update sept 2021
Status Quo founding member and bassist Alan Lancaster has died aged 72, the band's manager has confirmed.
Lancaster had several international hits with the group during the 60s and 70s including Rockin' All Over The World and Whatever You Want.
Manager Simon Porter said: "This is such sad news."
Lead singer Francis Rossi said: "Alan was an integral part of the sound and the enormous success of Status Quo during the 60s and 70s."
Rossi and Lancaster began performing together in the 1960s under a number of different band names before settling on Status Quo.
The group went on to have four UK number one albums, according to the Official Charts Company.
This group has spanned my musical memory,
though all of the 1960s and 1970s. They were having huge hits in the 80s and
still had hits in the 90s and even now in the 2000s. The group unfairly has the
reputation of a one chord group, but if that was true, we would not still be
talking about them after half a century. They have had sixty chart hits in the
UK.
The group formed out of another group
called The Specters and it was not until 1967 that Francis Rossi called the group
The Status Quo before in 1969 it became Status Quo. Along with Rick Parfitt and
Alan Lancaster with a few members coming and going over the years, during which
the group became a 1970s institution.
It was March of 1970 that Quo broke into
the 1970s with the hit Down The Dustpipe which was written by Australian Carl
Groszman, but Radio One DJ Tony Blackburn did not like it and called it “Down
the dustbin for this one”. But despite Tony not liking it still did well in the
top twenty.'
The follow up In My Chair got to No. 31,
but it was not until 1972 they came back into the top ten with Paper Plane. There
is no way when watching Top Of The Pops that the whole family could not tap
their feet to this single which was written by Francis as much of Quo's music
was throughout the decades.
Two fantastic hits in 1973 with Mean Girl
but this was dwarfed by the next single called Caroline which defined Quo for
years to come. The song was written on the back of a napkin by Francis and
co-writer Bob Young and was originally called Margret.
1974 gave us a No. 8 hit called Break The Rules which I do not even remember, but the next single got to the top of the
charts in that same year and was called Down Down which to me was very much Caroline.
But was a fantastic song to head bang to at the school discos. Originally it
was called Get Down but because Gilbert O’Sullivan had a song of the same name
it had to be changed.
1975 and only one hit for the Quo with Roll Over Lay Down from the album Quo Live.
The group scored three big hits in the
summer of 1976 with Rain, Mystery Song which was about fun with a prostitute.
The last single of the year was The Wild Side Of Life which was actually a
cover of the 1952 country hit by Hank Thompson. Whoever he was?
Only one top ten hit in 1977 and it was the
classic Rockin' All Over The World which eight years later would be the song
that started Live Aid from Wembley. The song was yet another cover, but this
time from John Forgerty who use to be a member of Creedence Clearwater Revival.
As the 70s ended the Quo just kept going,
they were never really out of our minds were they?
The only top twenty hit that year was Again And Again which was released to coincide with their appearance at the Reading Festival that year. 1979 saw two big hits with Living On An Island and Whatever You Want the latter being their last head banging song of the 1970s. Music, drugs and alcohol and a lifestyle that would haveked most of us off made the Quo part of our lives and at their
concerts now they have a huge young following. It just goes to show that even
if they were banned by Radio Two for a while they are still part of the
heritage of British Music.
The only top twenty hit that year was Again And Again which was released to coincide with their appearance at the Reading Festival that year. 1979 saw two big hits with Living On An Island and Whatever You Want the latter being their last head banging song of the 1970s. Music, drugs and alcohol and a lifestyle that would have