Choose from the following Status quo Tribute Bands; Status Quo is a UK rock band founded by Alan Lancaster and Francis Rossi in 1962. They began as a rock and roll freakbeat band called the Spectres. By 1967, and with very little commercial success, they discovered psychedelia and changed their name to Traffic (later Traffic Jam, to avoid confusion with Steve Winwood's Traffic.) At the end of the year they recruited Rick Parfitt and became The Status Quo, scoring Top 10 singles with Pictures Of Matchstick Men and Ice in The Sun. After their second album Spare Parts they decided to change into a heavy boogie rock band. Throughout the seventies they became one of the UK's leading rock bands. They showed a great amount of energy during this decade and in the first years of the 80's, and are best known for songs from this era such as Whatever You Want, Rockin' All Over The World and Down Down. The last topped the UK charts in January 1975, their only British No. 1 single. Original drummer John Coghlan left the band in late 1981, to be replaced by Pete Kircher from 1960s band Honeybus, but this short-lived lineup played its last gig in 1984 at the Milton Keynes Bowl, and reformed briefly to open the Live Aid charity event in July 1985. While the remaining members recorded a new album in secret with new bass player John Edwards and drummer Jeff Rich, Lancaster took out a legal injunction to stop them playing as Status Quo, which he later lost. Lancaster left for Australia, forming a band called Party Boys, which were never heard of very much in Britain. The remainder of the band reformed in 1986 with the commercially successful In The Army Now album and continue to this day with a revised personnel. The core membership of Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt and Andy Bown, formerly a member of 60s band The Herd, remain the focus of the group. Although Quo still manage to release new material every few years, their management seem have taken to making them release a series of greatest hits compilations and covers albums. One of the band's most recent original albums, Heavy Traffic shows a return to classic form not seen since the late 1970s. Status Quo has often been characterized, perhaps unfairly, as producing very simple songs, always in the same format: 4/4 rhythm, three chord structure. However, the recordings from their first decade demonstrate a diversity in musical style and complexity to rival most of the late 60s UK bands. They have a loyal group of fans in England, where they have enjoyed more hits than any other group in rock and roll history, as well as a big following in Europe, notably in The Netherlands. In September 2005 a contestant on the long-running BBC television quiz programme "Mastermind" chose Status Quo as his specialist subject. In 2005 they took part in the long running ITV soap opera Coronation Street in a storyline which involved them being sued by the layabout Les Battersby.
|