Status Quo History

The Quo History Part 6

1999 - A very busy year for Quo, after spending January putting the final touches to the new album, the first gig of the year was in Ramsdau in Austria in early February. The first single from the new album "The Way It Goes" was released in the UK on March 8th, closely followed by the "Under The Influence" album itself on March 29th. Quo played their first pub tour in many years when as a result of competitions in the "Sun" Newspaper in the UK and "Das Bild" in Germany, where fans were asked to nominate a pub for Quo to perform in, they played pubs throughout Britain, the Nederlands and Germany as a promotional campaign for the album. June saw Quo playing two huge concerts with Michael Jackson and Friends in Munich and Korea, in aid of the children of Kosovo, and from July they toured throughout Sweden, and parts of Denmark. The usual UK tour was brought forward to October, and straight afterwards, Quo went to Belgium to join a collection of pop and classical artists for 35 shows of "Night Of The Proms" in Belgium, Germany, and the Nederlands.

2000 - Quo started the year by returning to the studio to start work on the 'Famous In The Last Century' album. In March they performed an exclusive show for FTMO members at the Shepherds Bush Empire and filmed a playback preview of the new album for release as a DVD. The BBC recorded interviews with the band for a special BBC documentary which was broadcast on April 30th. Shortly after the Shepherds Bush show, Quo's drummer Jeff Rich decided to leave the band to spend more time with his family and concentrate on his drum master classes. Quo appeared in April at The Eddison Awards in Holland, where they were awarded the events prestigious top award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Music'.

After being recommended to the band by Rhino, Matt Letley joined Quo on drums in May. Shortly afterwards Andrew Bown announced that due to family reasons, he would be unable to join the band for the rest of the year, so a temporary keyboard player, Paul Hirsh, also recommended by Rhino, went into rehearsals with the band. Quo rehearsed in May with two new members! May also saw a 40 minute ITV special, 'Stars In their Eyes', a tribute to Rick, hosted by Carol Vorderman. The new look Quo began a major 18 date tour in Germany on May 19th. In June and July, Quo played shows in Portugal and Spain, then onto several major European festivals throughout the summer, including appearances at Aalberg and Skandeborg in Denmark in August. The single 'Old Time Rock and Roll' was released in September, before Quo embarked upon a lengthy 29 date UK tour which was split into two legs, the first in October and the second in December, November was taken up with a visit to Australia and a 13 date tour that was launched with a trip for a over 100 guests on The Great South Pacific Express to a remote hamlet called Granchester, where Quo performed a 45 minute set on a flatbed carriage. Quo finished the year in a somewhat colder climate, completing the UK tour in December.

2001 - February saw Quo play a one off show to a capacity crowd of 5000 at Expo Centrum in Leeuwarden and two German shows before an eight date tour of Denmark and Sweden. The band also flew to Belfast to perform on the John Daly TV show. In the UK, the BBC broadcast a major hour long Radio Two documentary on Quo. March saw the band performing live recordings for Japan's 'London Calling' and Ireland's 'Ri Ra TV' shows. Francis and Rick presented the programme 'Top Ten Guitar Heroes' for C4's top ten series. In April Quo played shows in the Channel Islands and headlined Belgium's Schwung Festival, before playing three sell out shows at Dublin's Olympia. In may Quo flew to Oslo to make a surprise appearance at the Norwegian version of Big Brother, the Famous In The Last Century album was at number 2 in the Norwegian charts.

Quo appeared at a special charity festival for Jim Davidson's British Forces Charity in Paderborn, Germany in front of 12,000 troops in June, after which they played a 20 date tour of Germany and Switzerland, with both indoor and outdoor shows throughout the summer, including the biggest gig of the year, to 67,000 at the Antenne Festival in Ingoldstadt. After the German tour Francis filmed a profile of his life for a BBC TV special: 'You Only Live Once', hosted by Nick Hancock. A tour of UK Castles followed in the summer with Quo appearing once again with The Beach Boys in Edinburgh, Warwick, Liverpool and London's Hyde Park. Quo returned to Norway in August to headline three festivals.

On August 31st, Quo's manager of thirteen years, David Walker died suddenly at the age of 57. The band spent some of September in the studio working on their next album, to be titled Heavy Traffic. They took time out from the studio to perform live on Sweden's 'Bingo Lotto' TV programme. Before the annual UK winter tour Universal released a 4-CD 68 track anthology titles 'Quo In Time 1972-2000'. Mow with their new manager Simon Porter, Quo finished the year with shows in Denmark and Amsterdam and then straight into a 38 date UK tour named 'Never Say Never' after one of the tracks recorded for the Heavy Traffic album.

2002 - The band started the year with a few re-scheduled gigs that were cancelled from the December UK tour due to illness. The last of these at Oxford was the last show with Paul Hirsh. With Andrew Bown back working with the band following his extended time out, Quo headed off to Europe for five shows in Germany, three in France, two in Spain and finally, six remaining UK gigs. Rick sustained a serious injury when he awoke with a trapped nerve in his left arm, which meant that all 16 shows had to be cancelled. Further recording took place for the Heavy Traffic in March and April, and Quo went back on the road on April 25th with re-scheduled shows in Spain and France. Further shows took place in Holland and Germany and an appearance in Sweden to promote 'The Swedish Collection' a special Swedish 'Best Of'. Towards the end of May, Quo were back in Ridge Farm studios in Surrey, working on tracks for another album which would eventually become 'Riffs'.

In June the band played four shows in Denmark, three in Norway, two in Sweden, five more in Germany and one in Austria. On June 18th and 19th, Quo visited HMS Ark Royal, the monumental aircraft carrier, to film a video for the upcoming single 'Jam Side Down' On June 22nd the band made an appearance at the pre-game show of World Bowl X, the highlight of the tenth season of the NFL Europe. In July the album launch for Heavy Traffic took place. 100 devoted fans and press where treated to a special Orient-Express journey from London's Victoria station to Southampton and then onto Portsmouth where HMS Ark Royal was docked. Quo played a special live concert on the deck of the ship. On July 4th, the band recorded a special live show at BBC Television centre: 'The One and Only' which was broadcasted on September 22nd, the day before the release of the Heavy Traffic album.

The single, 'Jam Side Down' was released on August 5th and jumped straight into the charts at number 17 making Quo the first band to have top twenty hits across five decades. After summer shows in the UK and a festival in Switzerland, on Friday September 13th Quo were invited to perform on the 200th edition of Top Of The Pops. The Heavy traffic album came out on September 23rd and went straight into the UK album chart at number 15. Before the annual UK tour, Quo played shows in Paris, the Forest National in Brussels and the Heineken Hall in Amsterdam. The 40 date 'Heavy Traffic' UK tour had a special intro for the shows recorded by none other than BBC Radio Two's Sally Traffic.

2003 - The Heavy Traffic tour continued from October 2002 to August 25th 2003, a total of 120 shows, including shows in Europe, the UK, Brazil, Mexico, USA, Canada and Australia. The year started in February, with shows in Sao Paulo and Rio in Brazil, followed by two huge sell out gigs in Neza City, Mexico. The second leg of the tour took Quo to San Francisco, two shows in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Toronto and two shows in New York. In March Quo played 14 shows in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, before returning to Australia for their third tour in six years, beginning in Melbourne on April 17th.

After the 10 date Australian tour, the band returned to Germany and Denmark for another series of shows. Quo were back in the UK in June for the start of the Forest Tour, a series of mainly National Trust forest venues started with a show at Sherwood Forest. On June 27th Quo appeared at the Arrow Classic Rock Festival in Lichtenvoorde, Holland in front of a crowd of 30,000, and in July the band played at The British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Other festival gigs in Europe followed including the Heitere Festival in Switzerland on August 10th. In November Quo's third covers album 'Riffs' was released. The UK tour from October to Christmas took in 40 UK shows.

The Quo History: Part one | Part two | Part three | Part four | Part five


back	www.statusquo.co.uk	home