Status Quo

This time of year you can usually expect two things to happen, the first being that a person called Father Christmas will be popping round to deliver lots of presents on his sleigh with his reindeer. The other thing you can expect at this festive time of year is Status Quo to tour.

Whilst some years Father Christmas sometimes lets you down with the presents he brings, Status Quo are guaranteed to put a smile on your face without fail.


After last years incredible show at the Nottingham Ice Arena you would be forgiven for thinking that any other show would just be an anticlimax to last years gig. However once again Status Quo managed to raise the benchmark once again for their live shows and that could quite easily be the reason why they have sustained a career in the music biz for over 40 years.

This tour was entitled ‘Pictures Exposed’ and I think this was linked to the fact that Status Quo raised money for the Princes Trust by asking celebrities to draw something and then auction it off. It raised over £100,000 for the charity in question.


This year the support act was Roy Wood Rock And Roll band. There is no doubt that they know how to work an audience. Roy Wood belted out all of their crowd pleasers including Wizzards ‘See My Baby Jive’ and ‘Blackberry Way’ from his former band The Move. Admittedly it was easy to predict which song would close the set, and sure enough as expected ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ reverberated through the arena to bring their set to an end.

Status Quo opened with ‘Caroline’ and kept the fans engaged with the music throughout the set. The set list also included tracks which weren’t commercially successful but were pleasures to hear live such as ‘Don’t Drive My Car’ and ‘Living On An Island’ which both have groovy blues guitar hooks that grab you and drag you deep into the music.


The stage this year seemed to be higher than in previous years which caused the fans in the first few front rows to crane their neck skywards to catch glimpses of their rock idols. The first few rows had to stand up to see the huge wall of amplifiers and catch glimpses of Matt Letley peering out through the dominating drum kit.

Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt both took time to engage the crowd in friendly banter and even after all of these years of success they seem to genuinely appreciate their fans turning up, and don’t seem to take them for granted which is a rarity these days.

It’s always going to be either a very brave move or very foolish move to play your biggest hits in the main part of your set. But this is exactly what Status Quo did, they included ‘In The Army Now’ and ‘Whatever You Want’ in the main part of the show. Thankfully Quo have enough classic tracks to fall back on that they can get away with doing this.

This years show seemed to flow a lot better than in previous years and dare I say that for me this was the most enjoyable tour that I have had the pleasure of seeing Quo, everything about it just seemed so relaxed, friendly, free flowing, and there didn’t seem to be any hard sell from Francis or Rick to rush out and buy their album. The band seemed to be genuinely enjoying having a good time on stage and in turn created a great atmosphere amongst the audience. You name it they played it, with such a vast back catalogue it must be difficult for the band to decide which songs to leave out. But like all good things, there must be an end, and after their encore which included as per usual ‘Burning Bridges’ and ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Music/Bye Bye Johnny’ it was clear that seeing Status Quo live is better than any Christmas present that father Christmas could possibly bring.

FUTURE GIGS