CD ever since 1990!

It might be argued that the track doesn't really belong to the Perfect Remedy era, and was only included on the 2006 remaster because there was space for it, whereas "Rock 'Til You Drop" was already filled to the brim. Sonically, it's closer to the RTYD album, as the band ditched Pip Williams' clean production style and went for a much more direct and driving live rock sound. With hindsight, maybe it would've been better to actually move it to the RTYD deluxe edition, but we'll get back to that topic soon…

Following this are two outtakes from the "Perfect Remedy" sessions, although one of them ("Fighting for Love") is actually an early version of "The Power of Rock". However, "Blondes Don't Lie" (what a typical Parfitt title!) is an actual outtake written by Rick Parfitt and Pip Williams, who had formed a pretty prolific writing team at the time, starting with Rick's unreleased solo album "Recorded Delivery" and across songs such as "Overdose" (from "In the Army Now"), "Ain't Complaining", "One for the Money" up to 1991's "One Man Band" and "Good Sign" – interestingly, since Pip did not produce the "Rock 'Til You Drop" album. Unfortunately, it was discovered too late that there is another outtake, plus a few demos. Things like this have plagued the reissue series almost from the beginning. But who knows, maybe a place for these tracks can be found in the future.

The next entry is decidedly weird. Apparently, the Spanish record company thought it was a good idea to chop up parts of "Anniversary Waltz" and Quo's older hits. The result is interesting from a curiosity standpoint, but both the "Christmas Cake Mix" (found on the "In the Army Now" deluxe) and the "Brit Awards Medley" (on the upcoming "Rock 'Til You Drop") do this thing much better. (Incidentally, according to www.the-makers-of.com David J. Oxley's book "Tune to the Music" incorrectly claims that these are early versions recorded by Quo themselves. Far from it, they're so-so edited mishmash medleys.) Sadly, there are some errors on the tracklistings; the last track of the 12" version is "Great Balls of Fire", whereas the 2nd Spanish Promo Version inserts "What You're Proposing" in the middle.

A mispressed version of the "Anniversary Waltz" 12" single included both "Little Lady (Live at the N.E.C. 1989)" and "Paper Plane (Live at Bray Studios 1990)", both of which make their official CD debut here. "Paper Plane" has added crowd noise to make it sound like a live recording, but you can easily tell that it wasn't recorded live because nobody sings the parts that typically are sung by the crowd ("we all make mistakes forgive me"). Again, one could also group this re-recording of one of Quo's biggest classics with "Rock 'Til You Drop" as it would've fit right in (apart from the fake live sound, obviously).

The rest of the 2 bonus discs is taken up with the concert recording from the N.E.C. 1989. As mentioned above, some tracks appeared here and there, most notably "Dirty Water" which was the b-side of "The Anniversary Waltz Part Two" and also included on the 2006 remaster of "Perfect Remedy".

Quo fans will know the gig well; it was released on VHS as "Rockin' All Over the Years" and parts of it were later also included on the DVD "XS All Areas". This is the same edit as on VHS, which misses some songs (notably "Rain" and the "Roadhouse Blues" part of the "Roadhouse Medley", despite what is said on the sleeve, as well as the jam encores), but still works well as a listening experience. I've already seen some people moaning that the gig starts late into disc 2, and I can understand it… it's a valid complaint. But even the VHS version of the concert is too long to include on one CD, and a precedent had already been set with the deluxe edition of "Never Too Late".

In spite of the somewhat indecisive studio output, the so-called "new" line-up really became a great live band around this point. It wasn't as heavy as the classic line-up, but it had punch and drive (drummer Jeff Rich was often held responsible for the high tempo during the era, although that's simplifying the issue). Even the songs from "Perfect Remedy" sound really good live! "The Power of Rock" especially so; if you thought the album version sounded quite good, the live version is a full-blown Monster. What a shame the song was dropped shortly afterwards, never to be played again.

Some months after this N.E.C. recording, the band played one of its best gigs at the day-long Knebworth charity festival. It would've been surplus to requirements to include that one-hour show here, but I wouldn't be surprised if the full recording appeared somewhere too (so far, three songs can be found on the 2-CD Knebworth album; four on the video which is also available as a SD Blu-Ray). Interestingly enough, Quo continue to support Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy (the cause for the Knebworth festival) to this day.

There was another track that eventually dropped, still included in the testpressing I have... but for a change, I'm not unhappy about it missing. At all. :)

The recording from the previous night at the N.E.C. also exists, and might see a release in the future at some point. It's astounding just how many professional recordings there are from 1989/1990: The two nights at the N.E.C., a FM broadcast recorded in Glasgow, the Knebworth festival set and the "Anniversary Waltz" recording from Butlin's Minehead (where it had all started back in the 60s)!

Finally, the appealing artwork (conceived by keyboard player Andy Bown, drawn by Karl Lloyd) was one of the best things about "Perfect Remedy", and this is amplified here with the single covers printed on the folds of the digipack. Very nice!

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Status Quo - the next round of deluxe editions

The once so mighty Quo had taken a mighty fall at the end of the 1980s. While drug and money issues had taken their toll and led to the slow break-up of the classic line-up (in 1982, drummer John Coghlan had left; a combination of internal tension and management manipulation led to the 1986 reformation without bassist and singer Alan Lancaster, who subsequently went to court over the issue), they had enjoyed considerable success with the albums "In the Army Now" (which spawned four hit singles) and "Ain't Complaining" (which was less strong, but still yielded a huge smash with "Burning Bridges"). And the new line-up, consisting of singer/lead guitarist Francis Rossi, singer/rhythm guitarist Rick Parfitt, keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Andy Bown, bassist John "Rhino" Edwards and drummer Jeff Rich grew into a live force to be reckoned with, even if it didn't match the heaviness of the classic 70s formation, which later became nicknamed "The Frantic Four".

However, 1989 would prove to be a problematic year, as you can read in Francis Rossi's autobiography "I Talk Too Much". For once, Rossi had finally ended his relationship with cocaine, which in the long run helped him immensely, of course, and also gave way to a relationship that lasts to this day (after years of private turmoil). The band also finally realized that they had been ripped off by people from the management – all the money went into someone's pocket, but not the musicians'. And the third album of the "new" band, "Perfect Remedy", again produced by Pip Williams, completely failed to repeat the success of the two previous albums; the singles "Not at All" and "Little Dreamer" sank without a trace. In walked Walker, first name David, a cunning marketing expert who knew how the band could (ahem) remedy the situation, hence the reinvention of Status Quo as a family-friendly outfit essentially consisting of two people, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt. Miles away from the dangerous, shaggy, long-haired hard rock monster that had driven audiences into a frenzy in the 1970s. Even the album covers show this. And after a while, their music started to sound watered-down too.

But that's not to say there aren't any good songs on those "wilderness years" albums. "Perfect Remedy" did try, in some ways, to return to the tried and tested Quo guitar sound where "Army" and especially "Complaining" had sounded very technological (some of the more Quo-sounding tracks from those sessions ended up as b-sides to the respective singles instead!). The six-minute, multi-part "The Power of Rock", an anthem about The Troubles in Northern Ireland (a subject Quo had already tackled years before in "Someone's Learning") is generally noted as a high point of the later Quo. It was a conscious attempt to return to the formula of the classic Quo epics á la "Forty-Five Hundred Times", "Slow Train", "Mystery Song" or "Breaking Away", and probably the last new Quo track in that vein unless you count "Bad News" from 2007's "In Search of the Fourth Chord". The seminal "Forty-Five Hundred Times" (4500x for Quo buffs) itself got an update on 1991's "Rock 'Til You Drop" that, like the live arrangement, incorporates the riff from "Gotta Go Home" (which was the Quo's first vehicle for long jam sessions in the early 1970s), although it "only" runs for 12 minutes as opposed to some 80s live recordings that could take over 20 minutes!

The re-recording of 4500x was one of six tracks that only appeared on the CD edition of "Rock 'Til You Drop". The LP only included the first ten tracks, and as far as I know, the CD's bonus tracks never appeared on vinyl. The album was a sort of compromise between the band's plans (all-new material) and David Walker's ideas (covers and re-recordings, including a song that fits both categories, the ancient "Price of Love"), and it marked a return to the classic values: The production was handled by Rossi himself, and the recording was mostly done live on a stage with the aid of a mobile studio. The resulting album isn't consistently amazing, but contains more than enough good music for one LP and packs much more of a punch; all in all, I'd say it's the best album released under the Quo name since 1979's "Whatever You Want". I'm especially fond of the opener "Like a Zombie" (sung by Rossi) and the LP closer "No Problems" (sung by Parfitt), both of which are as good as anything Quo have ever done. The album didn't contain a big hit single (although the very good re-recording of 1977's "Can't Give You More" fared rather well), but riding the crest of the previous year's "Anniversary Waltz" (a medley of rock'n'roll classics done by Quo in full-flight) and no doubt also benefitting from the publicity surrounding the "four gigs in one day" world record, it returned Quo to the LP charts.

This was followed up by a live album and another Rossi-produced opus. 1994's "Thirsty Work" was moderately successful, but the band felt unfairly ignored by Great Britains BBC Radio 1 who insisted on not playing acts as old as this anymore, no matter how many chart hits they could still come up with. At the same time, fans were largely unimpressed, and Parfitt (who does not have any writing credits on the album and only sings one song, "Queenie") also expressed dissatisfaction. Rossi, who had been convinced he'd discovered a viable new direction for the band, was so disillusioned that he didn't write any new songs for a while (but still released a solo album – but that's another story), hence the release of a full covers album. 1999's "Under the Influence" and 2002's "Heavy Traffic" did put Quo back on track, though, even if there have been ups and downs after that, too.

In the next posts, we will take a closer look at the three albums that will be reissued in March 2020 and examine what's there and why it is there (after all, I helped to compile these sets)... stay tuned. Till then.

The other Quo side of the 80s

Status Quo gave up their identity as a guitar-driven hard rock band for a very insipid keyboard-led 80s sound. That's what a lot of fans are saying, and even the band seem to have taken up this narrative. Rick Parfitt said there was no weight to what the band was doing, Francis Rossi dissected "Ain't Complaining" in his autobiography. If you only listen to the LPs, you might agree with this viewpoint. But if you listen to a song like "Lean Machine", you'll quickly realize that this is not the full picture.

What is this? Okay, the intro has some unfortunate synth sounds, but right from the get-go you are attacked by guitars. There's Rick's gritty voice and even a harmonica solo by Andy Bown! And what was the fate of this totally satisfying rocker in the best Quo tradition? It was a non-album b-side! That's right! And only if you got the 12" or CD single of "Ain't Complaining", you had a chance to hear this song.

It's by no means an exception. Virtually all the single b-sides that the "new" line-up released in the wake of "In the Army Now" are really good and often better than several album tracks. Four of them ("Don't Give It Up", "Late Last Night", "Long Legged Girls" and "Halloween") were simply taken from Rick's never released 1985 solo album "Recorded Delivery", on which Parfitt had collaborated with future Quo rhythm section John "Rhino" Edwards and Jeff Rich for the first time. Though it's worth noting that "Late Last Night" had been demoed with Quo in the late 70s (alongside "Keep Me Guessing", "Invitation" and "One by One") and "Halloween" might've ended up on "Ain't Complaining".

The other tracks are pure Quo though. It might've been an incentive to get fans to buy the singles too, but for anyone who didn't, the 80s really were a hard time being a Quo fan. When you listen to "Lonely", "Keep Me Guessing", "Lean Machine", "The Reason for Goodbye" or "Rotten to the Bone", you have to wonder why such Quo-typical tracks were deemed not good enough for the albums. I suppose there was a lot of commercial thinking involved – a lot of "suits" telling Eric Clapton his album wasn't commercial enough, telling Quo "Burning Bridges" was not a good song (until the same guy raved about it, when he heard it being performed live) and that they had to record "I Know You're Leaving" because, I don't know, "In the Army Now" was a Dutch ballad and you could repeat that success if you just got the same ingredients?

Even the songs that are more in line with Quo's then-current output are often at least as good as the average album track. Take "Heartburn" – what an amazing song! Yes, it's totally 80s, but it succeeds in setting a dark and exciting atmosphere. The melodic "That's Alright" was a song that had already been released by Rossi/Frost on the b-side of their second and last 12" single. It should've been an album track on "Flying Debris" - but the album wasn't even released. Quo's re-recording was the b-side of the "Ain't Complaining" single. It should've been an album track on "Ain't Complaining" – but dropped from the tracklisting, even though an early demo version of the album still included it. Originally, the album shouldn't even have been called "Ain't Complaining", but "The Fighter". (More on that later.)

All of these songs have thankfully found a place on the 2006 remasters (most of them) and the more recent deluxe editions (all of them). There IS also a collection of b-sides from 1995 called "The Other Side of Status Quo", and it looks to be a rather good collection, but not without some issues: Two songs are simply album tracks that were used as single b-sides, two others are edits/remixes of LP tracks, and some great tracks such as the aforementioned "Lean Machine" or "The Reason for Goodbye" are missing, not to mention all four non-album tracks from the "Rock 'Til You Drop" era ("Dead in the Water", "Mysteries from the Ball", "Better Times", "Heavy Daze") – which is especially a shame because there had been no space for them on the 2006 remaster. Also, "The Fighter" wouldn't be included anyway since it wasn't even released at all in 1988. But it's a beautiful song and was subsequently re-recorded by Francis Rossi for his first solo album. Quo's rendition saw the light of day on the 2001 box set "Rockers Rollin'", was then included on the 2006 remaster and on the 2018 deluxe edition of "Ain't Complaining", which adds two work-in-progress mixes of the same song that have never been released before.

As mentioned above, there is a bootleg containing a demo version of the whole "Ain't Complaining" album from when it was still called "The Fighter". This was considered for the deluxe edition, but eventually dropped because of space issues. Although there would've been enough space for the few tracks that are markedly different from the LP counterparts, but oh well…

Anyway, this is the running order of the demo. It's interesting to see just how different the listing was – you can program yourself a playlist or burn a CD with the finished versions:

1. Another Shipwreck
2. Don't Mind If I Do

3. The Reason For Goodbye

4. One for the Money

5. Ain't Complaining (with drum intro)
6. Cream of the Crop

7. Everytime I Think of You

8. The Greatest Fighter

9. Magic (unproduced vocals)

10. The Loving Game
11. That's Alright
12. Lean Machine

Andy Bown's "Another Shipwreck" might just be my favourite song on the album, so opening with it doesn't seem like a bad idea. Curiously enough, both "Bridges" songs are missing, but so is the insipid "I Know You're Leaving", as well as the other big ballad "Who Gets the Love". If I had to choose the best songs from the sessions to make my own personalized "Ain't Complaining", I'd have included "Burning Bridges" but not "Cross That Bridge", and "Who Gets the Love", but not "I Know You're Leaving" (one ballad is really enough, and Pip's song is easily the better one). But I'd have dropped "One for the Money" and "Everytime I Think of You", both of which seem to have been considered important columns of the LP. I suppose one reason why "One for the Money" was always there is because it's one of the few Rick vocals on here; after singing five tracks from the "Army" sessions, that was quite a lack of Rick (and with "Lean Machine" dropped, there were only two Parfitt vocals left on the LP). Still, I don't think it's a particularly good song, and certainly doesn't sound like Quo!

All things considered, if you want to be complete, I think there's no way around the deluxe editions. "In the Army Now" has one non-album song that wasn't even on the 2006 remaster, "Rock 'n' Roll Floorboards", which should've been the b-side to the cancelled "Naughty Girl" single, as well as four otherwise hard-to-get remixes. "Ain't Complaining" adds four extended remixes, again pretty rare. "Perfect Remedy" has a Parfitt/Williams track that hasn't officially been released until now. "Rock 'Til You Drop" for the first time includes the non-album b-sides (the 2006 remaster had no space for bonus tracks), and "Thirsty Work" now has all seven b-sides (the 2006 remaster only had five) and four alternate mixes/versions. More on all this next time…