Interviews

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Interview with Francis Rossi by Chris Rodda

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

Brisbane Rave News, 5th March, 1997

It's been two decades since, in their prime as a worldwide supergroup, Status
Quo visited Australian shores. In the intervening years, the band have
travelled along the peaks and gullies of rock popularity. Since first
hitting the charts with Pictures Of Matchstick Men in 1967, the band have had
22 UK Top Ten singles from their sixteen albums, (most recently, The
Anniversary Waltz Part 1 in 1990) as well as two live records and three hits
compilations.

In the early eighties, the acrimonious severance between Status Quo's ongoing
core of Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt and founding bass player Alan
Lancaster (of Party Boys fame) led to litigation and warring biographies of
the band which led to more courtroom disputes.

On the eve of the band's second trip to Australia, I answer an early morning
phone call and am surprised to hear, not the expected telecom operator but
Francis Rossi calling direct. Bouncing off each other in my half asleep
brain are the strains of the classic boogie monster Whatever You Want and the
just-read Q Magazine interview from 1993 in which he says: 'So what if we're
boring and only do three chords? There's no point in getting hung up about
it.'

The quote, combined with the fact that Francis has his shit together enough
to ring direct reveal the lack of rock star pretension on the part of a
songwriter who contributed largely to the shaping of a musical generation
with the banal but anthemic Rocking All Over The World.

Ah 1974! I can remember being knee high to a grasshopper and sitting in front
of the 14-inch black and white set watching a performance clip of Down Down
in tropical Northern heat. The lights! The platforms!

I ask Francis if he has ever wondered what it is that has made Status Quo
such an enduring cult entity. He is vague, unable to put into words the
thing he feels.

'It's possibly the thing that happens between me and Rick,' he says slowly.

'Whether it's good musically or not. The time movement; the way we move. We
push and drag and push and whatever it is that happens between us and I think
that's why people who criticise say that it sounds the same is that
invariably it's going to have that element of those two guitars in it
somewhere and to restructure that you either lose your feel or you lose your
identity."

The criticisms of similitude between songs across Status Quo's career could
equally be seen as the band delivering an enduring formula and the fact is,
they still fill stadiums across Europe and the UK. Asked whether he feels
significant pressure to deliver a certain thing, Francis admits he has a
definite desire to please.

'I see the reaction of people when we do play. Whatever anybody else says...
and you can get down about the times people knock it and blah blah blah but
when you see their reactions and we go out each year and they still come and
they still enjoy it.'

'I don't think I ever wanted to be a musician. It was to be. initially like
the Everly Brothers or something like that and then later on like certain
rock people, I suppose. To be famous and to be liked.'

There's few ways to fulfill that personal need more obviously than to fill a
stadium with head banging fans and that is something the Quo do for six or
seven months out of every year, traditionally winding up with a Christmas
tour of the UK.

'Everything just disappears and you're from Christmas to Christmas.'

'Obviously as you get older each year seems to go quicker. By us doing the
British tour each year it’s almost like it was only a couple of months ago.'

'For people who work nine to five, with no disrespect intended!, it must be a
long time, a year. I find a year can sometimes go really quickly. If we make
an album in that year as well then that time just goes.'

The most recent album the band have done was to commemorate their Thirtieth
Anniversary last year which Francis says surprised him in just how well it
did in the UK.

'The album we did, Don't Stop, was to kind of as our manager put it to
commemorate the 30 year thing to do all that kind of shit that you do and he
suggested that we do this album of covers and things that we always wanted to
do.. Stuff we'd missed in the studio blah blah blah. I didn't think it was a
good idea. Making it was really enjoyable. I really like the way it turned
out or most of it at least and it was very successful so it was a bit of a
smack in the face to me. You always think you know what's right. You know?"

Given Don't Stop's old and borrowed content, Francis says the band has had
longer to write material for their next album which should be recorded late
this year or early next and he is confident it will make for a strong album,
perhaps stronger than their last few.

There has been some talk in the Quo camp, he says, of following a slightly
different line, perhaps doing a country or blues album or even the great
Status Quo: Unplugged.

'I don't think we're well versed enough in the blues really to actually sing
that... The rockier stuff perhaps you can get away with it but I think true
blues... I don't think I know blues enough. Noworrameen? People have
dedicated their life to it.'

'I've always been very, very keen on country and I think Rick has or
sometimes he is, put it that way.'

'I like it even more now. Some of the new crop, they really lean towards
rock. I can't see a line between rock and country in that area. The line
between rock and country is really going. I've always felt pop, rock, blues
and country. There's not much difference in them really. They're basically
love stories and lots of similar chord sequences and melody lines. Not that
that's a problem. I like them all.'

Francis remains non-committal about the direction the band will take with
their next album, saying it won't become evident until the members get
together and pool their latest efforts.

'At the moment I think I've got ten or twelve tracks and I know the others
have got four and five each and we tend to pool them all together and look
through them. Some work and some don't-and all the bitching ,goes on or
whatever goes on to make the decisions. We try to make it as democratically
as possible.... -ish.'

In the meantime, Status Quo are continuing their touring ethic with stopoffs
in Japan and Australia. For Aussie fans it's been a long dry spell and there
are plenty of new songs which have never been played in this country.

'We’ve been trying to get down there for some time," Francis says in a voice
that sounds half bemused and ..half apologetic about the lapse between
Australian tours.

'I don't understand why. I think something went wrong in the seventies
somewhere between a manager of ours and a record company guy. There was a
row, I remember that... We've had lots of excuses why it couldn't be done.
Promoters and this and that.'

'We're not going to ask why any more. We're just coming.'

My mind flashes to the opening Status Quo Live which sums up the Quo's
attitude as an unknown MC bellows to the roaring crowd: 'Is there anybody out
there ready to rock?!'

Chris Rodda

Interview with Francis Rossi of Status Quo by Ashley Gray:

On The Street, Sydney

"You leave your credibility at the door when you come and see us", declares
Francis Rossi, leadman and ace pinstripe vest wearer with platinum-selling,
Guinness Book of Records breaking, Royals entertaining Status Quo. Yes, the
Quo are back in town after 20 years, ready to shake and break any high
fallutin' notions about good ol' Rock'n' Roll. Francis elaborates, "Look, my
songs aren't about much, nothing deep, just fantasy stuff off the top of my
head. The funny thing is I don't even know what they're about till ten years
later." Doubtless, Francis has a very cool knack for making unintentionally
funny statements, but then he can afford to; Quo are the most successful band
in British chart history having sold more than 110 million units worldwide.
Their easy lad rock and boys' own stage antics have set the mould for several
insipid imitators, but Quo have outlasted them all, if only just. Francis is
keen to let everyone know that these days the Quo are clean living boys.
"I'm 47, and I never thought I'd make it to 45. Suddenly I realised I wanted
to live longer, so now I swim 3 times a day and have a healthy diet. It keeps
my lungs going, coz I smoke, and if I get on stage and can't breathe it
pisses me off."

As well it might, though Francis is adamant that the Quo have always been a
little abnormal in the Rock'n'Roll if not life scheme of things. In fact,
sex, drugs and R'n'R have long been over for the Quo: "Well the sex ain't
over", Francis protests. "I've got 8 kids, so I've had the full 16 minutes.
I never believed in Sex, drugs and Rock'n'Roll. On the road after a show I
tend to do nothing at all. Rick (Parfitt) is usually in his room in his
dressing gown, drinking a cup of tea, and the rest of us are playing wist.
"Sex, cards and bedtime stories aside, an astute musical observer once noted
that Status Quo is 'beer reaching' music, - doesn't matter where you are, as
soon as you hear those first bars you'll be groping for the glass of amber,
available or not. For Francis though, drinking just messes up his throat, a
situation that would have been very unwelcome on their Guinness Book of
Records breaking 4 gigs in 11 hours and 9 minutes marathon. "You bet your
arse it was tough," Francis moans. "By the second gig we were like 'this
could be tricky', and by the fourth we were just plodding." But they made it,
and now they hold the honour of having played most shows in a night anywhere
on the planet.

And the Quo have just about played everywhere on the planet too. Indeed
Francis rates their pre-Olympics 1980 Moscow gigs the strangest he's ever
played. "We were playing at this stadium that was being built for the Moscow
games, and we were playing 14 nights in a row to 17 thousand people each
night. These people filed in quietly at 6:30 and sat down. After each song
there was just a ripple. All the things that normally work for a show,
lights, lasers, whatever, just didn't happen. They just didn't know. One
night I started to announce something, I pointed to Rick and I said 'he's a
bit pissed off tonight' and the whole place went into rapturous applause. And
when I said it again the next night the crowd did it again, so I just kept on
doing it, it was the only way to get 'em going. Then they left quietly at the
end, no mess, no arguments, - it was weird." The Quo's propensity for Spinal
Tap like situations is not lust on Francis who is quite happy to be sent up.
"We still live on that movie, most nights when we go on some wag'll shout
'Hello Cleveland!'" (In the movie the Tap couldn't find their way on stage
and before each locked door they'd cry out hopefully, 'Hello Cleveland!') But
Francis has his frustrations too, "I always thought we'd have time machines
by now so I could go to the gig at 4 and do a sound check, hop in the time
machine go back to my wife for dinner, then hop back in, go to the gig , have
a few drinks afterwards and then go back to my wife having wasted no time and
have a game of wist," he complains bitterly. He is not so bitter however
about erstwhile bass player and Australian resident Alan Lancaster though the
chances of him returning are non-existent. "Well we fell out years ago, and
he's probably not happy with us coming out. But we're happy and it would be
an insult to the guys we've had over the last 10 years to have him back." On
the prospect of the Australian tour Francis is ecstatic "It's one of the most
beautiful countries in the world", and now that he's fit and trim he's got
more of those trademark blue and white vests to wear. "I bought some in
Stockholm recently, it's wherever you can find 'em." Which is the same with
his musical influences, "I love those guys who wrote for Abba, and look at
that Britpop thing, everything goes. I also like songwriters like Jeff Lynn
(ELO) and the Everly Brothers. "For the Australian tour Quo will be playing a
mixture of all their hits over the last 25 years. So leave everything at the
door and get on down. Their show is at the Enmore Theatre on Thursday March
6.

Ashley Gray.

An interview with Francis Rossi during the recent tour of the States.

Q&A with Francis Rossi by Sheila Rene

Sheila Rene': Hello Francis. I've been messed up lately with time. Thanks for getting back to me.
Francis Rossi: We definitely had two Fridays this week. We left Australia at 7 PM Friday evening and
arrived here at 1 PM Friday afternoon.

SR: You're only playing three shows this time.
FR: We're playing one in Toronto, New York and Los Angeles. It was all the agents idea I think. I don't
know what will come of it.

SR: You never toured the U.S. much ever.
FR: We did in the early days of the band, but never a substantial tour..maybe four or five. The
reaction would be good but we couldn't get much interest from radio.

SR: Guess what? It would be worse now.
FR: Yeah, I'll bet. It's the time of the two-week single. Everybody's into the two week single and then
it's finished.

SR: That's true. Rocking All Over The World and Don't Stop are the albums you're tour behind now
celebrating 30 years in the biz.
FR: The compilation and the cover album.

SR: Don't Stop was a lot of fun.
FR: I thought it was a bad idea at first because of the obvious stigma attached to doing cover tunes.
It was really enjoyable to make and was very successful on our side of the world.

SR: You guys haven't really had to leave Europe.
FR: We've been very, very lucky.

SR: 120 million albums sold world-wide since 1962.
FR: Not bad going.

SR: Now we've got the tune, your biggest hit, "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" covered by Peter Steele
of Type O Negative and Ozzy Osbourne for Howard Stern's movie soundtrack.
FR: I just heard about that the other week. I was talking to a guy doing an interview and he brought it
up. I said who's Howard Stern? I didn't know of him then, but I do now. I understand it's doing quite
well.

SR: It's doing quite well and being heard by many generations of music lovers.
FR: Suits me. I can't wait to hear it.

SR: I think people will now want to hear more of Status Quo. What is "Pictures of Matchbook Men" all
about?
FR: To be honest I had not been married very long at that time. I was trying to write something while
my wife and mother-in-law were out and I was fascinated with Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe." His chord
sequences were different at that time and I did something with the guitar and those chord sequences
and it just came out. Not many people know this and I don't say this in England too much but I had
an idea ...pictures of something but I didn't know what. Back then it was pictures in the mind and
pictures of this and that. My ex-wife came up with the title of the song but she doesn't know that. It
was just off the top of my head back then. Everyone thought we were into drugs, but I didn't even
know what drugs were at that point.

SR: You guys have had an awful lot of hits in your long career. There were 51 British hit singles and
22 were Top 10 hits. They're on this album, Rocking All Over The Years.
FR: We've been lucky let's face it.

SR: "Paper Plane," "Caroline" and more.
FR: It's all luck isn't it?

SR: Maybe, but I think in your case it's good writing and playing.
FR: Some people like it, I like it and we're lucky that a few more like it. We're very realistic in as much
as if we sell three million albums in England which is very big news, but it means roughly 57 million
people didn't buy it. I always think like that I'm afraid. When we first came to the U.S. the
overwhelming feeling was of being so insignificant in such a large population. At the same time our
manager said 'how would like an American manager?' and we all said 'no.' Instead of saying, 'we
need representation in America. I'll give away 20% of the band which is nothing.' We should have
had representation over here back then. The attitude of the band at the time was wrong. The old
band had its magic here and there but it wasn't as good as the band we have today. All I ever wanted
to be was famous. I can't pretend I wanted to be a musician. Perhaps I do now want to play better,
but when I was younger it was just to be famous. I saw the Everly Brothers and I wanted to do that. In
my 20s I was very adamant, I didn't need to learn anything and in the past five or ten years one of my
sons is a particularly good guitar player and I felt ashamed that he was that much better than me.

SR: I was going to ask if any of your children will take up the musical cross.
FR: Number two and number three (I do them in numbers, it's easier) are in a band called Little Egypt
and they're doing reasonably well so far. Like you said it's extremely difficult these days to get a
record deal. I've got eight children in all. My eldest son works with us on the road. It's becoming
nepotism rules here.

SR: For all the people who might find your name foreign and your music a mystery what albums
would you send people to pick up to get caught up with your music now that it's back in the news
because of the Howard Stern movie. Would it be this new compilation?
FR: Honestly, no. (laughing) That's not very good PR move is it? I think because that one has the
singles perhaps it's good from that point of view, but people who are serious should hear the
albums. They're more diverse in material. Criticism of the band has always been that the singles were
all alike which to me was logical. Record companies would do that...pick the ones that were similar
and the ones that had worked before. I suppose it would be better, which is a dream of mine, that
people would take some of the albums.

SR: Piledriver in '73 and what else?
FR: Piledriver and Hello in '73 were quite good for the early period. Rock Til You Drop was very good
for '91.

SR: You toured with Rod Stewart on Rock Til You Drop. He's still kicking out the jams.
FR: We did some dates with him. He's always at it. It depends on if he drinks or not. If he stops
drinking he's good. We were under the same management for years. We broke at the same time in
England. We had the wrong attitude over here. I don't know what was wrong with us. We were very
anti-America. When I was growing up everything about the U.S. was new, fresh and modern. Whether
it was because we had been struggling and had attained success again from Europe and elsewhere,
but coming here we had to start over almost. We all found that difficult at the time.

SR: As far as reading the most realistic story of the band and the beginning would you suggest Just
For The Record which came out in '93.
FR: Yeah, but I still think there are things that you can't really talk about.

SR: Only because they're still on the scene.
FR: We've had two or three books before that were written by other people but this one was at least
Rick and I telling the stories. We were interviewed and we talked and talked and talked. Most of that
book is 100% truth. A contradiction there about most of...never mind. It does talk about the new
band. The new band has been together 11 years now. It's certainly longer than most bands survive
and that's another thing I find that people mention a lot these days is the older bands. It just seems
logical to me that if rock and roll was born in the 50s, grew up in the '60s and '70s, it's logical that it'll
be older bands. I surprised there aren't more around. It's fuckin' hard work staying together
sometimes. Once success comes along and money comes with it, then that tends to make people
think they're better than they are. I've got money so I must be good which is completely wrong.

SR: I would have to say considering Status Quo's status, that it's an extremely successful status.
You've made a good living on just doing what you like to do. That's success.
FR: Definitely. It's a certain amount of perseverance but it's luck. That's an understatement isn't it? A
certain amount of perservering, but it's luck. I can't say that shear talent is luck and I've always
believed that the best people aren't in rock and roll. The best musicians are entertainers.

SR: That's the word, entertainer, that separates the men from the boys. Just as we were talking
about Rod Stewart. He's an entertainer for sure. That whole Live Aid show was brilliant.
FR: (laughing) Exactly. The whole thing was unique. Stewart kept pestering us. The first time he
asked us we said 'no.' They wanted the older bands first and once that happened it just
snowboarded. The feeling and the gig on the day was totally unique. The audience weren't just
paying to see a show, they knew they were taking part in something. The feeling in the stadium was
unbelievable.

SR: I taped the whole thing.
FR: We were also lucky to get the opening slot. We were either going on late with Paul McCartney
and do "Rock and Roll All Over The World" or as the opener. I wanted to open mainly because I
wanted to get finished to be honest. We made it on every newsreel in the world and everyone who
was going to watch it would at least watch the first ten or fifteen minutes.

SR: Another big concert in '90, the Knebworth Fest for Music Therapy.
FR: That's another one that came off rather well, but it's funny. Rick and I did most of the promo on
that before that show. We did some with Dave Gilmour, but the main question everyone was asking
was 'Do you get nervous?' I don't get nervous, not anymore. On that show I was bloody nervous so I
get extremely annoyed if people ask me that question now. I think that set was the fastest we've
played really. We don't mind doing charities, those were worthwhile, but it has gotten to be a thing in
England where the charity idea has gotten a little bit out of control.

SR: You guys were the first to work with Prince Charles Trust Concert.
FR: We used to dream about it when we were teenagers. We'd think how great it would be to ask
Prince Charles to come and play cello on something on one of our songs. We never thought we'd
actually do something with him. We're older now and we just take it as a gig. This royal thing is a bit
strange to me. I hate that system. For a while he'd come to see us as part of his gig. The last time he
came to see us, he stayed for some time and actually enjoyed the show.

SR: In '96 you played the whole Don't Stop album with some big stars including Brian May, who is
one of the most underrated guitarists alive today.
FR: He's also the nicest guy you'll ever meet as well. Totally unaffected and extremely pleasant. He
still wears his clogs. Everybody stopped wearing them in the '70s but not him. He doesn't care.

SR: Eric Clapton was on that show with the Beach Boys. It must have been a great time.
FR: It was indeed and it came together out of the blue. I wasn't keen on it at first but I came around. It
was enjoyable to make. Everyone knew the melodies of the songs and on covers you have to right
on. Brian came to my house and we sent some stuff to the Beach Boys and they did some stuff.
They came over and did two weeks promo in Europe with us. We became a ten-piece band for a
while.

SR: Every ten years it's a different period in music. It turns just that quickly.
FR: It's true isn't it?

SR: You have out a solo album now as well called King Of The Dog House.
FR: That was strange because when we did the first four tracks which we did at my house, the "King
Of The Dog House" and "Oh, Darlin" and two other tracks which were particularly good everyone
got excited. We got to work on the album a bit more and the producer...a friend of a friend...had never
had success before so it went to his head. He suddenly got to be a star and eventually there were
wrong mixes and all sorts of things went wrong from there. I just put it all down to experience now. It
could have been better than it is but, that's life, isn't it?

SR: You bet. Hopefully we all live and learn.
FR: It was a learn on that one I'll tell you.

SR: Any chance you'll do another solo?
FR: I'd probably like to but I shouldn't think Virgin would take up the option on the contract because
so many things went wrong.

SR: The big rumor on the websites for Status Quo is that you'll come out with a new album in '88, I
mean '98.
FR: I keep doing just what you did. It sounds recent enough doesn't it?

SR: I mean '98 and that you'll tour.
FR: We're working on material. Just before we left on this tour we broke up at Christmas. We always
break up at Christmas time and until we left to come out here we were doing new material. I want to
try and take more time over the material. We usually do x amount of songs in a period and we go to
record them and that's that. Then I get together with my songwriting partner again later. This time
we've already done ten songs and we'll be able to go over them again. I've already started cutting
them to bits and I'm hoping that will improve the material. Perhaps we may get a show at doing a
second batch as it were. We're all preparing to do something album-wise.

SR: It says that it would be made in the older more rocking-style of Status Quo. You guys have never
compromised a second on your music.
FR: It's great to talk about making this kind of album and that kind of album. I have to see what the
material is going to be first. You put that down and then you say what kind of album it'll be. So far it
seems quite rockin' I suppose. To me the ultimate Status Quo albums were, apart from the two you
mentioned earlier Piledriver and Hello. When someone says raw to me I think rough. The Rock Til
You Drop and the Thirsty Work album is where we should roughly be today.

SR: Are your fans getting younger and younger?
FR: We just toured Japan and Australia and we haven't been to those places for about 18 years. We
really didn't know what to expect. We expected polite applause from the Japanese, but I didn't know
what to expect from Australia. It always seems, throughout Europe, although we draw people of 40
and 50 years of age and sometimes older, we still seem to have the younger people in the front. I find
it flattering and fascinating. It's certainly good for the band, but it's very hard to understand why
younger people will turn out particularly because of the way the press speak about any older band.
You don't expect all that. We have a lot of kids that show up in QuoOasis T-shirts. They like Status
Quo and Oasis too. That's the bonus. We also see a lot of older fans who bring their children who are
five and six years old. When we were younger, the idea of being an act that could entertain people
from five and six years old to 50+ years old was crazy. You very much wanted to be the 18-25 year
old crowd which now as I look back is totally stupid.

SR: It has always been like that.
FR: When the punk movement came around I remember we were in the Marquee in London finishing
Rock and Roll All Over The World and it was next door to the club. There was a punk band on and I
was 26 or 27 years old and this guy about 18 or 19 turned around and said 'fuck off you boring old
fart.' I thought to myself am I this boring old fart? There should be young angst but I don't see why
people of my age shouldn't like a younger band and people of younger ages shouldn't like
musicians in their 40s and 50s. You just like the music or you don't. Age is irrelevant.

SR: Are you looking forward to the U.S. dates?
FR: Very much. I feel better about being here now than I used to feel. It's a more positive attitude in
the band generally.

SR: There's nothing like a positive attitude.
FR: I'm more that way the older I get.

SR: You're still a Fender man.
FR: I'm afraid so. Leo Fender before he died, made a GNL series of guitars. I just stayed with this
guitar. It's next to me now and goes everywhere with me. I've got two or three GNL's that are really
superb. My old Telecasters were a love/hate situation. I'm not one of those people who want to be
buried with his guitar. It's a piece of wood with strings to me. I've heard that there are people who
would kill for their guitars. That's a bit much. There's a guy who used to play in YES, whose name
I've forgotten, who always talked about wanting to be buried with his guitar.

SR: Well, if he believes in "the other side" theory, he'll be prepared having carried his favorite guitar
with him.
FR: I do believe in that spiritual thing in going over and so on. If you do none of this material shit is
going to be any good to anybody.

SR: What are you the most proud of concerning your 30+ years in the business?
FR: Just hanging on, I think, in the face of adversity I suppose. I'm always aware that most people
don't like you whoever you are. I'm quite proud that we've managed to hang on and we still sell-out
shows. We're extremely lucky that we can do that.

SR: You've got some festivals planned for May and June.
FR: Festivals in Scandinavia and Germany are popular. They're good days out. We've become what
we call "semi-pro." We work the weekends and we get the week off.

SR: Now that we have the Internet? In 1962 when you started, Internet what?
FR: That's getting serious for sure. In fact in '67 and '68 when we were touring the hovercraft hadn't
been around long, we figured that cars would be floating and that we would possibly by the '90s
have some sort of time travel. I always fantasized that we'd be able to come off the side of the stage,
get in this box and go straight to our own bathroom, shower and be home. You could hang out a
couple of hours with the guys and have a drink and then go home to your own bed. It just didn't
happen yet. I'd love that I promise you.

SR: I would too.
FR: The only thing I don't like anymore is the traveling, the hotels and all that shit.

SR: That was always terrible.
FR: When we were younger it was still fairly new. Hey, I'm on an airplane mum. I've seen hotels and
busses.

SR: Has the Internet helped peak interest in Status Quo that you know about?
FR: From what we can tell there seem to be little unofficial websites all over the place. It has come
home to us that there are more people out there than we thought who are interested in the band. Our
management is very keen in England, in particular, in the idea of the Internet because there's this
whole rip-off thing over there. If you buy five tickets to Quo shows you'll have to pay a booking fee
on each ticket and if you purchase by credit card you pay the booking fee and the credit card fee.
That's ripping people off big time. Lots of record companies are getting very worried because there
are a few acts like David Bowie and others who have advertised their gigs on the Internet and sold
them out on the Internet.

SR: That is correct.
FR: The idea now is people are saying why don't we do this with records? You can sell them to the
people cheaper and this is before we start downloading them. People get the product cheaper and
the band themselves make more money. You bypass the record companies who for years have had
this love/hate thing with musicians. All that is definitely coming on and there has to be a lot of
executives who're getting extremely worried.

SR: I'm excited about all the possibilities.
FR: I think the people will really benefit by it. Record companies will become redundant as lots of
other big businesses. Let's go straight to the people.

SR: What's the best song you ever wrote?
FR: Oh, shit! I was proud of "Pictures..." at the time. In 1980 something I wrote called "Marguerita
Time" was a country-rocky thing. I was very keen at the time on country and I remember being
desperate to get it released. The band, at that time, weren't sure if it was too soft or too this or that.

SR: Track 17 on the compilation.
FR: I thought it was going to change so much and do so much for me. It was a bit hit at Christmas, it
was lovely and I enjoyed it, but as the whole thing with this business is, you go and do another one.
In any other business in the world you get to the top of your tree and you can lay back a bit. I've done
that now you think. If you're a president or a prime minister you do that gig and then they look after
you. In rock and roll or show biz, you do that big hit and then they ask where's the next big hit? I
realized that with "Marguerita Time." It didn't do what I thought it was going to do for me. I had to find
another one. I had to find another one.

SR: Well, Francis I really appreciate your time and your saving my ass by letting me do this interview
a day late.
FR: No problem. I'm very happy to have had this time with you.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Interview with Alan Lancaster is taken from the Backwater Magazine September 1997.

WE HAVEN�T HEARD MUCH ABOUT YOU AND YOUR BAND LANCASTER BOMBERS LATELY, SO WHAT�S GOING ON AT THE MOMENT? The Lancaster Bombers are 'in limbo' right now. we are waiting to see if there�s any interest in our new EP, "Pictures of matchstick men", from the Quo-fans etc. Without a record company involved on the marketing side, it�s pretty much impossible to promote the band efficiently though.

Some radio play would be nice, but not having a manager to help, things are slow to say the least. WHAT ABOUT THE EP, IS IT OUT OFFICIALLY RELEASED OR IS IT JUST FOR PROMOTION? It�s released through Voiceprint Records, and can be ordered direct through them at the address PO Box5, Derwentside, Co. Durham DH9 7 HR, ENGLAND, or on the internet. The EP has the catalogue number PJR002CD, and contains four tracks, "Matchstick men", "Roadhouse Blues", "Aim High" and "Is this the way to say goodbye". It�s released although it�s uneconomical to market it properly until such time as radio start to play it.

JOHN COGHLAN PLAYED PERCUSSION ON YOUR FIRST TOUR IN SCANDINAVIA. DO YOU STILL HAVE CONTACT WITH HIM? Yes, I have contact with John from time to time. The way we look at Lancaster Bombers today is as a four piece outfit with additional guests coming in. John Coghlan was a guest then, and he might be again in the future.

WHAT ABOUT JOHN BREWSTER WITH WHOM YOU USED TO WRITE SONGS BEFORE? I like writing with John, but he�s now working with his old band, The Angels. He still lives next door to me. A similar thing that happened to me in Quo also happened to him. Everybody was saying how bad The Angels were, but now that John and the original bassplayer have rejoined, everybody says how good they are� There was a chemistry in the band. They�ve always had a fantastic guitarist, that�s John Brewster�s brother by the way, but without John and the bassplayer he didn�t have the same band anymore. It�s strange that if one or two members leave the whole thing collapses. They were absolutely terrrible when I saw them play live, but now with the original lineup back together, they�re great again.

YOU WROTE SOME SONGS IN THE QUO-DAYS WITH A GUY CALLED KEITH LAMB, "OL�RAG BLUES" TO NAME ONE OF THEM. WHO�S THAT? I�ve always been a teamplayer. I like to have somebody to work with, but I don�t like having somebody pulling the strings over me. I enjoy working together with other artists, you know, like a bounce. "Do you like this? Do you like that?". Keith Lamb used to be in an Australian popband called Hush, they were quite popular for a while. They had a couple of years of succes, I suppose� When I met him he had a record company function, and I just get friendly with the guy. In the case of writing my songs he was there, and he helped me write them. "Ol`rag blues" was basicallywritten when he came in, but he wrote some lyrics in it. "When you look into a mirror�", He wrote that part. It happens a lot, you know, if you work with somebody, and they become the co-writer. Strangely enough it was different with Status Quo. You could come up with an idea in Quo, and then somebody else did more work on it than the original writer. The writer wasn�t the writer, you know, he justcame up with an idea. For instance, Rick came up with the idea for "Rain" and "Mystery song", but with "Mystery song" I wrote most of the lyrics with Bob, and I also wrote the melody for it. It was credited as Parfitt/Young. I wrote part of "Rain", and then later on Francis wrote part of "Rain", and I think even Bob wrote alittle bit of "Rain" too, but it was listed as Rick Parfitt. Rick didn�t write those two songs, he wrote parts of them. Because Francis and I were writing together at the time, we felt that "let Rick have those songs", you know� That�s the way it is, so the writing credits do not necessarily portray the writers. John Coghlan is not a writer. He didn�t write "Roll over lay down", "Break the rules","Lonely night" or anything like that, but they are credited as written by five people.

ISN�T IT ALSO A FINANCIAL SIDE TO IT ALL? I MEAN, THE WRITER GETS MORE MONEY FROM RECORD SALES, DOESN�T HE? Yes, that�s right. The writer of the song gets a writing royalty, but we never used to really think like that. We used to think everyone was going to get money for what they did. We tried to evenly distribute it, you know, because that was really our wage if you like, the writing. That was the only part that our management didn�t take control of. Except that they took control of the publishing, so really it was the writing royalties that helped us survive. That was why we sort of distributed the writing a bit. "Roll over lay down" was written by me and Rick first off, Francis came in with the riff, and Bob came in with some words. We didn�t want to leave John out, so I suggested that he�d be credited as well. Whereas with "Lonely night", I wrote that with Francis, but because I was writing with Rick at the time, and Francis was writing with with Bob at the time, We decided to put Bob and Rick in. And again, why leave John out? "Let�s put John in", you know�

DID YOU HAVE LOTS OF ARGUMENTS WITHIN THE BAND ABOUT WHAT SONGS TO INCLUDE ON THE ALBUMS AND WHAT SONGS TO LEAVE OUT? No, because we never really had enough songs. The rotten part about it was that when somebody wrote a song, and when I wrote a song in particular, it was very difficult to get the others to play it properly. Rick and Francis were more interested in their own songs, and if I worked on their songs it was like�expected.

WAS IT LIKE THAT FROM THE START OR WAS IT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED LATER ON? Later on. Much later on. That started, I think, around 1980. yeah early 80s� IT�S QUITE OBVIOUS IF YOU LISTEN TO THE ALBUMS FROM THAT PERIOD. "WHATEVER YOU WANT" IS THE LAST ALBUM WHERE THE BAND REALLY SOUND LIKE A UNIT. AFTER THAT IT�S VERY CLEAR WHO WROTE WHAT, AND EACH MEMBER SEEMED TO PULL IN THEIR OWN DIRECTION. That�s right. It became like that. Whenever somebody wrote a good song, the others jumped at it to add their own ideas. In the end it either came out bad, or it came out another way. It might come outeven better, but in a way you didn�t want it to come out, you know. The song "Ol�rag blues" for instance� I left the mix there, it was all done, and Francis went in and remixed everything on his own. When I went back to Australia, and Rick went back to his house, he secretly went into the studio and did it, and the mix on that album� Rick hated it, and I hated it. It was much better before he got his hand on it, so things like that were going on then�

I GUESS YOU WEREN�T VERY HAPPY TOGETHER IN THE STUDIO THEN? It�s hard to say, you know, because when we were playing together we were happy, it was fine, but there were so many problems� Francis had so many problems all the time, but he was very secretive about them. Rick had so many problems as well. You know, I came into the studio full of enthusiasm, "let�s go!", and everyone�s on a downer. It was very hard to rise above it. We were sort of happy in one sense and unhappy in another, but we never really knew then what the problem was. Rick and Francis seemed to be unhappy in particular, and John was� John.

IT�S ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE FOR US WHO HAVE GOT TO KNOW JOHN LATER ON, THAT HE WAS CONSIDERED TO BE WILD AND UNPREDICTABLE IN THOSE DAYS. I MEAN, HE�S REALLY SUCH A NICE GUY, ALMOST SHY� It was the frustration of being in a band and not knowing what was going on. He was the one that was making it all possible, or one of four people making it all possible, and he was treated like� shit! He was treated so bad bu our management, so bad by the rest of the boys, as if he didn�t exist, you know. He just got very frustrated about it, he didn�t know how to express himself, how to get it out. It was very awkward for him. I know this now, but I didn�t know it then, because I was part of it, you know�

DO YOU FEEL GUILTY YOURSELF FOR JOHN COGHLAN LEAVING THE BAND? I blame myself entirely for John, and I have told him that too, although he really only had himself to blame. We couldn�t afford financially or timewise to have somebody to mess around. We were men, had families. We couldn�t afford spending months in studios just drinking or having a joke, you know, we were there to work.

SO WHAT YOU�RE SAYING IS THAT JOHN DIDN�T REALLY WANT TO WORK? He wanted to, but he only wanted to play the drums. Rick wanted to play guitar, and Francis wanted to play guitar, but nobody wanted to do the real work of learning of what to play. It�s all very well to say "I can play the drums" or guitar or whatever, but you have to work, you have to learn the things to play, and nobody wanted to do that. They thought it was going to come naturally, you know, all of a sudden� It takes a lot of work to make a song happen, a lot of work. These songs we�re doing now in Lancasters Bombers, We�ve all know them for years, but still we have to practice for a month, every day of the week, to really sort of push it out. It�s a lot of work behind it. With Status Quo they thought it would come naturally to them. They forgot that in the old days we used to sit in a room for twelve hours a day playing together, working it all out. That�s why it was so good. When the big success came, they suddenly thought it would come naturally, but it doesn�t happen that way, and I had no time for that. As a said, I blame myself for John leaving. I flew over from Australia to the studio in Montreaux, Switzerland. We spent two days setting up the drums, mike them up and everything, and then John went in and kicked the drums over� I thought to myself "I can�t put up with this". I said to the other guys " we�ll get someone else, we have got to work properly". You know, we have all these songs, we have spent months and months of writing and doing demos at home, then somebody comes over and messes it all up� I was annoyed, so I said "ok, we�ll get somebody else to do the album".

DID YOU ALREADY THEN SEE IT AS A PERMANENT SOLUTION, THAT JOHN WAS OUT OF THE PICTURE FOR GOOD? No, not at all. That was just to do the sessions. Even so, John could havecome back and put drums on if necessary, if things weren�t very good. We needed somebody that was going to work with us. If he was a good or bad drummer, we�d soon know, but it wasn�t even necessary to record with the guy, but we did of course. Still, John could have come back and said "look chaps, let me put the drums on now and forget all that"� I mean, fine!

BUT YOU DIDN�T CONTACT HIM AFTER THAT INCIDENT IN THE RECORDING STUDIO TO TRY TO SOLVE ALL THE PROBLEMS? What happened was that Francis had gone to Pete Kirscher, who really was somebody I contacted at first to do some demos for me in London. Pete�s a nice guy, and a great drummer, he hasn�t got that magic that John Coghlan has. John has really got something else about his playing, you know. He�s a good drummer, John, but in a completely different way from Peter Hackenberg for example. I mean Peter is a world class drummer, but John has got a certain something when he plays, what can you say..? When John went, Pete Kircher flew in the very next day. The idea wasn�t to get rid of John permanently, no, but I think Francis Rossi already had it in his head. Our management also seemed happy about it, "think of all the publicity we�re going to get from this". You know, one of the original Quo leaving�

AROUND THIS TIME ANDY BOWN BECAME A FULL MEMBER OF QUO. HOW DID IT HAPPEN? About a year or 18 months before this happened, I said to Andrew "in a year or two you�ll be permanent member of this band". I also said to him "I think it�s going to be wrong, I think it�s not right for us".

BUT WHO MADE THAT DECISION IF YOU WERE AGAINST IT THEN? That was Francis. When I was away in Australia there was no balance in the band, and Francis had the stick. When I was there, it was always balance between me and Francis. Sure, Rick jumped on Francis�scales quite a lot, or he might jump on my scales and alter the balance, but basically it was me and Francis that balanced the scales and kept it at even balance. When I wasn�t there Francis would say things like "we can�t ring Alan up in Australia all the time to ask him questions". Francis basically engineered John Coghlan to leave the band. I was told that John wanted to leave, but really John has told me now that he just felt very embarrassed at the time. He was promised money in compensation which he never really got, he got some, and Alan Crux helped him to leave basically. John was forgotten and it was very, very bad. I still feel bad about it, that was wrong. At the same time, you know, John asked for it in certain ways. I would never have giveout and left him on his own though, I thought he was well taken care of. Francis really engineered the situation for him to go, and get one of his friends in, Pete Kircher. Then of course Andy Bown was called, because Andy was always taking sides with Francis, to be part of it. Rick said okay because then there was another member you could side with, you know. You�ve got to understand, it was a question of companionship within Quo. Rick was always hanging on to Francis, and wanted to be accepted by him, but really, the companionship was between the three or four of us in the band. Maybe me, Rick and Francis, John was always sort of on the edge, but he was still one of us, a member of the band. The companionship was me, Rick and Francis, but Francis was always looking for someone else to� show off, if you like. He couldn�t show off in front of me, or in front of Rick for that matter.

OUT OF ALL THIS CAME A VERY STRANGE ALBUM. I MEAN, MOST OF THE FANS EXPECTED SOMETHING REALLY SPECIAL SINCE IT WAS THE 2OTH ANNIVERSARY AND EVERYTHING, BUT THE "1982" ALBUM WASN�T GOOD, WAS IT? What song were on that album? I don�t remember, were there any good ones?

THE ONLY SONG THAT I REALLY LIKE ON "1982" IS A TRACK BY RICK CALLED "RESURRECTION". You see, the problem was that Francis did not want anybody to play on his songs. He wanted to do his songs with Bernie Frost, and that�s what he did. He did the demos, and he wanted to release the demos all the time. When the band came in and made them better, he was happy, but it was really hard to make them better because he wanted them certain ways, he wanted them played exactly the same as the demo, making it a bit better, you know. For hours and hours he put the "Jealousy" on that he did with Bernie Frost, and then the "Jealousy" we did with the band. It got to the stage where I was saying to Rick "well, we�ve done it exactly the same, I can�t even tell which one is which now". I believe he put on the original, I don�t think that is a Status Quo-recording, "Jealousy". I think it�s the Francis Rossi and Bernie Frost version on the album. I think if the "Jealousy" we played was the same, he would have thrown ours off and got his on. That�s what I believe he would have done. If ours was better, or if it was different, he wouldn�t have had a choise, but if we made it the same� Francis wanted to control the situation, he wanted to show off. He wanted me and Rick to look up to him. Same with Rick, he wanted me and Francis to look up to him. They were always trying to prove themselves in different areas all the time. It wasn�t like this in the early part when all the good stuff was happening, this was later on when the drug situation came in.

WHAT STRIKES ME WITH THE "1982" ALBUM IS THE LACK OF MUSICAL DIRECTION. THE MEMBERS OF THE BAND REALLY SEEM TO HAVE DRIFTED APART MUSICALLY. ANY COMMENTS? Well, it started with the "Rockin�all over the world" album. That�s when we started to go wrong, because we always produced our own albums. Up until then it was all us, and then Pip Williams came in with a completely different technique. It was like as if he was doing some band that had no direction. He started to create new ways for the band, you know, different recording techniques, stuff that was irrelevant for the band. It was wrong for us, but Francis was impressed, and he made friends with Pip. You see, it was like he took him into his confidence so that so that Pip could think he�s the one, that he was the leader of the band or something. That wasn�t the case at all. Francis in fact was the weak member of the band in reality. He used to get his own way because of the way he used to engineer people, manipulate people. As far as 'leader of the band' he was like last in the line in a way. It was probably on a very equal basis, but Francis used to go out on a different route to get his own way, like he took Pip Williams into his confidence, and like he took Andy Bown into his confidence� After the "Rockin�" album we should have dumped Pip. The only thing that made that album was really the song "Rockin�all over the world". I mean, it wasn�t a bad album. It was good in the sense that everyone was enthusiastic because we were doing something new, but when "If you can�t stand the heat" came out everybody in the whole band knew that "this is wrong", you know, "this whole Pip Williams thing is wrong". Because Francis had him under the thumb, he wanted us to try one more, "we�ll co-produce it this time". That�s what we did with "Whatever you want". We kind of merged with Pip, "we don�t want any of this, we want it like�"

IN THE BOOK "JUST FOR THE RECORD" FRANCIS SAYS THAT YOU WERE AGAINST RECORDING THE SONG "ROCKIN�ALL OVER THE WORLD. THAT�S A BIT STRANGE, ISN�T IT? Yes, that�s absolute nonsense, absolute nonsense. I don�t know where that has come from. I mean, I�ve been against recording certain songs for sure, as everyone in the band has. I didn�t want to record "Marguerita time", but nor did anybody. I was actually the one that allowed it to happen, I got everybody together to record that. Not Francis, not Rick, not Andy or anyone else� it was me! I sad "ok, come on, let�s do it", talked everyone into doing it, learning it and doing it, because nobody wanted to do it. Francis says I tried to stop that, and that isn�t true. "Rockin�all over the world"� I don�t know where that has come from. That�s a new one on me. It�s nonsense, if it wasn�t for "Rockin�" that album wouldn�t have been very good at all. I mean, it was a pretty good album. It was good because it sort of showed another direction to the band, but looking back on it I don�t think it�s a great album, you know�

YOU RECORDED THAT ALBUM IN SWEDEN, DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL MEMORIES? Yes, I remember it very well. My wife was over here, cooking for the band every day. She was looking after us, and we didn�t even give her a "thank you" on the album by the way, and I remember we enjoyed making that album to a certain degree. I say to a certain degree, because we started with a different approach there. Francis was always hanging around Pip, you know, talking about his songs, what he wanted and what he didn�t want. So in the end it was like Pip Williams working with Francis Rossi, not Status Quo. Pip was being briefed by Francis all the time, but he still didn�t know what was in my head and Rick�s head, so he had to look after us too. It was enjoyable making that album, but it was a different way� It was different to make because nobody was helping one another with their work.

SO THAT WAS REALLY WHEN THINGS FIRST STARTED TO GO WRONG THEN? Yeah, it started to happen there with Pip Williams. It was like you had to have Pip to like the song before anybody else. That was what Francis engineered, because he played his songs so much that Pip got used to his stuff. Pip used to like my stuff, you know, he used to come around to my house in Surrey, and we used to rehearse there. I had a bit of faith in Pip in the early days, at that particular time, it was kind of enjoyable that he was always treating everybody as an equal. It was the recording technique that was different, and everybody was impressed that he was using all these new techniques, you know�

WHO CAME UP WITH THE IDEA TO WORK WITH PIP WILLIAMS IN THE FIRST PLACE? It was Colin Johnson�s idea. We got Pip in, and that was good at the time, but�

WHAT ABOUT THE SONG "ROCKIN�ALL OVER THE WORLD", WHO SUGGESTED THAT ONE? Rick found that song. Personally I didn�t like the original version of it, but when we did it in the studio, that was the one that was natural. When we did it, all the other stuff was finished, and "Rockin�" just clicked naturally. We played together as a band, it was fine. With all the other stuff we worked on every detail, every tiny bit, but since none of us wrote "Rockin�" we just went in and did it. I love that song, you know, and I still play it on stage with the Lancaster Bombers�

IF I ASK YOU TO CHOOSE YOUR FAVOURITE SONGS FROM ALL THE YEARS IN STATUS QUO, WHICH ONES WOULD IT BE? Let�s see� "Pictures of matchstick men", "Roadhouse blues", "Rockin�all over the world", "Down down", "Accident prone", "Backwater", "Roll over lay down", "Big fat mama", "Whatever you want", "Over the Edge", "Break the rules", "Softer ride", "Rain"�

WHAT OTHER ARTISTS INFLUENCED YOU IN THE DIFFERENT PERIODS OF YOUR CAREER? When we started out in the 60s, I was obviously influenced by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones as well as Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. To name a few in the 70s, I would say Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Led Zepplin� In the 80s� What happened in the 80s? Well, Aerosmith seemed to be happening. Nowadays I like the up & coming younger bands that are re-vamping the 70s style music into updated sounds and arrangements, and I was impressed with Lenny Krawitz�s earlier work.

WHAT ABOUT FAVOURITE ALBUMS BY OTHER ARTISTS, WHAT WOULD A 'TOP 5 ALBUMS OF ALL TIME' LIST BY ALAN LANCASTER LOOK LIKE? I would choose "Dark side of the moon" by Pink Floyd, "Houses of the holy" by Led Zeppelin, "Desperado" by The Eagles, "Beatles for sale" by The Beatles, and finally "Imagine" by John Lennon.

WHICH ALBUM ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF TODAY WHEN YOU LOOK BACK ON EVERYTHING THAT YOU DID WITH STATUS QUO? It�s hard, I have to think about that� All the stuff we did before "Rockin�all over the world" was really enjoyable, all the stuff� They were great times. Everything before "Rockin�" I enjoyed. I sort of enjoyed that album too. I even enjoyed "If you can�t stand the heat" to a certain degree, but it was awful, the album was awful. We still had a good vibe though�

WAS IT ONLY IN THE STUDIO THAT THE PROBLEMS SEEMED TO EMERGE, OR DID YOU EXPERIENCE THAT ON TOUR AS WELL? No, the tours were always happy, they were fine. No problems there. I mean, Rick and Francis were unhappy guys, they had been unhappy for a long period of time, but thet created their own unhappiness. Lot�s of time I was sort of the mediator between them, but as soon as the two of them got together and I was away, it was like I was ostracized for trying to help them get together. I could never understand that. I never let it affect me too much, but of course it did affect me. Rick and Francis were still in competition with one another all the time, but they weren�t very good in the studio. Rick didn�t really know how to work in a studio, Francis knew bits and pieces but didn�t know how to go about it the right way. On the other hand, I did. I knew it, because I had my own studio for a start. Before that I had one in my house, so I was used to that kind of thing. They didn�t like that, that I could do it, but I was very, very reluctant to put my hands on the desk, you know. I was also very reluctant to bring the sounds from my computers into studio, because it would have blown their minds apart. They wanted to mix their own songs, and I remember once when I came into the studio, and they were all there around the desk. You know, Francis, Rick, Andy, the engineer� They were making small adjustments here and there, very carefully fading for the last bit� Then I came up, "great chaps, but you have this bias noise all over the the tape, can�t anybody hear that?". There was a whistling noise all over the tape, and they were mixing with it! Nobody was hearing it, not even the engineer! I couldn�t believe it, "can�t they hear this? It�s all over their work!". So, "Rockin`all over the world" was enjoyable, "Can�t stand the heat"� by then we knew Pip was wrong, but Francis couldn�t bear to go into the studio on our own again. He didn�t want to say to me and Rick "come, let�s do this together", he couldn�t say that. Finally, after the "Whatever you want" album, we did something about the fact that it didn�t work with Pip anymore. Then Francis wanted to use John Eden, the same engineer� So we did, twice. First we did the "Just supposin`" album, and when we were finishing the thing off, Francis wanted us to stay in the studio to do more and more tracks. I said to him "but we haven�t got more tracks", you know. Everyone only had half finished songs, so I really didn�t want to do it, neither did Rick. I finally went along with it to keep him happy. Francis was talking logical sense, it did make economical sense to stay in the studio, because then we would have another album. I thought "well, that�s thinking, that�s good". Although it made economical sense, it didn�t make creative sense to me. I went along with it because I knew if everybody put their energy into it, we could do it. Of course "Never too late" was just really a throwaway album.

SO WHAT YOU�RE SAYING IS THAT "NEVER TOO LATE" AND "JUST SUPPOSIN�" ARE RECORDED AT THE SAME TIME? Yeah, exactly the same time. We recorded those in ireland. Francis was going with Liz Gernon then, he had a passion for the Irish and wanted to record there. "Never too Late" was really a throwaway, we should never have done it. It made good sense if we could physically do it, but everybody was so pissed off. We had just finished "Supposin�", "why should we carry on with another album?", you know.

YOU MENTIONED THAT DESPITE THE PROBLEMS IN THE STUDIO, YOU WERE ALWAYS HAPPY TOGETHER ON THE TOURS. WHICH ARE THE MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS IN YOUR CAREER? Obviously opening 'Live Aid' at Wembley Stadium was one of them. The last concert on the 'End of the road' tour at Milton Keynes is another fond memory. Of course when we did the 'Prince�s trust' gig at Birminghamn NEC, the first performance at my fathers sport club, Samual Jones Sport Club, and also the regular performances we did at the greyhound pub in Croydon, London.

OPENING 'LIVE AID' WAS THE LAST THING YOU DID TOGETHER WITH THE ORIGINAL BAND. HOW DID THAT THING HAPPEN? What happened was that Iain Jones said that Bob Geldof wanted us to open the show at 'Live Aid'. I said "great, I want to do it", but Iain told me that Francis didn�t want to do it at this stage. Basically I said to Iain Jones "tell Francis if he doesn�t want to do it, I�ll make sure everybody knows why we didn�t do it". Then it didn�t take long before Iain came back and told me were going to do 'Live Aid'�

TALKING ABOUT IAIN JONES, WHO ACTUALLY CHOSE HIM TO BECOME TOUR MANAGER? Again Francis. You see, Iain Jones came in as a keyboard roadie for Andy Bown. I never really liked the man to be quite honest with you. It was something about him I disliked, but I didn�t really know why. I thought I shouldn�t really judge him, you knoew, he�s probably a nice guy� By that time I lived in Australia, and somehow, one way or the other, he and Francis hit it off. Not long after that Bob Young was sacked, and Iain was made tour manager. Everybody� Francis in a way degraded the band with the things he did, because of his sucking up to people like Colin Johnson, Pip Williams etc., and doing things behind our backs. When he ought to be talking to Richard or me, he was talking to Colin Johnson instead, things were being done without the knowledge of Rick and myself. That was causing friction in the band. It wasn�t Francis� band, you see, he didn�t own the band. Even if he was looked upon as the lead singer or not, he had no authority to do it, and of course we didn�t like it. Iain Jones obviously looked up to Francis, being charismatic as a rockstar� You know, "here I am, a lonely keyboard roadie, and he likes me". Francis liked the attention, so he made friends with Iain, and Iain went up the ranks and became our tour manager. Bob Young got the sack, but that was basically something we all agreed to do at the time. Bob had become almost one of the band, you know, he saw himself as one of the band. When we wanted things done he wouldn�t do them. He was working for us, but he wouldn�t do things... It became unfunctionable. I mean, Bob was a great tour manager, probably one of the best in the business, but he wasn�t functioning as a tour manager for us anymore, he was functioning as a fifth band member. Then he started wanting a cut of our record royalties, and Francis at the particular time was prepared to do that for him, because he was friends with Bob. He was willing to give away part of my and Rick�s royalties to Bob, you know�

DIDN�T YOU HAVE ANY DISCUSSIONS WITHIN THE BAND TO MAYBE CHANGE MANAGEMENT? No, not really. In 1979, after my divorce case in 1978, I knew about the financial things, and I started to think about asking questions. By the early 80s, after some research, I knew things were wrong. You know, "Where�s this money, where�s that money?". We never got payed a lot of money. You might think Status Quo made a lot of money, but we didn�t. All the money we made went back into the band. We really only started to make money in the 80s, early 80s. It all went back into the band, and it went very quickly, because of the album costs. That was why John had to go, because it was costing to much money to not get the work done properly. Everybody made a lot of money out of Status Quo, except Status Quo� We did the tour in 1984 to retire on, so that everybody would have enough money to retire on, but we lost money from it. When I brought it to the boys, you know, "ah, don�t worry�". Rick was broke, he was technically bankrupt after that tour, and I wasn�t supposed to be worried! In 1985, at the time of 'Live Aid', he had lost his house, his studio, everything. He was living in a little flat, he had no money at all, had no driving-license, nothing� That was why I flew over, to help him. Nobody was helping him, not Colin Johnson, not Francis Rossi, and Rick was on the verge of suicide as he mentions in their biography book. His friends weren�t helping him, so I flew over from Australia, at my own expense, to see these new accountants, and that was when we found out we were being ripped off. Even if Rick knew he was being ripped off, he was too frightened to do anything about it. When It was relayed to Francis, he didn�t want to do anything about it, "I don�t want to know about it". He said "ok, let�s sack Colin Johnson, but I want him as my own manager, my personal manager". It was f�ing rediculous! By saying that I could tell what was in his mind, that he wanted to go solo. Basically he was throwing the band away. When the solo thing didn�t work out, Francis was devestated. So was Rick. Rick�s album didn�t even get released. Because of all that, I couldn�t get a deal, even though I had payed for and recorded all my stuff on my own. I later used it for Party Boys, you know.

DID YOU GET A CHANCE TO LISTEN TO RICK�S AND FRANCIS� SOLOALBUMS? Oh yes, Francis and I sat in his BMW, and he played the whole album to me. We sat there, and I said "good one there, Francis, you need a little work here�". His stuff in fact, had a certain little bit of charm, good bits here and there. I was living with Rick for a while, so all I got to hear then, day in and day out, was his soloalbum� Compared with Francis� stuff Rick�s material was more earthy. It had good bits too, but that�s not good enough, you know. When I came over with my stuff, the record company didn�t even want to give me a deal. They had just spent 100.000 pounds on Francis, and 100.000 pounds on Rick, and they came up with absolutely� nothing! After that it was impossible for me, even though I had already recorded the stuff. The material I did was intented either for me or Quo, because I can�t record in any other way. I diverse sometimes, like the track "Flash in Japan" for example, but basically I record like I would in Status Quo. If I�d still be in the band you would be hearing things like "Escape", "Running in the shadows", "Aim high", but now these songs went to The Bombers or Party Boys instead. The whole thing was so badly managed. It wasn�t like KISS when they released their solo albums, all four of them at once. Great! With us, Francis was doing his in secret, Rick was doing his in secret, while I was trying to make a Status Quo-album with noone in the band near to do it with me. Everything was so rediculous�

HAVE YOU RECORDED WITH OR PRODUCED ANY OTHER BAND, APART FROM THE BOMBERS AND PARTY BOYS, SINCE YOU LEFT QUO? Various artists still ask me to produce their material, but usually the budgets aren�t realistic. I don�t get asked often to do sessions as the scene is fairly limited in Australia, but recently I actually did some. I played bass and co-produced a cover version of Neil Young-track "Old man" for a Rip Curl�surfing video, and I played bass on the background music for a recent National Parks & Wildlife video. I also played keyboards on the Roger Woodward album "Music of the night", which I produced as his first contemporary classical styled album. Otherwise I have only recorded with Quo, Party Boys and The Bombers. Oh, I did play bass on an old rock album by Chris Turner

YOU SAW QUO LIVE AT ULLEVI FOOTBALL STADIUM, GOTHENBURG, IN 1995. WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THEIR PERFORMANCE, AND HOW DID IT FEEL TO SEE THE BAND ON STAGE THAT YOU ACTUALLY FOUNDED ONCE? I found that concert very uninspiring, it lacked feel and realism. Most of the songs were played much too fast, and the band looked cabaret. It was upsetting for me to see Francis and Rick degrading the name and legacy of Status Quo like that.

DID YOU MEET QUO WHEN THEY DID THEIR AUSTRALIAN TOUR IN MARCH THIS YEAR? No, I didn�t, but I spoke to Rick on the phone a few weeks before, and then again a few weeks after their visit down under. I had a personal family trauma to deal with around this time.

ONE LAST QUESTION. DO YOU PERSONALLY SEE ALL THE DOORS CLOSED FOR THE ORIGINAL QUO TO WORK TOGETHER AGAIN IN THE FUTURE? Let me put it this way, I Don�t see the doors closed, but I don�t see them open� I think the next worthwhile step is for the original four piece band to make a new album together while we still can. The amount of mail I receive requesting this to happen from fans all over the world is quite incredible.

THERE STILL SEEM TO BE A LOT OF BITTERNESS INVOLVED ON A PERSONAL LEVEL, ESPECIALLY BETWEEN YOU AND FRANCIS. IS THAT THE CASE? No, I�m not bitter about what happened. I�m angry about it. Angry in sense that they took away my life from me, you know, at no given notice. It wasn�t like "next year Al, we want to start replacing you, can we get to some kind of deal?". It was done very, very underhanded. It let me in a situation where I couldn�t carry on with my life, because I was fighting for what I had. I�m angry about what Francis did, and in a way about what Rick did. They were my friends for 25 years, my best friends. It�s very hard to forgive somebody if they�re not sorry. I know they�re sorry, so I can forgive them for it, but they still won�t tell me they�re sorry,you know. Rick kind of has, but they don�t want to do anything about it. Even though they�re sorry in a sense, they carry on saying nasty things about me. I don�t know why they�re doing this. I would love, really, for myself, John, Rick and Francis to play together again, to all be friends. It would make the whole thing worth it. At the moment it feels as if I�ve lived a lie for 25 years. Francis was my best mate, so was Rick. We were like one. It would be nice to get together and play a show sometime, just because of that, and to salvage that. Then we could say that "it wasn�t a lie, something went wrong in between, but now it�s ok!".

The End

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This interview with Francis Rossi is taken from the Backwater Magazine September 1997

So you�re finding it more and more difficult nowdays to come up with good ideas for new songs, is that what you�re saying? Not necessarily the good ideas, no, but whether or not they are actually interpreted as new. Because status Quo now having difficulty, particularly in England, getting airplay, we have a problem there. Do we just leave it, or do we have to do something like the last album, a cover album? We probably have to do something like that again, you know.

We have no trouble with TV or press, but we have serious trouble with radio. Possibly the only way for us is via TV advertising. With the last album, I didn�t want to do an album full of covers� Because what that suggests, you know, the stigma attached to doing covers. It turned out a very good album, I think reallyenjoyed making it and it was also very successful, so maybe I�m wrong�

I think the only way for us at the moment is to do half and half. Basically a new Quo-album of all new material and some covers so that the English record company can TV advertise which is what gets to people. There�s no way we can pretend that we can marketed to teenagers. I�m not saying teenagers don�t like us, some like us and some don�t, but they can�t market towards those people. That�s the only way through for us, rather than being shut out entirely, and I love a fight when it comes to that kind of fight. So I think we�re possibly in a position where we�ll do maybe a 17-track album or something like that, and do some covers and some orginal stuff. I mean, I was so depressed at the that time after "Thirsty Work".

I knew what the next album was going to be, and thought " oh f..k!". It meant that at the time I didn�t think it was important to write any songs, you know, "important to write a song for what?". I really wondered why I should write a new song. "To do what with? Just to have a song? so what!". I�ve got over that now and I�m writing again. I think Bernard and I�ve got eight or ten new ones, but still you go "da-da-da"� "No, I�ve heard that before"�

And if we�re not careful, then we�re not Status Quo, because people keep saying that "da-da-da" is Status Quo. I suppose you gather from this interview that I�m totally confused, and I don�t really know what to do..?

We�ve always felt what we wanted to do and I wonder if we�re now going to make mistakes by doing what possibly needed to be done. We always did what we wanted to do. You know, "we like it and if you like it too - good, and if you don�t - f..k it, what can we say?". Now we�re also in a position where the band has been around that long, we�ve all got heavy expenses. I�ve got eight children and a huge place�

I have to earn money! We may be rich at the moment, but if I stop tomorrow it won�t last long. I won�t be able to keep my children, I�m now very aware of that. I�m now also aware that all the guys in the band have wives, children and houses that they have to keep going. It�s alright to be a musician or a rockstar and say "f..k, we don�t care, man", but stark reality, they all need to pay their mortgage. Jeff needs to pay his mortgage, John�s got his children at school and Andrew� it�s just a stark reality. I suppose the answer to your question is that I don�t know what the f..k is going on! I really don�t, and I do think that possibly it�s all be done. I don�t know whether or not we can do an album of what people consider to be "real" Status Quo. Then you�ll have half the world saying "hmm, it sounds just like Status Quo" and the other half will say "it doesn�t sound like Status Quo". So we just have to wait and see what happens next really. I really don�t know what to do, although at the moment we are writing some stuff that I think sounds like Status Quo.

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