Long-running, good time British rockers hit the road again in 2022
Status Quo have announced a 2022 UK tour entitled Out Out Quoing, kicking off with a long run of dates in March and returning for a second run in November and December. See full tour dates below.
Status Quo were born from the ashes of another group, London beat combo The Spectres, which featured Francis Rossi on guitar and Alan Lancaster on bass. Roy Lynes and John Coughlan joined on keys and drums respectively but after a series of false starts and failed singles, the band changed its name to Traffic Jam. After Rick Parfitt joined on guitar, the band was finally renamed Status Quo and shifted stylistically to a more psychedelic sound.
The quintet struck gold with their first single as Status Quo. ‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men’ was a top ten hit in the UK and went to No.12 in the US, but despite another UK top ten hit with ‘Ice In The Sun’, the band couldn’t replicate their first time out success and went back to the drawing board once again.
By the dawn of the ’70s, Quo had parted ways with Lynes and revamped themselves with a straight-up hard rock sound, first unveiled on Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon. A dedicated touring regimen boosted their fortunes and bit-by-bit Quo started to convince people that their heavier, blues rock sound was a put-on. Dog Of Two Head was a step in the right direction, but it was 1973’s Piledriver that sealed the deal and ushered forth future crowdpleasers ‘Don’t Waste My Time’ and ‘Paper Plane’.
The band stuck to the formula for Hello!, which featured their biggest single to date in the form of ‘Caroline’ and cemented their place at the forefront of the new wave of British denim-clad rockers. Quo (1974) and On The Level (1975) maintained the momentum, but after Blue For You in 1976, the band needed something to change things up. That came in the surprisingly poppy and cleaned up sound of Rocking All Over The World, the 1977 album that took its name from the band’s cover of a lesser-known John Fogerty song. The single was a huge hit and went on to become Quo’s calling card.
Quo closed out the ’70s with a series of cleaned-up but nonetheless hard rocking records, scoring another major hit single along the way with ‘Whatever You Want’. Coughlan and Lancaster’s departures in 1981 and 1987 left Rossi and Parfitt as the band’s main songwriters.
The duo assembled a new line-up, featuring long-time unofficial keyboardist Andy Bown, drummer Jeff Rich and bassist John Edwards. The new roster continued the fine run of form inherited from the previous incarnation with hit singles including ‘In The Army Now’ and ‘Burning Bridges’, which reached No.1 when rerecorded with the Manchester United squad as ‘Come On You Reds’.
In 1997, Rick Parfitt underwent heart surgery that kept him out of action for three months. Three years later, Rich left the band, replaced by Matt Letley. Status Quo continued to tour and record throughout the ’00s, scoring hits with Heavy Traffic, the covers album Don’t Stop, The Party Ain’t Over Yet and In Search Of The Fourth Chord. Quid Pro Quo landed them another UK top ten album in 2010 and the band starred in their own feature film Bula Quo in 2013.
The band recorded acoustic versions of their hits for the 2015 album Aquostic and its 2016 sequel Aquostic II. These were followed by a huge Hyde Park acoustic show in summer 2016. Later that year, Rick Parfitt took ill while on tour in Turkey and sadly died that Christmas.
The indominable Status Quo regrouped again and brought in Richie Malone to replace Parfitt. They released their 33rd album Backbone in 2019.
Status Quo 2022 UK tour dates
2 Mar 2022 – Bonus Arena, Hull
3 Mar 2022 – Globe, Stockton
5 Mar 2022 – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
6 Mar 2022 – Symphony Hall, Birmingham
8 Mar 2022 – Cliffs Pavillion, Southend
9 Mar 2022 – Regent Theatre, Ipswich
11 Mar 2022 – De Montfort Hall, Leicester
12 Mar 2022 – G Live, Guildford
14 Mar 2022 – Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
15 Mar 2022 – St David’s Hall, Cardiff
17 Mar 2022 – New Theatre, Oxford
18 Mar 2022 – The Forum, Bath
25 Nov 2022 – P&J Live, Aberdeen
26 Nov 2022 – SEC Armadillo, Glasgow
28 Nov 2022 – First Direct Arena, Leeds
30 Nov 2022 – Brighton Centre, Brighton
1 Dec 2022 – BIC, Bournemouth
3 Dec 2022 – SSE Arena, Wembley, London
