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Post by peterprog on Jul 3, 2020 7:57:51 GMT
Thanks - it's great to hear Rick in such good form. The interview must be from around September 2016 and he is full of plans. Very poignant.
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Post by peterprog on Jun 21, 2020 5:27:18 GMT
Good interview - thanks for the link.
Rhino touches again on the big bust-up with Jeff Rich around the time that Rich departed Quo - and that they have since reconciled and are good mates again. I wonder what was the cause of the falling out - it was obviously a pretty big deal at the time.
Also Rhino mentions that he had just heard the news of a first cover version of the track Gravy Train that he wrote for ISOTFC. I guess he means the first 'professional' or commercially-released cover version. Anyone know any details?
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Post by peterprog on Jun 19, 2020 12:23:17 GMT
I'm with Mortified. Dust to Gold - just superb.
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Post by peterprog on Jun 15, 2020 6:47:45 GMT
I know it is a long way from the traditional Quo sound, and it has a very 80s vibe to boot, but I have always found Dreamin' and now its precursor, Naughty Girl good fun, a real catchy toe-tapper. And this thread has got me looking at the releases. It must be that the single edit version of Naughty Girl was planned for the ITAN Deluxe release right up till the last minute. Even as of right now, if you go to Udiscover Music to order the CD - store.udiscovermusic.com/*/*/In-The-Army-Now-Deluxe-Edition/5WHE0000000 - the single edit of Naughty Girl is listed on the order page as Track 8 on the bonus CD2. The inclusion of the single edit version of this track on CD2 is also listed on the Wikipedia page for ITAN. But I'm looking at my copy from September 2018 of the ITAN 2CD Deluxe Edition as I type and the track is most definitely not there, just the Extended version. I wonder if the version of the single edit on the "The Vinyl Singles Collection 1984-1989" box set - the only place this track has been released to date - has the same mastering as on the ITAN Deluxe edition given that the two releases were only twelve months apart?
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Post by peterprog on May 24, 2020 3:16:58 GMT
Gav mentioned earlier in the thread how interested he would be to hear the demo of Down the Dustpipe, recorded by Carl Groszmann and Man. I can go some way to helping out there. In a separate thread in the Bootlegs section of the Board, I mention a boot I have called 'Behind the Music', a 2CD set from 2001 containing a bunch of interviews with the band about their history. As I have just discovered, CD1 is, in fact, a boot copy of a BBC Radio 2 documentary from 2001 called 'Whatever You Want - The Status Quo Story'. I've been listening to it over the past couple of days. What is really interesting is that, part way through that documentary, in what is described as a 'Radio 2 exclusive', they play a 45 second extract of Bob Young's copy of the acetate demo of Down the Dustpipe, recorded by Carl and Man. Bob Young and Carl have what are probably the only two copies of this acetate that still exist. I've was fortunate enough to hear the full version that Carl has - the demo runs for just under two minutes - so this 45 second clip is a generous chunk of it. At least we now know that Bob Young has a copy as well as Carl. One day, hopefully, it will get a full release. So here is a link to just under half of the original acetate demo of Down the Dustpipe, with Carl Groszmann on vocal and Man backing. we.tl/t-S7KqwnkoJgTo be clear, this recording is from a boot, in 128 kbps mp3 form and lifted off the radio, so it is a little on the low-fi side, but it is still a lot better than nothing. Enjoy!
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Post by peterprog on May 22, 2020 1:47:25 GMT
This is excellent Ant. I quite like the original, but this takes Lies to a whole new level. I don't miss the backing vocals on the original either. Terrific!
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Post by peterprog on May 19, 2020 23:37:06 GMT
Great stuff Quoincidence - well done!
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Post by peterprog on May 15, 2020 1:45:40 GMT
With Down the Dustpipe turning 50 this month – see separate thread - I thought there might be some interest in the history of the track and how Quo came to record it. There’s a bit of a backstory here, so settle in…
As is well known, Dustpipe was written by Carl Groszmann, who was originally from Queensland, Australia. Carl had some success in the music biz in Australia in the late 60s in a group called Steve and the Board. He went by the name Carl Keats at that stage – his mother’s maiden name, maybe a bit cooler and definitely easier to spell! Carl wrote or co-wrote a number of hit singles for Steve and the Board, which was fronted by Steve Kipner, the son of legendary Aussie music producer of the 60s and 70s, Nat Kipner. Steve Kipner re-located to the UK in the late 60s and continued to have success, notably with early 70s outfit, Tin Tin – of Toast and Marmalade for Tea fame among other hits.
Carl also moved to the UK in the late 60s, and continued to write. Some years ago, I was fortunate to have contact with Richard Hudd, who through 1969 and 1970, and for some time after, worked at Valley Music with his cousin Ronnie Scott. Ronnie Scott co-wrote Ice in the Sun for Quo of course. Richard was generous with his recollections and well recalled the day that Carl Groszmann walked into the offices at Valley Music to pitch (and hopefully sell!) some of the songs that he had just been writing. At this stage, Nat Kipner was also based in the UK, and had recommended Carl to the guys at Valley Music, and vice versa.
Among the songs that Carl played on his guitar at Valley Music that day was Down The Dustpipe, a song he had written a few days previously at Nat Kipner’s kitchen table. And of all the songs from Carl that Richard listened to that day, Down the Dustpipe was the one that he says just ‘leapt out’. As Richard recalled many years later, ‘At the time Status Quo were in the doldrums and Dustpipe seemed an obvious choice. I rushed into Ronnie’s office and insisted he listen to Carl’s song immediately. We signed him that day to Valley Music and the rest is history. We recorded the demo within days, played it to Rossi/Rick who loved it. I was with Carl at the Quo recording session at PYE Studios.’
The demo was recorded with Welsh band, Man, who did a lot of demo work at Valley Music at the time. Carl did the vocal and Man backed him.
Back in 2010, I had the great pleasure of meeting Carl, who by this stage was back in Australia, and living in Brisbane. He said that he had a kind of ‘Frankie and Johnny’ vibe in the back of his mind when he wrote Down the Dustpipe, but the tale of a jewish 'kosher cowboy' being kicked out of town just came to him, and a boogie style seemed to suit it.
He did not have Quo in mind when he wrote the song, and Quo were not present at the recording of the demo. He did say that he did know that Ronnie Scott played the demo to Quo shortly after it was recorded, and they were immediately very keen on recording the song. He also said that he was there at Quo's recording of the track at PYE, which is confirmed by Richard Hudd's recollection. The best part was that Carl still had a (rather battered!) acetate copy of the Carl / Man demo of Down the Dustpipe. It was great to hear it –it felt like a rather historic moment for a Quo fan.
Carl went on to have a good career in the music biz for a number of years, writing songs for, among others, Ringo Starr and even recording and releasing a number of songs on Ringo’s short-lived Ring O' Records label in the mid-1970s. But for Quo fans, Carl - and especially the song he wrote all those years ago, Down the Dustpipe - has an indelible part in Quo’s history.
Sadly, Carl passed away in 2018. I only ever met him the once, but he impressed me as a really good guy, a talented musician and songwriter, and he was very generous in sharing his recollections of some great days gone by.
So Happy 50th Anniversary to Down the Dustpipe, and cheers too to its writer, Carl Groszmann!
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Post by peterprog on May 11, 2020 2:31:15 GMT
Top stuff Ant. I spotted lots of Rossi mannerisms going on in his cartoon alter ego, especially in the solos!
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Post by peterprog on Apr 29, 2020 12:43:50 GMT
It's a low bar, but I can't disagree with that!!
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Post by peterprog on Apr 28, 2020 23:00:36 GMT
Will have to take a close look at those two different versions of Gerdundula for sure, I'm intrigued by the bongo version. And the two Mexican EP tracks - In My Chair and Need Your Love - are especially interesting in terms of whether they should 'make the cut'. If they are first takes, then they are not precisely re-recordings of course, but great rarities nonetheless
One other 'left field' idea would be to include the B-sides of the two Man Utd singles that Quo were associated with in the mid-90s, 'Come On You Reds' and 'We're Gonna Do It Again'. The B-sides are both instrumental versions of the A-sides and it is presumably Quo providing the instrumental - in effect, re-recordings of Burning Bridges and Again and Again. Maybe....
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Post by peterprog on Apr 28, 2020 11:41:27 GMT
Thanks everybody for the contributions - I'm learning a lot as we go along. Quo have been far more active in re-recording their material than I thought from my initial impressions.
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Post by peterprog on Apr 28, 2020 8:05:31 GMT
Another one that should be there is the 1990 Bray studios re-recording of Paper Plane, just released on the new RTYD Deluxe edition.
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Post by peterprog on Apr 28, 2020 7:29:08 GMT
Cheers, how could I forgot those RTYD efforts, especially Forty-Five Hundred Times. And thanks re RAOTW as well. That might well be the version they were using for miming to on playback around 10 years ago or so.
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Post by peterprog on Apr 28, 2020 7:03:51 GMT
I think I would probably count the Aquostics as a different set of studio efforts to the rocking originals, but I see where you're coming from.
Can't Give You More, good one, definitely needs to be on the list.
When was Gerdundula re-recorded?
Also, I have a very vague recollection that RAOTW might have been re-recorded, again, maybe around 10 or even 15 years ago to mime against on TV show playback sessions and the like. Just a vague memory though, could be wrong, and doubt that it has ever been released.
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