Interview: Francis Rossi of Status Quo

Published GiggingNI.com June 09

This week GiggingNI were given the unique opportunity of a quick interview with Francis Rossi, guitarist and singer of the one and only Status Quo.  Quizzed about the upcoming show in Carrickfergus, previous experiences with Quo and his hugely successful career, Rossi was entertaining, informative and above all, a gentleman of the highest standard.

How do Status Quo feel about coming to Carrickferus this summer?

We’re looking forward to it. I use to tell a story for years about a promoter friend of mine who used to live in Dublin. He always told this tale about being in a McLaren Mercedes Sport and he asked a guy for directions. No matter where I am in Ireland I always say ‘can you tell me the way to Carrickfergus?’ Anyway, this guy he asked said ‘its straight down there about 10miles, but in that car, you’ll do it in 8.’ I love that about the Irish.

One thing Quo do is we don’t have special gigs. The trouble with a special gig is that the other ones ain’t special and they’re gonna suffer. As soon as we have expectations, and it’s a terrible human failing, nothing lives up to the expectations. We can aspire to something, perhaps, but when we have expectations we usually say ‘it wasn’t as good as I thought it was going to be.’ So I don’t think it (any gig) is going to be any good at all therefore, I go out there and wow, I really enjoy myself.

I’m very much looking forward to it (Carrickfergus show) ‘cause we really haven’t done much so far this year; we normally start around about now.

Are there any other gigs in N.I that really stand out in your memory?

I remember one time in the Kings Hall, the big concrete one with the arch thingy, Gloria Hunniford came up to me and said ‘you’ve got lovely hair.’ And I think the Ulster Hall. I used to find it very, very noisy in there, sound-wise, it wasn’t brilliant, but the audience, they’re what the whole thing’s about with most bands. Sure some of us are good, but none of us really come up to it until you put us in front of our audience. It’s almost (laughing) like priests preaching to the converted. We’re happy, and they love us, and really it’s a safe environment. I’ve had that since I was 18… blimey…what a great life I’ve had!

How do you feel about how Quo progressed from the early Ice in the Sun days, on to hard rockers like Down Down?

I think they progressed as players. Musically, we tried to and what happened through the early 70s was that the albums were very interesting. The tracks had very interesting arrangements, you know, you’d have time changes…they’re very interesting. But as time went by and the band got more and more successful and things began to change, you have to understand that those arrangements we had that were very, very interesting, the people in the audience were no longer sat there smoking dope. They were on drugs that were a bit faster, therefore those arrangements weren’t working anymore and I think quo progressed through that. And I think when the band reformed with the new guys in ’85 we tried, and this happens to a lot of older bands, we tried to follow what was going on at the time. I see the Stones copied Quo with a song with ‘I like it, I like it,’ in it. (Sings) ‘It’s only rock and roll but I like it.’  And then they got nervous about the BeeGees singing in falsetto, so Mick did one in falsetto. I always thought, you don’t need to do that. And then we realised within our own band that… oooh… we did the same thing. You realise that you’re this island of music, with everything changing around you and the best thing to do in them situations is to stay who you are.

I never understand this notion of reinventing yourself, like Madonna, when she grew her fucking hair long, or had a baby or something, I always think, ‘well who was that other silly cow we had a couple of years ago then?’

Anyway… Quo I think progressed somewhat, then, terrible thing to say, went back to our routes, if you like, I hate that expression. We eventually owned up and said ‘no, this is what we are, I’m not trying to be somebody else, this is what we do.’ Some people want us to go back even further and be like AC/DC, but I don’t want to do that either, I like doing what we do. There might be songs I don’t like, but generally my life and my career has gone (feigns menacing voice) ‘according to plan.’

What do you think about the advance of technology and it’s effect on the modern music industry?

I was speaking to my manager last night, about all these things that have changed. I could contact you, we could have a conference call, we could be on computer and both be looking at each other, I can mail out a bunch of people, a dozen, two dozen, three hundred, and they’d all get it at the same time. So things have gotten so fast that… You just think where will it go? I said to my trainer this morning, in fifty years time what do you think will be the new I-pod, the new laptop, they’ll have a chip in your skin! Will technology get to the point where it rules us? Will there be a point in twenty years, I should be able to make it… there won’t be any hard copies of records or cds, movies will be on a hard drive that you download instantly. That worries me. There’s going to be a point where everything’s on hard drive and then one day we’re all going to realise ‘oh fuck, if we’ve got no electricity we’re buggered.’ Has technology gotten too far for us? Probably.

What, a great thing, initially, that someone can have their myspace. But now everybody’s got it, so it zeros out again. There’s no edge. What do you call them? The Artic Monkies… they broke through that and then everybody tried to do it. It’s reached a saturation point, every band I know has got one. What was a real boon a couple of years ago is not anymore, because everyone’s got that.

I have a thing about download; I think it’s a great idea if you can make it easier for people to buy music. But I found another problem with it. A few years ago I had to download a track… ‘The Sugababes’ (sings) ‘Push the Button.’ I fucking had to. If I like a song I’ve got to have it. So I downloaded it, play it now and again, everything’s as happy as Larry. Whatever happened the last laptop died, so I transfer my Itunes… what do you mean it won’t play… I fucking bought it! Now you got me to download it in the first place, that’s fine, but now you’re going to fuck me around every time I need to change it! So you’re going to shut out people of my generation and people younger than me. It’s all too much bloody hassle.

Perhaps it all went wrong when we were told ‘it’s a CD you can’t break it, it’ll last forever.’ So, perhaps a lot of the specialness of the product itself was lost… you can think ‘oh I’ll just go buy another one.’ I don’t know where it’s going.

Who’s idea was the cardboard cut out of Alan Lancaster?

Colin Johnson! Our manager at the time. Alan had just moved to Australia, he did not wanna come over, he did not want Rocking All Over the World released, he thought it was a big mistake. We did it in a place in London in Wansworth. It had Alan Lancaster’s stage clothes on and every time we took a break they took it away from the stage and put it on the table. And it looked like he was sat there with his head on his arm like he was asleep, like he would do if he were over from Australia. A few times we went over to speak to it, then realised, ‘oh shit, it’s not real.’

Then we went into town after the video, and it caused a problem that some police thought there was something wrong with this dummy lying in the back of the van.

A lot of people didn’t even know this sadly.

As I say, you do anything to keep your band alive once you’re in there. That’s what I was taught, and it’s what I’ve done. Do anything to keep that band, that sacred name of Status Quo. And that’s the trouble of being in a band.

Despite that trouble as you call it, it’s a great thing to be able to say, that you were in Status Quo.

Well it gave me a focus and I would have been a complete waste of time dropout. I’m serious, I have no education, I was lucky, very, very lucky to be able to do this.

I know I can play a bit now; I’ve had a bit of practice.

You look at bands and think ‘I like them… but I don’t want to, I really don’t want to.’ That’s what I think we have, or I have. I don’t want to change whatever it is people think they like in me, so I don’t look for it. I looked once, and I thought ‘I look such a fucking ding bat.’ It’s a very lucky position to be in.

Did you ever consider an acoustic album or an unplugged set, something along those lines?

It came up at that time when everybody was doing acoustic and unplugged things, but… I can’t say I have a burning desire to go there. I can see when I put the other hat on about trying to maintain the status quo, trying to look after it. Your business brain cuts in thinking ‘well, it could get us across to people who don’t necessarily normally like Quo,’ you see what I mean? But generally I don’t have a desire to do an acoustic album. If it was acoustic it would have to be ‘boom jangy boom jangy,’ and singing like the Everly Brothers, where as people would expect us do be doing solos and that. Nah. …. Well that was a long answer to a short fucking question, wasn’t it? (Laughing)

Have you any plans to record another live album?

There’s a company that’ll come round and record us and the crowd can buy it as soon as they leave. Ive always had a thing about live albums, because, they’re not are they? It’s a record. I don’t understand a lot of people saying their favourite album is the live one. If you weren’t there on the night in Glasgow its not live, its recorded. And at the time we thought we were going to be really honest and not dub the album at all, which was a mistake. You come in to a studio and re dub it all to picture so you can see what you were doing… it’s definitely not live then! Live is on the night. On the night its bouncing off the walls, when you play it in your lounge, its not, its different, so I’m not very keen on those either.

When they’re recording, Matthew the drummer, I could kick him for it, he really over concentrates so you get people being afraid of making a mistake on record. I don’t like that pressure, there’s no point, because you don’t perform correctly. It’s like people ask me are you looking forward to Glastonbury? It’s a gig, I’m looking forward to it as much as I’m looking forward to Carrickfergus or any other place.

Are there any modern bands you enjoy listening to?

Muse are about my favourite, and I do like Snow Patrol because I love that Chasing Cars…fucking thing. I love that. I like the killers and there’s probably a few others I’ve forgotten. Muse, they make this incredible noise, so difficult to control and yet they control it… bastards. They should have been terminated at birth, it’s not fair for an old fellow like me.

Do you have a favourite from your own songs?

I really enjoy playing most of the stuff in the set, I mean there are songs I don’t particularly like, but I really enjoy playing. There’s one song of mine that’s on Rock till You Drop, a song called ‘All We Really Wanna Do’ I thought it was the best thing I’ve ever done, but nobody else did. I love it to death. Another one of the small joys you get from doing this, I write songs and I want people to love them, but some you don’t give a shit what people think. It’s unique to be able to love your own songs. It’s a kind of selfy thing going on there, but I don’t care.

Having been to a few gigs myself, I’ve always noticed that there’s a massive age range at every one, how do Quo feel about this?

People are usually quite surprised about it. You don’t want to be elitist about the age of people you’re playing to. I remember being told ‘you seem to have a lot of teeny bops in the audience now’ and I looked at this guy who saw this as a negative. So when I see some of these little toddlers I think (admiringly) ‘look at him!’ as long as he’s looking after his ears.

I learnt from this guy in Scotland years ago, he was about 11. I turned around coming out of this gig to hear ‘oi mister!’ in jock ‘oi mister, can I have your autograph please mate?’ So I signed it for this kid, little ginger kid. Ginger hair and freckles, I’ll never forget him. Maybe two or three years later I’m coming out of another gig and I hear ‘oi mister’ again. ‘Oh fuck,’ I thought. He was six foot one! So in that quick time he’d gone from what people don’t count, because he’s a teenager, to a six foot one brick shithouse. And he still comes to see us! He’s fantastic, still loves the band.

I love that I see what we used to call blue rinse girls. They’re not just down there because they think they should be seen there.

What can fans coming to Carrickfergus expect from the Quo? Will there be a mix of old and new tracks?

Always a mix of new and old. Some people are frightened of the new, which I can understand. When I go to see a band I want to see what they’ve done, not what they’re doing. I can sell it in anyway other than we hope to have a good one. Status Quo go on stage, sometimes it’s really, really good, sometimes it’s not so good, and sometimes it’s just alright. I should be telling then it’s the best thing they’ll ever see.