Glam, the Quo sound and Quo's influence

I often wondered about the whole glam thing. There was a lot of similarity around.

The only act that I can remember specifically crediting Quo with any influence was Mud who said they’d used them as a template for Tiger Feet. I think Les Gray said that.

The guitarist with Mud (the girlie looking one) is a smart cookie and went on to write and produce dozens of classic pop songs (Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head probably being the most famous) so I could see him taking influences on board.

There was even a glam act called Hello as I recall who had a couple of hits. Probably coincidence but still….! And the Bay City Rollers released a single called Money which was straight out of the shuffle handbook.

Taking coincidences a bit further, Mud had a hit with a single called Rocket and Quo had to shelve the working title of an album (Quo I think) because they had been toying with Rock It.

This is all from memory though to be fair.

I think Marc Bolan also has to take the greatest credit though. He was doing the whole boogie thing before Quo became famous.

I was never a huge glam fan but there was some good stuff about. At least back then (young man) there was variety aplenty in the charts; from glam to Philly to reggae to outright rock.

Or do I sound REALLY old?

The thing I recall from the early '70s is that a lot of pop music had a bit of oomph to it, even though many of the artists were a step or two, or more, away from Rock music.

I remember being on holiday in '83 in Exmouth.
At a disco talking to a lass, I mentioned the mighty Quo and her and her mates did the 'Status Quo dance' to my horror. No head banging then I thought...
Dances like that were the slow movement towards Quo as light entertainment and away from being a rock band. Bet in the 70s there were no twirly fingers or chicken dances.

I remember staying in a posh hotel one night in the late 80's The hotel disco played RAOTW and that dance was done by several people of a certain vintage I nearly died of embarrassment.

Suzi Quatro, with her own girly form of glam boogie back in the early to mid 70's has stated an appreciation of Quo. She also joked on a programme when she was looking back on her own music career of the wonders of the three chord trick with a (well intended) bit of banter about Quo

Oh dear..... I can't bear that shoulder dance.

I'm really surprised to hear that Mud may have been influenced by Quo with Tiger Feet, I can't see any similarity at all.

re: The Dance - I certainly recall this being done to Quo mid 70's. Not, I hasten to add, in the poncey & half-hearted manner demonstrated in the Mud clips, but by lines of men, for the most part, performing the dance most aggressively. Heads went down low, rugby scrum style, elbows & fists would knock you for six if you were slightly out & for those who could accomplish all this while retaining their balance there would be an accompanying foot stomp - often resulting in the DJs needle jumping. It was, as far as I know, a dance rooted in the rock & roll of the '50s & not for the faint hearted - if performed properly!