![]() ![]() The “the” was then dropped from their name, and when the follow-up long-player, Spare Parts (1969), also flopped, the group decided to abandon psychedelia and pursue a tougher rock sound, matched by an earthy jeans-and-T-shirts image. They had another UK Top 10 hit later that year with Ice in the Sun, but their debut album, Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo, failed to chart. The new lineup – Parfitt and Rossi plus the drummer John Coghlan, bassist Alan Lancaster and keyboard player Roy Lynes – immediately felt their luck changing as their single Pictures of Matchstick Men (1968), written by Rossi, reached No 7 in the UK and the Top 40 in the US. Shortly afterwards they changed their name again to the Status Quo, to avoid confusion with Steve Winwood’s group Traffic. At the suggestion of their manager, Pat Barlow, they also decided they needed an extra vocalist and contacted Parfitt, who was happy to accept. All were flops and, this being 1967, the band decided to join pop’s then burgeoning psychedelic wave, changing their name to Traffic Jam for the purpose. Rossi was a member of the Spectres, who went on to release three singles on the Pye Records subsidiary Piccadilly. He got off to a promising start with a regular solo slot at the Sunshine Holiday Camp on Hayling Island in Hampshire, which brought him £5 a week.īy the time he first met Rossi at Butlin’s holiday camp in Minehead, west Somerset, in 1965, Parfitt was playing in a trio called the Highlights. Having started learning guitar at the age of 11 he left at 15 to try his hand in music. The family lived in a three-bedroom house on the Elmbridge council estate, and Rick attended Goldsworth school. In 2010 both were appointed OBE.īorn in Woking, Surrey, Rick was the son of Richard, an insurance man whom he described as a “drinker and a gambler”, and Lillian, who worked in cake shops. In 1991 Quo earned themselves a place in the Guinness World Records by playing four arena-sized concerts across Britain in one day, and in 2005 Rossi and Parfitt cemented their status as household names by appearing in Coronation Street. ![]() ![]() Among numerous career highlights, Quo were the opening act at Live Aid at Wembley stadium in July 1985, aptly kicking off with Rockin’ All Over the World, and were back at Wembley in 2007 for the Concert for Diana. ![]()
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