Status Quo freebie

I won tickets to see Quo in Nottingham. Not a band that I would say I would have ever bought tickets to see these days, but on a freebie they were quite an exciting prospect. I had seen them before, once, supporting Queen on that huge day in 1986 at Knebworth which sadly turned out to be Queen’s last show ever. Quo were just great and they are one of those bands which I think need to be seen live at least once in a music fan’s lifetime. The band seem to be getting some long overdue respect lately. It’s amazing what an appearance on Coronation Street will do for your career…

To win I had emailed into Planet Rock radio a flippant answer to a quiz question and amazingly I won a pair of tickets. For Nottingham Arena though – not exactly close to home, but never mind - it's a freebie.

So Tuesday night I (and mate Rich from work) chose to do some alleged technical support at the Sheffield office and drive down from there to make things a bit easier on the travel front. Once off the M1 we discovered that Nottingham is a rather big city centre with a nightmare onme way system and impossible to find car parks littered all over the place at the wrong end of one way streets. But we got in one eventually and fortunately found ourselves parked not too far from the arena.

Now, normally when there’s a concert on in a venue, come doors opening time there’s people milling about all over the place. I had expected to see an army of denim clad folk lining up to get in to the arena. But when we got there the place looked deserted which was most odd. We had a beer in a good but not too full pub next door and then walked to the arena entrance. And there were some people there, and amazingly the place looked like it was getting pretty full, but it was really quite strange the lack of people outside.

Once inside we found that our seats were great. Having previously checked the seating plan of the arena we were sure we’d be at the front of a block near the back of the arena floor. But we were at the front of the second block back from the stage i.e. good and close. Excellent.

We missed one of the support bands but the second one really were bloody awful. "The 27s" they were called and they were all the way from Australia. Why they’d actually bothered to come all this way I really don’t know. The Aussies may be good at cricket but they can keep their awful support bands. I’m not generally one for slagging off bands as most do have some redeeming qualities but this trio: no. A poor pub blues outfit is about the best I could decribe them as. Avoid at all costs - if you are ever in Australia. Luckily they weren’t on for long and the mighty Quo appeared at 9 pm.

The denim clad army of Quo fans of old has, inevitably, turned into a bunch of bearded, balding (some with pony tails...) middle aged blokes. People have grown old with this band, and that is quite an amazing thing. Just as I was part of the 'old' Rush followers at their shows in 2004 and felt such a part of the gigs because of my long history with the band, these folks were the same and I really felt the ... yes.. love ... from the audience when the band took to he stage. The front row were obviously the crowd who were following the tour and they got a good deal of recongnition from the band once they came on. There were lots of youngsters about too: kids of the old rockers. Dads and their favourite band showing junior just how it should be done.

Status Quo deliver exactly what you’d expect: great 12 bar Status Quo rock. Actually, it’s to their great credit that they’ve never become a caricature of themselves. They play loudly and look like they are having a lot of fun doing so. And (why should this suprise me?) it turns out that Francis Rossi is a very very good guitarist. This is the band don’t forget who can casually knock off the stunning trio of Down Down, Whatever You Want and Rockin’ All Over the World: amazing rock songs that you just KNOW (everyone knows) and cannot help but sing along to with a cheesy grin on your face. "Look - that's Status Quo up there...."

They played 2 hours of the boogie rock that they have made their own, with Rossi continuously mugging to the crowd whilst knocking off fabulous bluesy solos, or seriously noisy rhythm work while wandering all over the stage. And Rick Parfitt is his perfect stage foil, keeping out of the limelight and providing great rhythm work, and not to mention some of the most famous guitar intros ever.

All in all fabulous to see them in action, and best my ticket win of all time. I think to be honest it’s my second only ticket win of all time. The other I can remember was to see Bjork’s old band the Sugarcubes in Liverpool a long time a go.

A top night all round and it was about 90 mins back home up a for once deserted M1. Post gig ears ringing factor: 1 day.

So that's The Who and Status Quo both seen live in 2006. Look out: "old rocker" alert... I just need to grow that pony tail.