Rick on Quo without himself.... or Francis

Well, it's not clear at all tbf. It's basically "Yes I'd cancel" and "Yes, I'd do it"

One thing I do know that he said was, "It's not Quo without me"

Do you think the gig would have been cancelled if Francis was the one who couldn't play?

Probably. I can only think of one person playing Francis's parts and singing as well and that is Wayne Morris, whom I write songs with. But personally I would prefer to cancel a gig if Francis couldn't be there. I wouldn't do the gig if Francis couldn't make it. I wouldn't want to do the gig. I think the gig had to be done for contractual reasons and it would have been bad news for a lot of people if it had been cancelled. I think noone in the audience knew I wasn't going to be there. They only found out when the band got on stage. Touch wood, but I hope it'll never happen again.

I was at that Clumber Park gig. It's only 30 minutes away from my home, so I thought I might as well go and check it out.

The feeling that I remember was that it really was the beginning of the end. I left when they started playing Whatever You Want, partly to beat the traffic, but also because it just felt like karaoke to me. And everything that has happened since then has just been a continuation of that.

I was there in 1986, and I can still remember the feeling of how the dynamic and the personality of the gig had changed without Alan on stage. The focus was all on Rossi and Parfitt. That went on for 30 years. Thirty years is a very long time. I'm not at all surprised how long term fans who had never seen Alan on stage with Quo had such a wake up call with the reunion shows.

I just don't get it anymore how anyone can get excited about the current status quo. I know some people are blindly loyal to the brand name Status Quo or they are long term fans of Rhino, or they welcome Leon & Richie to be carrying the flame to keep the show on the road, but it doesn't do anything for me. It just leaves me cold.

I would go and see Francis Rossi do a solo show in a heartbeat, even if his backing band were the same people that play with him in 'Status Quo'. I still maintain that those One Step At A Time shows he did was the best, most refreshing performance I'd seen him play in a long time, because he was playing songs that he wanted to play.

But going to see the current band play the current show is the very definition of the band and the fans just going through the motions.

In case of any mistaken identity, I just wish to clarify that I am not Karl....nor any other relative of Messrs Malone.   I suppose my choice of board name may perhaps have made some think this to be the case.   I just happen to reside in the same place, that's all.

Anyway, my own view on the topic is that Quo as a band should have went on a hiatus following Rick's departure...and disbanded altogether after he passed away.  To quote another board member's comment posted late last year, the band SQ have now diluted to something so far from the original.

As Quo without Rick has IMO been the most divisive topic discussed on Quo forums / message boards over the past 18 years, I felt it was right to share Rick's comments on the matter, of which charles translated for us above i.e. while Francis opted to proceed to play a SQ gig without Rick, if it were the other way round, Rick says that he would not have played the gig without Francis.

I'm not making any points, just translated the thing. By the way, Charles is my name on here, it's a translation of Karl (my real name).

Sorry Mate, my comment wasn't directed to you

Really?  I thought you were simply calling on Karl to come on board...and join the debate.

In case you may have forgotten, in September of last year, you seemed quite confident to somehow know what name Karl posted under - see here