Trivia / Status Quo

• Black Sheep Hit: Quo's Covered Up version of "In the Army Now" is popular, yet it is more of an arena rock and synth-rock tune, not exactly in the band's typical boogie rock style.
  • Other fairly well-known hits in a rather atypical style for the band are the country-ish "Marguerita Time", the soft, folk-ish "Living on an Island" and the ballad with the Ironic Name "Rock 'n' Roll".
• Career Resurrection:
  • Punk Rock and tensions within the band prompted the departure of Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan, and accusations that they'd grown stale years ago almost finished them off, but the advent of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal helped to rejuvenate their fortunes and returned them to the charts.
  • Following a late '80s slump, new manager David Walker came in and used his incredible publicity skills to propel the band to new heights of fame and success. However, the band became increasingly disillusioned with these efforts to maintain a constant presence as the '90s drew to a close.
  • After Walker's death, Rossi requested that the next manager, Simon Porter, strike a balance which would allow the band to focus on making exactly the kind of music they wanted to make without being at the mercy of their publicists. The result was the acclaimed Heavy Traffic, an album which harked back to the days of classic Quo and was their first top 20 hit in ten years.
  • The rise of the "classic rock" market also helped to bring them renewed reverence in the 2000s and 2010s — rock fans are once again likely to hear them mentioned and played alongside the likes of Motörhead, Black Sabbath and Queen.
• Chart Displacement: "Down Down" is Quo's only #1 hit. It's a very well-remembered song, but average audiences are likely to be more familiar with "Whatever You Want", "In the Army Now" or "Rockin' All over the World".
• Creator Backlash: Francis Rossi's autobiography reveals a few.
  • The Spectres' first single — a cover of "I (Who Have Nothing)", which Rossi considers the worst version of that song ever recorded.
  • He considers Ain't Complaining to be one of the worst things Quo ever put out. This is partially because the band and their producer had taken inspiration from contemporary rock bands such as Def Leppard and Bon Jovi, whose production techniques didn't sit well with the old-fashioned Quo sound at all. Rossi attributes this error in judgement to his excessive drug use. That said, "Burning Bridges" is still valued enough to make regular appearances in concert setlists.
  • Famous in the Last Century. While the music itself was good, the project was David Walker's idea, and Rossi felt that the whole thing rang terribly hollow.
• Executive Meddling: Their direction in the '90s was largely driven by the aforementioned David Walker, who had decided that the only way for Quo to survive was to keep a constant media presence — in this case, through increasingly tacky publicity events and occasional "novelty" singles. While this approach was generally successful in boosting the band's popularity, it also resulted in such low points as a tour of local pubs to promote Under the Influence (Rossi had recently given up the drink, and the album's title track wasn't even about intoxication) and the Famous in the Last Century album (see Old Shame for more on that).
• Follow the Leader: Ain't Complaining was an attempt to bring Quo up to date in a world where Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and Whitesnake were big stars. See Old Shame below for how that turned out.
• No Export for You:
  • While "Pictures of Matchstick Men" was popular in the USA (where Quo are a One-Hit Wonder), the band's Hard Rock material was only moderately successful Stateside, despite the efforts of two American labels (A&M and Capitol). By the end of The '70s the US music industry gave up on Quo, and most of their later albums were never released in America.
  • Also inverted. The 1977 Live Album Tokyo Quo was released only in Japan until 2014, when it was made available on vinyl for World Record Store Day.
• One-Hit Wonder: In the USA, where "Pictures of Matchstick Men" was a smash hit and their only charting single in that country.
  • In Italy, the band is pretty obscure, if not for "Whatever You Want", thanks to the hit's appearance at the 1980 Sanremo Festival, where they were among the guests.
• Promoted Fanboy: Richie Malone was a fan of Status Quo through his father, his favourite member being Rick Parfitt. In 2016, after Parfitt suffered a severe heart attack, Malone was selected to replace him as rhythm guitarist.
• Similarly Named Works:
  • "Don't Stop Me Now" has nothing to do with the Queen song, which came out three years prior.
  • "Rolling Home" from Blue for You is a completely different song to "Rollin' Home" on In the Army Now.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Following the End of the Road Tour, Rossi set about making a solo album (Flying Debris) with his co-writer Bernie Frost, for which they recorded eight to ten tracks. The label shelved it after the two singles suffered disappointing sales.
  • Rick Parfitt recorded a solo album, Recorded Delivery, in 1985, but it was never released. Some of the tracks from the album were used as B-sides to singles from In The Army Now and Ain't Complaining. Before his death, Parfitt had plans for a new solo album (which was eventually released posthumously in 2018), as well as an autobiography and solo tour.
  • The original script for Bula Quo! featured considerably more violence. It was eventually watered down into a comedy crime caper.
  • Parfitt, Lancaster and Coughlan were also planning on getting back together in 2017 for a new project called PLC.

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