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(from scrapbook 3, page 50)

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'PLASTIC' MAKES PERFECT
... or perhaps not, as Quo's RICK PARFITT (below) explains to NEIL JEFFRIES.

AS INSTITUTIONS go, Status Quo haven't exactly been prominent in recent months. Predictably enough, though, they've just returned with yet another hit single ('Ol' Rag Blues') and have a new album ready for release any time now.

This sudden return to the scene had brought a complementary rush of activity on the media front. It might have proven too much for a lesser man, but guitarist Rick Parfitt handled all the media attention with aplomb.

When I spoke to him he was tired though still enthusiastic, despite having spent the whole day talking to tape recorders, telephones and notepads. In fact, for a man just short of 35 (his birthday is on October 12) he looked disgustingly young and healthy!

My turn came around tea-time, in an office just a stone's throw from a gloomy, rain-soaked London Bridge. As commuters bowed their heads into the cold, wet wind lashing the windows, Rick lounged on a sofa, supped a coffee and explained where Quo had been since Donington.

Ah, yes, the 'Monsters Of Rock' Festival, August 21, 1982. To back-track a little, it was a gig he admitted being very unhappy with, conceding that Quo were guilty of being unprepared, under-rehearsed and unfit...

"It felt a little bit uneasy. 45,000 is a lot of people to play to if you're not really prepared. I was a bit frightened beforehand...and we came off with very long faces. There's no way any of us ever want to do that again - a big one-off after a four or five month break."

After that, though, came the Christmas-time release of the three-album boxed set, 'From The Makers Of', and the live single version of 'Caroline'. Accompanying the latter, were problems concerning the showing of the video on Top Of The Pops and its chart positioning. But it seems all those differences are settled now and Quo have once again been seen on our Thursday night screens, flying the rock flag and 'propping up-the-pulp' in the way we've all come to expect from them.

That, though, doesn't exactly amount to a packed schedule for a band like Status Quo. Had their absence been a deliberately planned lay-off?

"Yes, to a point it was. We were gonna do another tour but somehow it just didn't feel right. The band wasn't as united as it might have been. There were a few differences of opinion and, anyway, we'd worked our balls off for 15 years - hardly stopped. So we thought: 'let's have a break and leave everything alone for a while'. we did - and that's the first year I can remember missing.

"But I think it's done us good. We'll come back. We've got everything ironed out now and everybody's pretty good friends! (Seeing my raised and knotted eyebrows he grinned.) No chance of a split or anything like that! But we needed to clear the air. Things needed talking about within the structure of the band...and it's feeling good again now."

Was any of that to do with breaking in Pete Kirscher (sic), the new drummer?

No. Funnily enough, Pete didn't need any breaking in. He walked in, joined us, sat down and just started playing. He's that sort of bloke - so easy to get on with. Quiet, easy going and rock steady. A good drummer! He just gets on and does the job, which is exactly what we wanted. Cos we thought of Cozy Powell and people like that, great drummers, but I don't think they'd have been right for the band. We were lucky that we knew Pete. He fitted in instantly. Just like one of the lads."

Whatever was wrong, all was clearly OK again by January when the band headed out to George Martin's Air Studios on Monserrat - the idyllic Carribean island location used previously by the Police and Nazareth to name but two. Monserrat is, in fact, only about the size of the Isle of Wight, but Quo managed to occupy themselves there for a few months. (it's tough at the top!!) Was there a temptation to sunbathe rather than work?

"Yeah, we did a bit of sunbathing, a bit more than we should have done perhaps, but we managed to get the album done. It's a great environment to record in. Really nice and hot and you feel a great sense of freedom. You're not actually locked into a studio where you can't see out. I liked that. I like to be able to look out (over the island and the sea.) I can't stand being hemmed in anywhere so I found Monserrat very agreeable. A really lovely place to record.

We went to a few beaches all round the island in fact. The culture out there is wonderful. All the Rastas up in the hills hang around in trees smoking joints! About six o'clock in the evening, when they've finished tending their cattle or whatever, they all go home and get smashed!

"You can see a cloud of smoke go up in the hills - really! - where they're all smoking their (sic) heads off! All out of it talking gibberish! A good way to live y'know!"

Although Rick's particular vice comes, of course, in liquid form...I gather they have some pretty strong rum out there?!

"Oh blimey! I don't know whether you'd call it rum... more like plane-fuel. It's called 'plastic' that's the local word for it - 'plastic' - and it's the most lethal drink I've ever had. It's unbelievable!. I mean, I can take a few drinks but just a couple of tots of that and you really wobbled. Strong stuff!"

But, despite that, you got the album done..?

Yes. We learnt our lesson with 'plastic' the first week we were there. We were all keen to try the 'local brew and 'give it a go', but it wasn't until we'd had a few over a couple of days that we realised just how strong the stuff is.

"You'd try to go in and do a take only to find your co-ordination wasn't what you thought it was. You were still out of it ... So after that we left it alone (grins). Well, we watered it down with pineapple juice and it became a nice drink then...but still bloody strong!

But it's a nice place. I've sworn to go back there - not necessarily to record - just to spend some time there. The scenery is wonderful, some of the views of the Carribean are incredible, real picture-postcard stuff. We came back from there very tanned and very relaxed - apart from the 'plastic'.

"It remains to be seen what the album is gonna be like, though. I think it's pretty good but I can never really tell just after it's done. (Finishing touches were added in London.) I have to let it settle and mature a bit in my head. I won't know for a couple of months!

"Blame it on the 'plastic'!!...

"Ere Rick, how good's your album?'...'Err, I DUNNOW!' Seriously, though, I find it has to mature. It's like if you spend all day cooking a meal you then find it hard to eat it. I find it's the same with our albums. Once you've been in there recording it and you know all that's gone into it... it's always best to leave it alone for a while. Not to play it at all. Then go to it and listen back refreshed. Then figure out what it's like!"

Sorry about that folks! But I guess you've got a pretty good idea of roughly what it's going to sound like, anyway!! Even though the guy's favourite stage/street (!) jeans have finally fallen apart, and even though he's actually let someone take his hair up to only a little over collar length, there's no radical changes on the Quo front. Their next piece of plastic... well vinyl I guess I should say...should prove that soon and, although Rick had to keep all details well under wraps, they do plan to return to the concert circuit as well. There are absolutely no details available in case it doesn't come off, but they are hoping to do something "very special".

Whatever happens, I have to raise my glass to salute the success of 'Ol' Rag Blues'. How do they do it?! This time bassist Alan Lancaster and his Australian songwriting partner put pen to paper and delivered the goods. Rick, though, admitted he was less than happy with its release at first...

I didn't like it, although everybody else did. I was literally the only one who didn't. I felt really strongly about it but said: 'Go ahead, I hope you prove me wrong'. They did too, didn't they?! Shows how much I know!!"

Image caption: RICK PARFITT attempting to escape media attention through premature hibernation.