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(from scrapbook 3, page 30)

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SLADE/QUO

WHOEVER THOUGHT OF putting Slade and Status Quo on the same bill must need his brains examining. True, both bands are very talented - but nothing is more guaranteed to start a riot than a combination of both.

Needless to say, so far the tour has been a tremendous success - Status Quo drawing in the heads and older ravers, and Slade bringing in the young boppers.

I wonder if the organisers of the hall at Guildford last Sunday knew what they were letting themselves in for. They'd obviously employed numerous jobsworthys who, during the early stages of Status Quo's act, were urging everybody to sit down.

Still Status won through - as one might expect. Mike Rossi, looking like an arch type rocker, denim jeans rolled up at the bottom and high heeled black leather boots, is the one who controls the audience and encourages them to let rip.

Certainly the band work hard. The first number "Juniors Wailing" set the audience off but it was their third number "In My Chair", perhaps one the audience were more familiar with, that really got 'em at it. Status have improved 200% on the last time I'd seen them, some eighteen months ago and it is hard to recognise them as the band who four years back were coming out with teeny singles.

Their best number is the one they close with, "Is It Really Me", simple and with a very basic sound, tailor-made for those who want to get up and freak. By this time in the proceedings, the jobsworthies who had previously been loitering with intent, had either given up or been stampeded underfoot.

This is the band's best number in that they seem to be able to weild (sic) a lot of control over the audience, building them up to a frenzy and slowly letting them down again. Certainly they make the audience work hard.

Slade are a band who never fail to excite the coolest of crowds, and Sunday was no exception. Lewd, rude, loud and very proud, they even have a professional way of being vulgar.

An excellent PA and a ca-