Floral Pavilion, New Brighton – 18/05/19
I have been a Status Quo fan for years. My first proper gig, when I was 15 or 16 was seeing Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi at Knowsley Hall in Liverpool and after that I was hooked. The energy exchange between band and audience was electric. Seeing Status Quo was, and I kid you not, a pivotal moment in my life. It got me into live music. Add to that, the very first song I learnt to play on the piano was ‘Rocking All Over the World’ – I was about 8 at the time, a drummer friend of my parents used to enthral me with tales about him seeing this band, Status Quo in the seventies… Well anyway, imagine my delight when the opportunity presented itself to see the original Quo drummer, John Coghlan in action, I had to see this…
I arrived at the Floral Pavilion, collected my tickets and was told I was sitting at table 19. When I walked into the Blue Lounge, normally the Floral’s conference centre, it had been transformed into a cabaret type set up, with rows and rows of tables, with chairs. A bit strange I thought, given this is a rock and Roll gig, something the band later commented on as well. As it happened it was quite nice, afterall, I needed to put my beer somewhere when I was playing that air guitar!!
As the lights dimmed and the band entered the stage, there was a roar from the crowd. It was packed to capacity. They kicked off with ‘Juniors Wailing’, the head was going, the feet were stomping already and we were only 30 seconds into the first song.
It has been said John Coghlan is one of the best drummers in rock and roll. I would certainly agree with this statement after seeing Saturday’s show. His skill is unmatched and he is great showman, I particularly enjoyed seeing him hitting his cymbals side on to get the slightest clink out of them. His sense of humour came through as well, with numerous comments ‘I played on that song’ and him jokingly saying he ‘doesn’t like this one’. He was certainly having fun up there.
I’ve been to see a few famous drummer bands and it has all been about them. They were the main attraction; their drums were so ridiculously loud it overpowered the rest of the band. This was not the case with John. He was there for the music, something which he loves and that really came through.
Bass player Rick Chase was what you might call the front man of the band, doing the majority of the talking between songs and the main lot of the singing too, although vocal duties were split between Rick and Pete Mace. Vocally both were spot on, in fact you could mistake Pete’s voice for Mr Rossi’s. They are both very similar. Pete also shared guitar duties along with long time member of the band, Mick Hughes.
They continued through the set, the first few songs were great. They unleashed some seldom heard album tracks which was thoroughly enjoyable. Songs such as ‘All the Reasons’, ‘In my Chair’ and Johns favourite, ‘(April) Spring, Summer and Wednesdays’. It was such a treat to hear these songs played live. In fact, they even felt heavier, more hard rock than the originals. Definitely a good thing! I especially enjoyed the song ‘A Year’, a ballad from the Piledriver album – not a song I was familiar with. It was a real surprise, I thought it was great.
The first set came to a close with Gerdundula, another great song and actually one of my favourites. It was a real sing along moment and the duelling guitars worked great. A really great first half and it was so good to hear those rare songs. Bring on the second set!
After a very brief interval the band returned and launched into a string of hits, beginning with ‘Caroline’. Well the somewhat well behaved audience that we had in the first set seemed to all of a sudden limber up. People got up, and congregated around the sides of the room to dance and ‘air guitar’ through the remaining songs. You just can’t help it! ‘Roll Over Lay Down’ came next, the band were on fire, the audience were loving every second of it. Then Rick announced that the next song celebrated its 50th birthday last year and was the first time Status Quo made it onto Top of the Pops, with a very scared looking John right at the front on the drums. John, of course re enacted this motion, miming hitting his drums, which got a laugh.
Cue: ‘Pictures of Matchstick Men’. What a brilliant guitar sound, I could just imagine hearing that song for the first time in the sixties. It must have blown people’s minds. This again was heavy. Sixties hard rock at its best. Guitarists Pete Mace and Mick Hughes were really having fun with this one. For a song over fifty years old, the whole band made it sound so fresh. ‘Paper Plane’ followed then another ballad from Piledriver, ‘All the Reasons’, Rick got the whole room singing along to this one.
At this point John gets up and comes to the front and says a few words about Rick Parfitt. It was so nice to hear him talking about and remembering his dear old friend. It was a very emotional moment but John shared some lovely stories and told us of his surprise that Rick Parfitt could actually cook!
After a lovely fitting tribute to Rick, the band went into ‘Rain’ one of Rick Parfitt’s songs and again, it was a real treat to hear. The band then played ‘Rocking all over the World’ then announced they were going to play Status Quo’s only Number One record. The intro to ‘Down Down’ fires up and the crowd again go wild. This sadly brought us to the end of the gig, the band playing us out with the Status Quo signature finale song ‘Bye Bye Johnny’. John had real fun with this one, throwing a couple of drum solo’s into the mix, again showing his flare and showmanship one last time. He teased the band, they were waiting for him to finish – he just kept going and going hailing cheers from the crowd.
To conclude, what a brilliant night of entertainment. We were treated to some rarities in the first set, which was great and then the mainstay Quo classics in the second set. There were a few songs missing though that I would have expected, ‘Whatever You Want’ being one of them, but that didn’t detract from a great show. It was a great atmosphere, the audience loved it, everybody was up dancing by the end despite the tables and the band were on top form. In fact, they were perhaps heavier and punchier than the current Status Quo – more in line to what the band was when it started. A definite treat that would appeal to Quo fans young and old and the younger fans might even discover a new song or two!
