The UK leg of Quo's 'Under The Influence' tour kicked off at the Manchester Apollo on Saturday 2nd October. A crowd of 2500 saw the band perform the following all-new set, which included the surprise reintroduction of "4500 Times" as well as previously unheard live versions of 'Under The Influence' album tracks.
The support act was Gwyn Ashton, a Welsh-born Australian blues/rock guitarist (find out more at his website).
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As a precursor to Quo's gig at the Apollo, State of Quo played at the famous Band On The Wall venue. They played the following set of over two hours:
The always raucous Bridlington Spa gig again proved to be a sell-out and Quo decided to make a number of set changes for this gig. "Twenty Wild Horses" was spurned as opener in favour of the more familiar "Down Down", "Little Lady" made a welcome return in place of "Paper Plane" and, more controversially, "Don't Waste My Time" lost out to "Roadhouse Blues".
Revisit the October 1999 event list
In addition to support act Gwyn Ashton, the Aberdeen audience also got to hear Gerry Jablonski (for more info, see the band's website).
Revisit the October 1999 event list
Returning to their old territory of the City Hall as opposed to the new Arena, Quo performed the same changed set as at Bridlington. The support band for this gig was The Force.
Revisit the October 1999 event list
For a support band with a quirky name, Quo will go a long way to top 'Rupert Fabulous and The Singing Guitars' who plugged away with an unusual mix of material, including the 80s hit for Tenpole Tudor "Swords of a Thousand Men" !!
Revisit the October 1999 event list
Again returning to familiar ground, Quo played the City Hall rather than the larger Arena which has featured strongly in recent years on Quo's tour itineraries. Support act for the gig was a young band called Elise.
Revisit the October 1999 event list
For the first time, the BIC was ticketed as a fully seated venue. The support act for this gig was the Poole-based outfit Beyond Belief (for more info, see the band's website). A good review of the gig followed in the local Daily Echo, click here for a scan of the review (warning: this is a 218K download).
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The traditional finale of the Quo tour, Wembley again provided a fitting end to this Autumn tour. The crowd here were treated to two support acts - the final show for Gwyn Ashton and a creditable performance from the (thankfully) ill-named 'The Rubbish'.
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The following review was written on October 31st by Thierry Simon from Belgium.
Yesterday was the first of 35 "Night of the Proms" gigs, of which 14 are here in Belgium. The show started at 20.30 but we had to wait until 23.10 to see the main reason we were there: Quo. We were curious to see our band playing with an orchestra and how it was going to sound. How were Quo going to be in what was more a spectacle than a concert? At 23.10, Jeff's drumkit came down from the roof and the band hit the stage. Because of the orchestra, Jeff was on the left of the stage, while Andy was on the other side, near Rick. It wasn't easy for Quo, since they were expected to achieve (as the top act) the best ambience of the evening and, as everybody knows, it always takes a while.
But the band managed it perfectly well, as usual. They were brilliant, trying to make their short set into a Quo concert. Because of the power of Quo sound, we didn't really hear the orchestra, except for the violins during "Twenty Wild Horses".
The opening was "Whatever You Want", which set the 12000-strong crowd in the Arena on fire, directly followed by "In The Army Now". Francis followed with a short presentation of the new album, and then played "Twenty Wild Horses", and finished with "Rockin' All Over The World".
After their set, it was time for the finale, with all the artists of the day (Quo, Zucherro, Choquette, Emilia, John Miles, ...) on stage together singing "Hey Jude", featuring Rick on vocals for one of the verses (very nice).
It's unusual to see Quo in this type of event, but it's certainly good publicity. For two months now, we can hear Quo on Belgian radio almost each day, and many articles in newspapers (some of them full pages) were written on them. Four songs is very short, but enough for Quo to demonstrate once more that they are one of the best live acts...
Revisit the October 1999 event list
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