Status Quo Newcastle City Hall 24th September 1973 Hello!
I was rapidly becoming a big Status Quo fan. I’d bought “Piledriver”, played it endlessly and was trying to learn the riffs to “Paper Plane”, “Big Fat Mama”, and “Don’t Waste My Time”. In September 1973 Quo released their 6th album “Hello!” which consolidated their success and went to No 1 in the UK chart. “Hello!” was the first of four Quo albums to top the UK Albums Chart, and the first album on which the group wrote all the songs (along with Bob Young the group’s roadie and harmonica player). Keyboard player Andy Bown played on “Forty-Five Hundred Times”. This was Andy’s first appearance on a Status Quo album, and he was of course soon to become a permanent member of the band. They hit the singles chart twice between “Piledriver” and “Hello”; first with “Mean Girl” which was an old song released by their previous label Pye, and reached No 20, and then with their trademark song “Caroline” which also appeared on “Hello!” and reached #5. This was the group’s first single to reach the UK top five. The relentless gigging continued (as it always has, and does to this day) and in September Status Quo went out on tour yet again to promote “Hello”. I saw them at Newcastle City Hall on 24th September 1973. This was the 8th time I had seen Status Quo within a couple of years. The concert was, as always, a triumph or rock and boogie, with Francis Rossi cracking on with us all as if we were his best mates. Quo were like that, just ordinary lads playing straightforward, no nonsense rock’n’roll. No airs and graces, no deep meaning to the songs. We all respected that, and just “got it” immediately and completely. 
The relentless touring up and down the country, with the gaps between tours of the city halls filled with club and festival appearances, the attitude, the approach, the authenticity, all forged a bond between Status Quo and the fans and created a loyalty that is, for many, still there to this day. Mick Rossi quietly became Francis Rossi some time in 1973. The Spring (Piledriver) programme lists him as “Mick”, while in the Autumn (Hello!) programme he is “Francis”. Support for the tour was the excellent blues band Savoy Brown, fronted by KIm Simmonds on guitar (who remains with the band to this day), and at the time, featuring the great Jackie Lynton on vocals. Jackie has a long association with Quo. His own band, the Jackie Lynton band, supported them on tour a couple of years later, and he used to announce them, his being the famous voice that says “Is there anybody out there that wants to rock? Tonight..Live..We have the No 1 rock’n’roll band in the land..Will you welcome the magnificent Status Quo!…” (cue Juniors Wailing) at the start of the Live album, recorded at Glasgow Apollo.
Typical setlist of the period: Junior’s Wailing, Someones Learning, In My Chair, Claudie, Roll over lay Down, Big Fat Mama, Railroad, Don’t waste my time, Caroline, Roadhouse Blues, Mean Girl, Bye Bye Johnny.
Archive for the ‘Savoy Brown’ Category
16 May
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