Post by Mustang Bass on Sept 11, 2016 23:34:59 GMT
Veteran British rockers Status Quo have sold out stadiums the world over and had more chart hits than any other British rock band in a celebrated six-decade career.
But the group, famed for their three-chord chart-toppers, were almost AXED before they hit the big time, it was revealed.
The band, which features rock icons Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, was only saved from oblivion when their producer literally HID from record label bosses to avoid being forced to drop them.
Award-winning record producer and songwriter John Schroeder, who produced the first four albums by Status Quo, was so convinced that the band would make the big time that he put his career on the line by continuing to work with the group after their first four singles all flopped.
He defied the wishes of Pye Records chiefs and behind their backs produced the single that would turn out to catapult Status Quo into stardom.
The song, Pictures of Matchstick Men, went on to become an international hit upon its release in 1968 and paved the way for the band to go rocking all over the world.
The revelation is made in Schroeder's frank autobiography, All for the Love of Music, which hits the shelves this week and lifts the lid on the British music industry during its 1960s heyday.
Now 81 and still active in the music industry after a glittering 60-year career, Schroeder says that he spotted Status Quo’s “superstar potential” from the moment he first saw the band, then named The Spectres, play live in 1966.
But after signing the group to Pye’s Piccadilly label, “elation quickly turned to despair” after the group’s first four singles all bombed.
Schroeder says that the band were already “drinking in the last-chance saloon” when the third single, ironically titled‘Almost But Not Quite There’, failed to dent the charts.
Having already managed to get the label boss, Louis ‘Benjie’ Benjamin, to reluctantly bend Pye’s strict ‘three strikes’ rule for one final stab at the charts, Schroeder admits he had no choice but to “go to ground” to save Status Quo from the chop.
Speaking from his home in Surrey, he said: “I have never signed an artist that I didn’t firmly believe had the potential to make it and I knew this band was destined for the top, but we wondered what on earth we had to do to make a hit record.
“I thought their first three singles were real contenders, but when they failed to chart I knew they were in trouble because of Pye’s policy to drop an artist who hadn’t made their mark by the third release.
“By a small miracle I got permission from Benjie to record a fourth single, but then that also sank. I was at my wit’s end because there was next to no chance of the label agreeing to a fifth attempt. They were a business at the end of the day and acts that didn’t perform as expected were let go.
“I had to buy us some time, so I made it impossible for Benjie to reach me. I’d dive into cupboards or other people’s offices if I saw or heard him coming anywhere near me.”
Schroder, who also worked with some of the sixties’ biggest pop stars including Cliff Richard and Helen Shapiro, says that for the next few weeks he worked in secret with the band as he desperately searched for a hit record to win record chiefs over.
He admits that he neglected other artists under his charge during this time and put both his career and reputation for picking chart-toppers in jeopardy.
The breakthrough finally came when lead guitarist and vocalist Francis Rossi devised a catchy guitar riff that would later become psychedelic classic Pictures of Matchstick Men.
The single, released in January 1968, reached seven in the British charts, number eight in Canada, and number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 in America.
Schroeder, who won an Ivor Novello Award in 1961 for number one single Walkin’ Back to Happiness, which he co-wrote with Mike Hawker for pop star Helen Shapiro, said: “My other artists were getting fidgety because I was spending all my time with Status Quo as we tried to develop the song that would save their career, and my reputation.
“I didn’t hear a thing for three weeks and then their manager Pat Barlow phoned me up sounding very excited. He said Rossi had come up with a really strong guitar riff and an unusual idea.
“Rather than attract attention at Pye, we arranged to meet in the basement of one of their houses and I remember sitting on an orange box listening to what would become Pictures of Matchstick Men.
“From the lyrics to the arrangement, it was sensational and I knew this had to be the song that would cement their place in the pop world. Now that I had a killer track ready to go into the studio immediately I was able to come out of hiding, go back to Pye and persuade Benjie to take one final risk.
“As soon as the needle hit the deck in his office, he smiled begrudgingly and said, ‘Maybe at last we’ll get some of our money back on this artist’. He wasn’t wrong as it proved a huge hit and launched Status Quo’s career.”
John Schroeder with members of Status Quo who he helped to launch to stardom.
All For The Love Of Music by John Schroeder is available now in paperback, priced £10.99. Visit www.johnschroeder.co.uk
www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/status-quo-wouldve-been-dropped-8199449
But the group, famed for their three-chord chart-toppers, were almost AXED before they hit the big time, it was revealed.
The band, which features rock icons Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, was only saved from oblivion when their producer literally HID from record label bosses to avoid being forced to drop them.
Award-winning record producer and songwriter John Schroeder, who produced the first four albums by Status Quo, was so convinced that the band would make the big time that he put his career on the line by continuing to work with the group after their first four singles all flopped.
He defied the wishes of Pye Records chiefs and behind their backs produced the single that would turn out to catapult Status Quo into stardom.
The song, Pictures of Matchstick Men, went on to become an international hit upon its release in 1968 and paved the way for the band to go rocking all over the world.
The revelation is made in Schroeder's frank autobiography, All for the Love of Music, which hits the shelves this week and lifts the lid on the British music industry during its 1960s heyday.
Now 81 and still active in the music industry after a glittering 60-year career, Schroeder says that he spotted Status Quo’s “superstar potential” from the moment he first saw the band, then named The Spectres, play live in 1966.
But after signing the group to Pye’s Piccadilly label, “elation quickly turned to despair” after the group’s first four singles all bombed.
Schroeder says that the band were already “drinking in the last-chance saloon” when the third single, ironically titled‘Almost But Not Quite There’, failed to dent the charts.
Having already managed to get the label boss, Louis ‘Benjie’ Benjamin, to reluctantly bend Pye’s strict ‘three strikes’ rule for one final stab at the charts, Schroeder admits he had no choice but to “go to ground” to save Status Quo from the chop.
Speaking from his home in Surrey, he said: “I have never signed an artist that I didn’t firmly believe had the potential to make it and I knew this band was destined for the top, but we wondered what on earth we had to do to make a hit record.
“I thought their first three singles were real contenders, but when they failed to chart I knew they were in trouble because of Pye’s policy to drop an artist who hadn’t made their mark by the third release.
“By a small miracle I got permission from Benjie to record a fourth single, but then that also sank. I was at my wit’s end because there was next to no chance of the label agreeing to a fifth attempt. They were a business at the end of the day and acts that didn’t perform as expected were let go.
“I had to buy us some time, so I made it impossible for Benjie to reach me. I’d dive into cupboards or other people’s offices if I saw or heard him coming anywhere near me.”
Schroder, who also worked with some of the sixties’ biggest pop stars including Cliff Richard and Helen Shapiro, says that for the next few weeks he worked in secret with the band as he desperately searched for a hit record to win record chiefs over.
He admits that he neglected other artists under his charge during this time and put both his career and reputation for picking chart-toppers in jeopardy.
The breakthrough finally came when lead guitarist and vocalist Francis Rossi devised a catchy guitar riff that would later become psychedelic classic Pictures of Matchstick Men.
The single, released in January 1968, reached seven in the British charts, number eight in Canada, and number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 in America.
Schroeder, who won an Ivor Novello Award in 1961 for number one single Walkin’ Back to Happiness, which he co-wrote with Mike Hawker for pop star Helen Shapiro, said: “My other artists were getting fidgety because I was spending all my time with Status Quo as we tried to develop the song that would save their career, and my reputation.
“I didn’t hear a thing for three weeks and then their manager Pat Barlow phoned me up sounding very excited. He said Rossi had come up with a really strong guitar riff and an unusual idea.
“Rather than attract attention at Pye, we arranged to meet in the basement of one of their houses and I remember sitting on an orange box listening to what would become Pictures of Matchstick Men.
“From the lyrics to the arrangement, it was sensational and I knew this had to be the song that would cement their place in the pop world. Now that I had a killer track ready to go into the studio immediately I was able to come out of hiding, go back to Pye and persuade Benjie to take one final risk.
“As soon as the needle hit the deck in his office, he smiled begrudgingly and said, ‘Maybe at last we’ll get some of our money back on this artist’. He wasn’t wrong as it proved a huge hit and launched Status Quo’s career.”
John Schroeder with members of Status Quo who he helped to launch to stardom.
All For The Love Of Music by John Schroeder is available now in paperback, priced £10.99. Visit www.johnschroeder.co.uk
www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/status-quo-wouldve-been-dropped-8199449