Music: Status Quo must go on, says Parfitt
AFTER 40 years of rockin’ and rollin’ Status Quo want to see the history of the band brought to life in the theatre.
Guitarist Rick Parfitt says Quo: The Musical is a much better option than previously announced plans to make a movie starring him and frontman Francis Rossi.
The film is set to be an action thriller set in Thailand, with more than a dash of comedy. But the project, announced two years ago, is on the backburner.
Rick admits: ‘‘I’m just pleased the film keeps getting pushed back, it sounds really cheesy and I’m not mad about doing it. I’d rather concentrate on doing a musical, and put some brain power towards that, than going to join a gang in Bangkok.”
Rick, aged 61, says he hopes the show would be a similar blend of music and story as Queen’s We Will Rock You – only based on fact.
“It would be about how we met at Butlins and the story of the band – how it evolved.
“I think it’s a fantastic idea, so watch this space!”
In the meantime Quo hope to be doing what they do best at Birmingham’s LG Arena tomorrow – playing live.
But it all depends on Francis making a full recovery from a nasty bout of bronchitis which has seen several gigs postponed over the past two weeks.
Rick says: “Last year it was Matt, our drummer – he was really ill after catching some kind of virus. Now it’s Francis. It’s just the changing of the season and the fact that our voices are working very hard and we’re sweating quite a lot.
“Rather than lose the rest of the arena shows, it’s best to pause briefly and hope we can get through it.”
Talk of cold winter weather brings us to Rick’s current recorded project – providing guitar for Rolf Harris’s festive single, Christmas In The Sun.
“Rolf came to me with the song a year ago and I thought it was a little flaky when I first heard it. I told him I couldn’t do anything with it at the time because we had our own Christmas song out.
“But we bided our time and me and a friend, Wayne Morris, who I do some writing with, offered to produce the song. We did a typical Quo backtrack to it and Rolf came out to Germany and worked on the vocal.
Rick adds ruefully: “If it does better than our Christmas song I’ll be pleased, because ours virtually didn’t hit the charts at all, which was disappointing.”
He says It’s Christmas Time flopped for two reasons: “It was put on the Quo Greatest Hits album in exactly the same format as the single – and the album was released a couple of months before the single so most people had already got it. Then Woolworths collapsed and they were our mainstay.”
* Ticket Info
Tomorrow: LG Arena, Birmingham
Tickets: £32.50 plus booking and transaction fees from www.theticketfactory.com
