Rockin’ chairs all over the world: Quo man Rossi sits back and slows down
He has spent a lifetime rocking all over the world and Francis Rossi doesn’t want to stop now, but his future gigs may be more sedate experiences.
The Status Quo legend says he is most excited these days by his solo “in conversation” shows.
The singer, who turns 75 next month, has been performing a Tunes & Chat tour in recent times, where he takes a seat on stage and performs acoustically while telling stories from his long career.
“I don’t understand why I love it so much. Maybe there’s a modicum of novelty to it – and if that’s the case, I have another 35 years before I’ll get fed up with it,” he said.
“Maybe it’s the close contact with the fans. They ask me questions during the shows and everyone is listening. That’s something I can’t do at the gigs. It feels new and it feels fresh.
“I really want to do more and I’m also aware I can’t give the naysayers what they want. They miss Rick (Parfitt) for a start. They want to see the old band.
“I remember walking past a Nile Rodgers poster last year and there was a quote on it which read, ‘Sure I like my past, but I don’t want to stay there’, and that’s so much like what I feel. I want to do now. I want to do this tour that stirs my juices. Hopefully Quo stirs my juices again this year, too.”
It is 62 years since he and the late Alan Lancaster formed the band while still at school. Quo are doing a three-month tour around the UK and Europe this summer, and while Francis isn’t saying these will be the final Quo dates, he’s non-committal about the band’s future.
“The reality is, I’m 75, and I’m doing my Tunes & Chat tour in 2025, so if I go out with Quo in 2026 I’ll be 77.
“I think there’s been exploitation to the nth degree in saying it’s the end of this and end of that. I meant it the first time, then I was coerced into the In The Army Now album.
“I’m training every day and getting back to some sort of fitness. I tore my bicep, I had a hernia repaired, and I’ve got what I call Maccy-d – macular degeneration – so I have all those things to stay fit for. A Status Quo gig is hard work, you have to commit physically.”
Scottish fans will have the chance to see Quo again when they play two nights at Kelvingrove Bandstand in Glasgow next month. Heading over the border sparks memories for Francis.
“We used to be paid £12 extra to go to Scotland as it was considered dangerous,” he laughed. “Various bands got beat up for whatever reason. Scots are very passionate – especially Glasgow – but we’re lucky that so far we’ve always been on the positive side of it.
“I remember us playing Dundee, the Beach Ballroom in Aberdeen, and the Apollo in Glasgow. Before it was the Apollo, it was Green’s Playhouse, and the bouncers were always proud that the crowd never made it on to the stage. But one night at our gig, a kid managed, and these bouncers were so angry.
“I didn’t realise at first how big the Green’s Playhouse building was, yet I never saw a toilet there. We were given a bowl and a jug of water in the dressing room. I don’t remember there being showers and toilets until later.
“There was a huge disco on the top floor. I remember one time I went up the stairs, got so far, and thought, I’m not going any further. But somewhere up there was a disco.
“I remember what it was like trying to get out of that venue. In the early ’70s, we used to travel in a Daimler. It would be parked at the door, all the fans round it, meanwhile a cop would escort us to a police van round the back and we’d be taken to the hotel.
“I quickly realised you end up in the rear end of everywhere in rock ‘n’ roll – back entrances and service lifts that stink to high heavens.”
Yet Francis can’t pull himself away from the adulation.
“I don’t like hotels, I don’t like flying – but then I walk on stage,” he added. “There must be more than an element of the insecure little show-off in people like me!”