September 2011
Status Quo month at Hallowed

Band:
Francis Rossi - vocals & guitar
Rick Parfitt vocals & guitar
Andy Bown - keyboard
John 'Rhino' Edwards - bass
Matt Letley - drums

Previous members:
Alan Lancaster
John Coghlan
Jess Jaworski
Roy Lynes
Pete Kircher
Jeff Rich


Discography:
Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo (1968)
Spare Parts (1969)
Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon (1970)
Dog of Two Head (1971)
Piledriver (1972)
Hello! (1973)
Quo (1974)
On the Level (1975)
Blue for You (1976)
Rockin' All Over the World (1977)
If You Can't Stand the Heat (1978)
Whatever You Want (1979)
Just Supposin'' (1980)
Never Too Late (1981)
1+9+8+2 (1982)
Back to Back (1983)
In The Army Now (1986)
Ain't Complaining (1988)
Perfect Remedy (1989)
Rock 'Til You Drop (1991)
Thirsty Work (1995)
Don't Stop (1996)
Under The Influence (1999)
Famous in the Last Century (2000)
Heavy Traffic (2002)
Riffs (2003)
The Party Ain't Over Yet (2005)
In Search of the Fourth Chord (2007)
Quid Pro Quo (2011)

Live album:
Live! (1977)
Live At The N.E.C. (1984)
Live Alive Quo (1992)
Live at the BBC (2010)

Compilations:
Status Quo-Tations (1969)
12 Gold Bars (1980)
From the Makers Of... (1982)
12 Gold Bars Vol. 2 (1984)
Rocking All Over the Years (1990)
Whatever You Want - The Very Best of Status Quo (1997)
Essential Status Quo (2001)
XS All Areas - The Greatest Hits (2004)
Pictures - 40 Years of Hits (2008)

Selection of Achievements:
64 British hit singles (more than any other band)
34 British hit albums
2 Silver Clef Award
Brit Awards
World Music Awards
2 Guinness World Records
OBE (Rock and Francis)

 

September 30
Rock 'n' Roll 'n' You

Status Quo show that they still got it and rocks as hard now has they have ever done, from the latest album Quid Pro Quo. It is one of my absolute favourite tracks with Status Quo, so ridiculously simple and yet so brilliant.

 

September 29
Two Way Traffic

The opening track on the latest album Quid Pro Quo, it was released as a download single only. A quite classical Status Quo track in style and it opens Quid Pro Quo in an energetic way.

 

September 28
In the Army Now 2010

New verison of the classic hit song from 1986, along with the Army music Choir- A song made for the military to help military charities. All sales maoney were divided between the British Forces Foundation and Help For Heroes Charities. This song also end the latest album Quid Pro Quo.

 

September 27
Jump That Rock (Whatever You Want)

A Single released with german band Scooter as Scooter Vs. Status Quo. A slightly different collaboration for the brits and it was never released on any of their album, it can be found on Scooter's Jumping All Over the World. It was released in 2007 and wasn't really that mich of a hit.

September 26
Beginning of the End

The Beginning of the end? Maybe this, the fifth decade of the band is the one they see as their last. This single is from teh album In Search of the Fourth Chord from 2007, where it is the first track. The video was recorded in one of the carriages of the famous London Eye.

 

September 25
The Party Ain't Over Yet

That is what Status Quo establish with this single, the title track of the album with the same name. It was released in 2005, maybe to remind everyone that they were not done yet or that they can still party like before. Of course it was also to celebrate their 40 years as a band, an album that also had some nice reviews so it was a good way to celebrate and judging by the video they know both how to make their music and to party.

September 24
You'll Come Around

2004 this single was released, it reached the 14th position on the british singles charts. It was taken from the album XS All Areas - The Greatest Hits. To get sound on this video you need to change the video quality from 360p to 240p, sorry for the trouble but it was the only video I found.

 

September 23
Jam Side Down

If you thought Status Quoe was only dead serious, maybe you ought to stop thinking along those lines since they are old people with humour which they prove with this song and video. From 2002 and the album Heavy Traffic, it reached 17th in the british charts as best. A typical positive Status Quo song that brings out a good mood in the fans.

September 22
Little White Lies

1999 was this track released as a single, taken from the Labum Under The Influence and it may be described as a moderate chart success, the single sales never really caught back on after the demise during the 90s. With few exceptions their singles found themselves in the 30 to 50 range on the british charts. Little White Lies is however a fine song to end the nineties with.

 

September 21
Don't Stop

Don't Stop from the album with the same name is a cover on a song by Fleetwood Mac, it reached number 35 on the british charts and it is also the track we end the 90s cover songs with.

 

20:e september
Burning Bridges

Burning Bridges from the album Ain't complaining was a big hit for the band, especially in the home country. It is based on the traditional english folk song Darby Kellys, it was written by Rossi and Brown. It is also a song that was reworked and released as a new single along with english football team Manchester United, it was titled Come On You Reds and it became the only team specific song that topped the british singles charts and that is still the case today.

September 19
Fun Fun Fun

A song that in original was made by The Beach Boys and which in Status Quo version that was released in 1996 had Beach Boys as backing vocals. It was also a song leading to the band ending up in a dispute with BBC Radio 1 who refused to play the song. Despite this it reached decent success in the home nation, though nothing to speak of in any other nation.

 

September 18
When You Walk in the Room

During the nineties the popularity of Status Quo decreased considerably and to be fair the band did not do much to change that playing mainly covers during that period. This is one of those, written and performed by Jackie DeShannon in the sixties and then 1995 by Status Quo, a single that only charted in the home country.

September 17
Anniversary Walz

Is the name of two medley singles released in 1990 where the first part was more successful than the second one. It is a collection of hit songs from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the song the Wanderer by Dion was already released by the band as a single before. It was recorded live in the studio as one track but was split to make two singles, this video though is the whole deal which is as it was released on 12".
The songs on this are (songwriters in the parenthesis): "Rock 'n' Roll Music" (Berry), "Lover Please" (Swan), "That'll Be the Day" (Allison/Holly/Petty), "Singing the Blues" (Endsley), "When Will I Be Loved" (P Everly), "Let's Work Together" (Harrison), "You Keep a Knockin'" (Penniman), "Long Tall Sally" (Johnson/Blackwell/Penniman), "Let's Dance" (Lee), "Red River Rock" (Kind/Mack/Mendlesohn), "No Particular Place To Go" (Berry), "The Wanderer" (Maresca), "I Hear You Knocking" (Bartholomew/King), "Lucille" (Collins/Penniman), "Great Balls of Fire" (Hammer/Blackwell)

 

September 16
Red Sky

The other single from In the Army Now that was produced by Dave Edmonds and written by John David. For this single there were special jars of coffee made to promote it but that only managed to take the album to a 19th position on the british charts.

 

September 15
Rollin' Home

Rollin' Home from the album In The Army Now, was a decently successful single. It was written by John David who played the bass in Dave Edmunds' band and it was produced by Dave Edmunds.

September 14
The Wanderer

The Wanderer, another cover, they do have a a few in this list. But it is a song that show the band for being more than the boogie rock sound they are so known for, also a fun video. And I promise you that there are more than three chords in this song...

September 13
A Mess of the Blues

Another Status Quo cover that has become a single, a song that was originally recorded by Elvis Presley in 1960 and then by Status Quo from the album Back to Back in 1983. A Mess of the Blues reached decent list positions in Great Britain and Ireland.

September 12
Ol' Rag Blues

From 1983 and the album Back to Back comes this bluesy song that was written by Alan Lancaster who also originally did sing on it but for the recording that ended up becoming the single it was Francis Rossi who did the vocals. It is a single that shows the more melodic side to Status Quo and has a sound that is not completely what we attribute to the band, but that might be because these tracks rarely do well in the charts. This single is no exeption to that even if it did fairly well in Great Britain and Ireland.

 

September 11
In the Army Now

What song fits this day better than this one? In my opinion one of the absolute best songs ever made, though it was not written by Status Quo themselves but South African (Dutch born) duo Rob and Ferdi Bolland it was made into their song just like Rockin' All Over the World and who remembers the writer of that song? It is from the album with the same name which was released in 1986, it was a single that reached big sucess with many top spots on the singles charts.


September 10
Dear John

From the album 1+9+8+2 comes this single, what is worth noticing here is how well they manage to sound despite the fact that someone has replaced their microphones with bananas. Not the band's most sucessful single but it managed to reach top ten in the home country, and guess which year the album's from.

 

September 9
What You're Proposing

A very sucessful single for Status Quo, for some reason it was impossible for me to find the official video, youtube is full of covers and live videos but not the official video. This video is from one of their numerous appearances at Top of the pops, this one from January 1981.

 

September 8
Living on an Island

Also from the album Whatever You Want but far from the same success as the title track. Still, a video with penguins in it can always be fun.

 

September 7
Whatever You Want

Maybe the best rock song ever, according to many, it was released in 1979 and can be found on the album with the same name. An iconic riff, iconic sound and a song believe almost everyone recognises.

 

September 6
Mystery Song

The single following Rain which was our video for yesterday, not a particularly successful single with chart positions between ten and twenty but it is a song that is popular amongst the fans. From the album Blue For You from 1976,like Rain it was written by Rick Parfitt. A song that concerns a young man's encounter with a prostitute.

 

September 5
Rain

From the album Blue For You, released in 1976, it was written by Rick Parfitt which makes it the first track we have here that is. It is a hard rocking hymn perfect to take with you when diriving, a track that is straight ahead with no compromise. It reached top ten chart positions in many nations but no real top placement. The track was originally intended to be included on the On the Level album but Parfitt was not finished at that time which is why it was released on the album after.

 

September 4
Rockin' All Over The World

One of the really big hits of this band which reached top placements on the charts all over the world, besides the USA and some other nation. First place amongst others in Ireland but not in the home country Great Britain where they reached the third spot. This is also the song that opened the LiveAid gala where it became the inofficial hymn as BBC used it to advertise their coverage from that gala. This song is actually a cover song, it was originally made by John Fogerty in 1975. The Rockin' All Over the World song and album came in 1977 and when the band where to record the music video for the song Alan Lancaster who lived in Australia at the time did not want to come home to record so his role was taken by a dummy with a bass guitar.

September 3
Down Down

1974 in november was this single, Down Down released as an advance single to the album On the Level which was released in 1975. This became the first single that charted as number one both in the homecountry and internationally. It is one of the band's two first place singles in the homecountry. It also charted as number one in for instance The Netherlands and Beligum and was a top three single here in Sweden and neighbouring Norway. Looking to the charts it is one of the band's most successful singles.

 

September 2
Caroline

Some time has passed since that first video, this is from the album Hello that was released 1973. Caroline was Status Quo's first top five hit and is a popular song among the fans of the band and it is also played quite a bit during the band's live sets. The video is from Top of the Pops where Status Quo are recurring guests. Caroline was also released as a single again in 1982 when a live version was released and you can see that one below the first video.

 

September 1
Pictures of Matchstick Men

Let us start from the beginning. It started with this single which reached the seventh position on the british charts. The year was 1968, the album is called Pictoresque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo. At this moment in time the band was called The Status Quo after several name changes since they started playing together in 1962. The video is from on of their over 100 appearances at the BBC's Top of the Pops where they are the band who has played the most times. As a bonus you also get a live version of the song from 2009.
Status Quo, all of their songs sound the same? follow this and judge for yourself.

 

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Hallowed choses one of the big names through rock history this month. British rock band Status Quo.

Videos selected and written about by Daniel Källmalm