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Post by Quoincidence on Sept 20, 2021 18:39:46 GMT
30 Years Ago Today! The day before the big day - Nordoff Robbins held a charity horse racing event at the Newbury Racecourse. The main event of the day being the "Status Quo Stakes".
Live footage to come tomorrow...
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Post by sqcollector on Sept 20, 2021 21:33:02 GMT
I wonder which CDs were offered as the prize. "The complete works". Is that all albums, from the different labels and the Back2Back compilation albums? Quo should have released all older albums properly, just like other bands did...
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mortified
4500 Timer
Posts: 5,861
Favourite Quo Album: Hello!
Favourite other bands.: Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow, Gary Numan, Alabama 3, ZZ Top, Paul van Dyk, Jeff Beck, Bowie, Gerry Rafferty, Band of Skulls, UFO, S.A.H.B
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Post by mortified on Sept 21, 2021 5:15:45 GMT
Funny times. Hard to tell what was going on behind the scenes, music company wise. Rock 'til You Drop came out on Vertigo and a year later Live Alive Quo was on Polydor. OK, both Phonogram (I think) but seeing Quo on Polydor at the time was odd. I haven't watched any of this stuff for a very long time. I remember Nothing Comes Easy being played during something on the double-video that came out. Was this Newbury mini-doc on there? 30 years? Jeez. Bit scary
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Post by kursaal75 on Sept 21, 2021 6:15:38 GMT
I'm wearing my Rock 'Til Your Drop t shirt today and yes it does still fit.......just I was at the Wembley gig, an hour show for a fiver
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tqontq
Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 577
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Post by tqontq on Sept 21, 2021 8:23:58 GMT
30 years ago, tacky Quo, Jack the Lad Quo, do anything to get their name in the paper Quo, terrible image Quo, lost the plot Quo, a far cry from their heyday Quo, trying to reinvent themselves yet again Quo, sack their PR management Quo.
Don't mind some of the tracks off the album but the whole marketing campaign around it was cheesy and smacked of desperation. That being said...it did get their name in lights again, to a degree, and I am sure David Walker earned them some much needed cash from it, so from a business perspective yeah I could see it working.
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mortified
4500 Timer
Posts: 5,861
Favourite Quo Album: Hello!
Favourite other bands.: Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow, Gary Numan, Alabama 3, ZZ Top, Paul van Dyk, Jeff Beck, Bowie, Gerry Rafferty, Band of Skulls, UFO, S.A.H.B
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Post by mortified on Sept 21, 2021 10:29:42 GMT
I didn't really appreciate it at the time but, in retrospect, it does seem to indicate the start of Status Quo - The Business, as opposed to Status Quo the rock band, which it had always been in my eyes. David Walker changed everything. But I imagine that's what he was brought in to do. Did he not recover a shedload of money that they'd never received? Or something. That would have generated a level of trust in his methods. However, I saw a quote recently that said it dawned on them much later he didn't have an 'off' button. And given how the 90's in particular panned out, I can see that. However, has anything really changed since his passing? He was involved in the whole Ark Royal thing (I think) but there have been a few, ahem, interesting promotions/ideas (let's avoid the word 'stunt' for a change ) since then. I'd hasten to suggest that Backbone has been one of the few albums that hasn't had some naff publicity angle to it. Either that, or I missed it. Then again, your average 70's rock fan (i.e. people like me) was probably naรฏve when this approach all kicked off. But it did become tiresome. Every time something new was on the horizon, out came the brainstorming board at Quo HQ And, let's face it, no matter how happy you were at the time, the reunion was a promotional stunt (sorry, couldn't help it) just like all the others. I'm afraid you can't pick and choose. I like this stunt but not that one? They're all designed to take your money off you
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Post by MrWaistcoat on Sept 21, 2021 11:10:57 GMT
A tour in one day? As stunts go, I liked it. Stunts were novel then
I liked the sound of the album, rhino suddenly had long hair, they were heavier live. It was "best album since NTL"
Like Kerrang said at the time "Quo are still worth a good headbang 3/5"
And that's how I felt. They were a good rock band again, album sound and image improved from the previous 5 years
Thirsty Work crushed me ๐๐
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mortified
4500 Timer
Posts: 5,861
Favourite Quo Album: Hello!
Favourite other bands.: Talking Heads, Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow, Gary Numan, Alabama 3, ZZ Top, Paul van Dyk, Jeff Beck, Bowie, Gerry Rafferty, Band of Skulls, UFO, S.A.H.B
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Post by mortified on Sept 21, 2021 13:30:14 GMT
I don't have a major issue with these 'stunts'. They are what they are. But I think most of us can see right through them. They're not aimed at your long term, bordering on ancient, Quo fan. Not really. Quo (not so) suddenly wanted to be light entertainers but have tried to juggle that with the whole rock band thing. With varying degrees of success. It cannot be easy. You're targeting two entirely different audiences. The Rock 'til You Drop album was excellent and that was all I bothered about then. And it's all I bother about now. You just have to get past a lot of the nonsense. The rest of the 90's, alas, was dross for me. Except maybe for a chunk of Under The Influence. Two compilations, a butchered live album, a covers album, their poorest ever album of self-penned material (IMO) and a pretty woeful Francis solo album (IMO). Oh, and a so-so book along with several video releases. Thankfully, it got better again. Much better. Although the turn of the millennium didn't give me any sense of hope
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matt
Veteran Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 1,010
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Post by matt on Sept 21, 2021 18:36:39 GMT
I was on work experience aged 16 when this came out
I bought the vinyl then realised I needed to buy the cassette as well to get the extra tracks.
Sheffield was crazy. Amazing atmosphere. My second Quo gig
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Post by Quoincidence on Sept 21, 2021 19:21:20 GMT
Here's some live footage - including unseen bits like; Rockin' All Over The World (Sheffield), Burning Bridges (Glasgow) and Most Of The Time (Wembley) (shown during the credits).
Also including the full Chris Tarrant warmup interview (with the Penguin Crew) / recap of the day.
All watermarked as it comes from archival sources, U-Matic / Beta SP. Same goes for the "Status Quo Stakes" footage in the OP.
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Post by Quoincidence on Sept 21, 2021 19:41:43 GMT
I was on work experience aged 16 when this came out I bought the vinyl then realised I needed to buy the cassette as well to get the extra tracks. Sheffield was crazy. Amazing atmosphere. My second Quo gig Sheffield and Glasgow were possibly the best gigs of the 4. The crowd, from footage, was definitely the best at the Sheffield show. Francis had issues at Birmingham - because he'd recently had the new pickups put into his guitar so an awful noise was coming out of his amp, and Rhino had bass and amp issues at Wembley. Rhino isn't properly audible until half-way through Roll Over Lay Down.
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Post by Quoincidence on Sept 21, 2021 19:51:54 GMT
Guitars used on the day;-
Rick - Tele No. 1 Esquire (Sheffield / Wembley - Mystery Medley) Black Stein (Glasgow - Little Lady) White Stein (Birmingham - Little Lady) Black Giffin - Custom Built Tele for Micky Moody (Glasgow - Mystery Medley) Thinline Tele (Birmingham - Mystery Medley)
Francis - Tele No. 1 Tele No. 2 (Birmingham - Down Down / Whatever You Want) Tele No. 3 (Wembley - Whatever You Want) Thinline Tele (Glasgow - Down Down / Whatever You Want) Spare Tele (Sheffield - Whatever You Want / Bye Bye Johnny) - Given away after the show to the contest winner
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matt
Veteran Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 1,010
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Post by matt on Sept 21, 2021 20:08:05 GMT
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Post by Quoincidence on Sept 21, 2021 20:21:44 GMT
Yep. I have U-Matic copies of Sheffield, Glasgow and Wembley (with Burnt-In TimeCodes). All 4 also exist on Beta SP tapes, which is were the audio was taken from for Disc 3 on the Rock 'til You Drop Deluxe. The shows also exist on DAT tapes and the original multitracks. Sheffield (2 Reels), Glasgow (3 Reels), Birmingham (2 Reels) and Wembley (2 Reels). I also have an inkling that all of the footage leading up to and on the day of the event still exists. I'm assuming it was all captured straight to Beta SP tapes, or some format that was easy to carry around with them all day long. There's also a possibility of full rehearsal recordings existing, as Quo sent cassette tapes of all 4 sets to Pat for him to work out lighting designs.
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matt
Veteran Rocker Rollin'
Posts: 1,010
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Post by matt on Sept 21, 2021 22:15:40 GMT
Sorry when you say you have tapes how did that come about? And are there any plans to release any more footage from the day?
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