Original Quo Line-up Reunite
They will record a new album and tour next year
In a brand new interview with Sweden's Nostalgia Rock’n'Roll Magazine (via Classic Rock Magazine), Francis Rossi revealed that he and Rick Parfitt would be reuniting with bassist Alan Lancaster and drummer John Coghlan for a tour and album in 2013.
"We’ll do a tour and write new songs," Rossi revealed. "We’ve booked a tour in Britain in March next year – eight to ten gigs or something. If we had been gone for 20 years maybe we would have been able to book all the big arenas. But we have a modern-day Quo up and running, and quite successfully too. Who knows how the old band will be perceived?”
The frontman also revealed that he's concerned about Lancaster's health: "Alan looks like he couldn’t do it. He’s still frail and his legs are a bit shaky, but he’s getting stronger every day. He’s lifting weights and eating himself into shape.”
Rossi offers some hints regarding their set list: "I want us to focus on the really old stuff like April, Spring, Summer And Wednesdays, which was Alan’s suggestion. We’ve decided to start the gigs with Junior’s Wailing. We’ll do 4500 Times. Maybe we’ll play Roadhouse Blues and other songs Alan used to sing. In that way it’ll feel fresh again, because we haven’t played those old songs for such a long time.”
He also talked about his happiness at being able to talk to his friend once again. "Alan had been misled by his attorney, who’d fooled him into believing they could sue us for £30m,” he explains. "The poor bastard has been so used. He apologised and we became friends again over a cup of coffee.
"I talked to Alan’s brother recently, a guy I thought would like to kill me. He cried over the phone. Then Alan’s cousin, a girl I used to have a crush on. I must meet Alan’s mum again. How I’ve missed those wonderful people. I mourn that I couldn’t meet his dad, who died recently, one last time. And his uncle also passed away – he was really important to me. Damn, I managed to get to 60 before I realised it. That’s life.
"So unnecessary, really, everything that went wrong. The nice thing is we can now be straight and honest with each other again.”
But Rossi thinks neither version of the band will be around for much longer. "I don’t believe we’ll play together with Alan and John for long – they won’t cope,” he says. "I don’t think Status Quo will be around much longer either. It’s increasingly difficult to cope with the energy discharge a concert requires.”