The original line-up of veteran rockers, Status Quo, are getting back together for a nationwide tour, the band’s management confirmed on Sunday.
The group will perform on stage together for the first time in thirty years, reunited after a series of legal squabbles.
The rock band are one of the country’s most successful recording artists with 64 British hit singles – more than any other band to date – 22 of which reached the Top Ten. Total worldwide record sales exceed 118 million, more than 1960s contemporariesThe Who, Deep Purple and Fleetwood Mac.
The Quo, best known for songs ‘Rocking All Over the World,’ ‘Down, Down’ and ‘Caroline’ plan to reunite for a series of gigs around Britain.
Frontmen Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, who first teamed up 50 years ago, have carried on under the Quo banner, even playing Glastonbury Festival, despite the departure of the other band members in the early 1980s.
In 1985 the pair opened the Live Aid charity concert.
The original band members –Rossi, Parfitt, bass guitarist, Alan Lancaster and drummer, John Coghlan – all featured on their breakthrough top 10 hit ‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men.’
The band’s eventual split triggered rows over money and years of court battles.
The rockers will play a nine-date tour – beginning on Wednesday – as the four main figures who created the group and gave it its name in 1967 take the stage once more.
There was positive reaction to news the ‘Frantic Four’ plan to tour again, one Twitter user @DonoftheDead80 said : “Cannae wait to hear that ‘stack’ blow what’s left of my hearing away.”
While the band will return to the classic line-up playing songs they would have performed in around 1977, this will not be a permanent change.
Their first show will take place at the Manchester Apollo with a grand finale at Wembley Arena on March 17. So far, all the shows have sold out except for the final Wembley date.
The Quo follow in the footsteps of a number of influential rock acts such as Pink Floyd, that split following artistic differences several decades ago, but have been keen to reform and tour in order to cash in on a recent British rock revival.
Original Status Quo line-up to tour after 30 years apart
