Clipping details
(from scrapbook 2, page 41)

Clipping text

QUO-TES
Robert Brinton trails STATUS to Newcastle

AN HOUR before the show, you approached Newcastle City Hall stage-door. There's a line of cars, and parked conspicuously on the corner a massive maroon Austin Princess limousine: Status Quo have dispensed with the van for their first headlining concert tour following their hit with "Paper Plane."

Gathered around the stage-door there's a load of boys, and they move aside to let us pass. Colin Johnson, Quo's manager, who helped them back on the right track, gives the wood a hefty bang and the doorman, knowing authority when he sees it, lets us pass.

"See, they can get in alri..." mutters one of the kids, but his words are cut off with the door firmly back in his face. We're inside the City Hall now, and catch sight of Status going through a sound-check onstage.

Worried

Twelve speakers have blown since the tour began - and that means £500 in hard cash - and Status, who arrived from Norwich only minutes before, are worried they won't have time to get the sound right.

Back in the street, the kids' faces light up briefly as the door opens. The light's soon gone, though. There are about 16 of them and they tell me most of them cut school for the day to hang around. When the roadies arrived, they helped them in with the gear, told them where the best cafes were, and ran a few errands.

"One of the others came up and locked us out," Ron says. He first liked Status after hearing one of their first hits "Pictures of Matchstick Men," which his sister bought years back. "My sister likes Cat Stevens, Melanie and stuff like that now," he goes on. "But Status, they weren't about for years were they? Then they started making records again and I started reading about 'em in the papers."

Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt and Alan Lancaster were obviously as satisfied with the sound as they ever would be and were in the dressing-room when I got back.

Francis nodded welcome, and Alan looked up then got back to thumping out bass runs through the practice speaker. Rick, though, looked ready to talk:

"The Australian tour was alright," he answered, "but we've never done anything over there yet so it was a matter of breaking ground really. It's great to come back to all this in England.

"Cause, see, this is like our first headline tour and the reaction has been great so far."

He talked about the group's next album, untitled as yet, for which they've already cut three tracks. Asked what they're like - he smiles and says: "Boogie things, you know.

"There's one we've done though, called 'Claudie,' which is pretty different for us - I play piano on it and we're hoping to get it in the new stage act to add some variation because we've been doing the present set for a long time. It's time for a bit of a change, we think."

Is there a new single planned? "That'll be taken from the next album because we don't want to get into all this about having to put out a single until we know it's the right one. We've been a singles band in the past and we've been through it all, so we don't intend to start releasing too many.

"Paper Plane' was a very cool single, we thought. And when we put out another we want it to have the same class as that - a good one with a lot of balls to it."

Classic

Rick says how the band are considering putting "Matchstick Men" back in the stage show, the song they dropped in late '69.

"We've been running through it again lately, and it's sounding really good, really good. It was around some time last year when we started to come back to the song again and realised it did have a lot of magic and was a kind of classic in its way."

Rick goes on to talk about how the band have been together for 10 years now, seen all the tough times they'll ever need to, and have lived up each other's backs so long they all know each other individually and musically more than most groups.

"People say we're unmusical, but that's a load of rubbish. Some of our numbers are similar, but they're NOT the same. When we're onstage we play very loud, and when a kid gets hold of one of our albums that's the way it should be heard - very loud, with the volume up full.

"Every one of the numbers we do varies in feel and presentation. Some people just don't notice what is actually going on."

The group, Rick said, had been urged to do a Wembley Pool concert, but they've knocked the idea on the head.

"It just wouldn't be right, and we know that. With us, the whole process has been very gradual and the feeling within us now is that we're just beginning. We're not a big band yet; we're a well-known band who've recently got bigger, that's all.

"Doing Wembley would only be 'so we can do it, too.' You know the sort of thing. What we are looking forward to is playing America in April which IS important, and also doing the summer festivals. They're right for us and we feel so good when we're up there.

"We've been together long enough now to know when we play a good gig - and we don't view that through audience reaction. We've got to know the sound and the whole thing was tight and as close.

"When we go out there tonight we're going to know if we're playing well or not. That's our satisfaction..."

Status don't exactly dress-up to go onstage. What happened was, they changed out of jeans and T-shirts into more of the same, maybe a little tighter though, hugging the places it matters most.

Walking out into the hall, the place is black and very, very full - but not sold out. The band come on and the City Hall rings with applause. Average age in the hall, about 17. There's lots and lots of sweet little Rock-n-Rollers who explode out of their seats at the climax to Quo's opener, "Junior's Wailin'."

Watching Status in action is getting a series of images. They do move like the wind now; the pace is treble what it used to be. Best times are when they form a cluster around Coughlan's drums, heads all down and rocking like crazy. Or when Rossi, Parfitt and Lancaster get in close together, guitars jutting out and blast out "In My Chair," "Railroad" and "Don't Waste My Time."

What the music, so accessible as it is, does to people is something else. And it's blokes' music alright. Three, who couldn't have been aged over 14, crept towards the front near where I was standing, edged their way into some vacant seats, got their longheads of hair down and hardly looked up once until after the second encore "Johnny B Goode."

Status mesmerise you into submission with the constant pounding, like a record repeating itself over and over. But a sound you want to hear with just enough change in each song. A bore - never.

"Paper Plane" is a highspot now, of course, and the extended jam "Is It Really Me" seems to have improved out of all recognition. They worked their guts out.

The band slipped offstage with a quick "Goodnight" and the DJ stuck on "Pictures of Matchstick Men." Still a bit of a classic, it sounded too.

Let's hope Ron got to see it all.

Image caption: QUO'S RICK PARFITT (LEFT) AND MICHAEL FRANCIS ROSSI