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(from scrapbook 2, page 51)

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Councils flap over Quo's 'tent tour'

STATUS QUO play their first British tour for over a year in May. The band, who have just finished a lengthy 30-date European tour, will cover small as well as big venues.

They kick off with two nights at Wembley's Empire Pool on May 10 and 11, which they follow with Birmingham Exhibition Centre 12, Newcastle City Hall 15-18, Bridlington Spa Hall 19, Carlisle Market Hall 21, Edinburgh Odeon 23-26, Glasgow Apollo 27-28, Blackpool Opera House 31-June 1, Sheffield City Hall 5-6, Manchester Apollo 9-12, Cardiff Sophia Park 13-14, Southampton Gaumont 20-21.

Tickets for the Wembley and Birmingham dates are already on sale by post priced at £5, £4, £3 for Wembley and £5 only for Birmingham.

More dates may be added to the schedule. Indeed more dates would already have been added but for the intransigent attitude of local authorities to Quo's plan to import a 6,000-capacity tent from France, which they could erect in towns where no venue large enough for the band exists.

Agreement had already been reached with the football grounds at Exeter and Ipswich and the authorities at Cardiff Sophia Park to erect the tent for a concert, but local fire officers soon put a stop to that. The Cardiff fire officer, for example, required each person to have 10 square feet to himself and a crowd limit of 2,000. This rendered the whole operation impossible as the tent costs £1,500 a day to hire and an audience bringing in £4,000 is necessary to break even.

Readers may care to note that the restrictions put on the tent are considerably more strict that those imposed on the football grounds, where the gigs would have taken place, and violence and crowd trouble is a far greater risk at football matches than rock concerts. The fact that Que have already used the tent for concerts in France without incident has had no effect.

It is still unsure whether a new Que album will be ready for release to coincide with the tour.