Status Quo rocked on stage at Vivary Park in Taunton last Friday night to raucous cheers and singing along from the audience. The band, one of the biggest in the UK, delivered song after hit, and the Taunton audience enjoyed it.
One Somerset fan described it as a walk down memory lane. Richard Elford, 77, a Quo superfan from Glastonbury, was in the audience, but he had also attended the band’s first show at Butlins in Minehead, Somerset, in the summer of 1965.
He stated, “It was a fantastic performance on Friday night; what else would you expect from the Quo? I am a major fan, and they always put on a spectacular concert; the weather was perfect, and there was an incredible vibe at Vivary Park; it was truly fantastic.”
Richard, a major music aficionado who used to play guitar in his own band, was just 18 when we went to Butlins with a friend for a week’s vacation.
This is the first time he saw the band that would become the famed Status Quo. He explained: “They were named The Spectres back then, and they were basically an amateur band.
“There were much larger bands performing that night; I became so intoxicated that I fell asleep under the table and was discovered by the cleaners the next morning. I was a teenager, and I believe it was a combination of Status Quo, beer, and hormones. Francis Rossi and Mick Parfitt met at that Minehead show; it’s incredible to think I was there for both their first and last gig,” he added.
According to the Mirror newspaper, Rossi stated in an interview that the show in Taunton will be their last. They are hardly the first band to resurface after proclaiming retirement, but Rossi made it clear it was time to stop touring.
On June 23, the newspaper claimed that “They’ve been Rockin’ All Over the World for more than 60 years.” But when Status Quo performs in Taunton, Somerset, over the August bank holiday weekend, Francis Rossi expects it to be their last. “I don’t think we will go again,” he says. “As far as the rest of the band is concerned, this is their final tour. “I just can’t see us doing it again.”
Richard Elford received VIP treatment at the Taunton event, where he was seated at the front and handed an all-access pass. He stated, “It’s wonderful to think I was there from the beginning and now for their farewell all these years later. They are an incredible band, and they would not be here if they did not have something unique. “It has been an extraordinary journey.”
When Rossi discovered Mr Elford was at the gig on Friday, he exclaimed, “Wow, sounds like you’ve been to almost as many Quo shows as I have!” It has been a beautiful aspect of the band’s tale that many of the fans have stayed with us the entire time.”
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