Whilst his juggernaut of a band just kept on rockin’ Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi on his own solo tour just can’t stop talking. And once the south London-born star begins delivering the first of dozens upon dozens of insightful tales from his stellar six-decade chart-topping career, all you can do is buckle up and enjoy the ride.
An Evening of Francis Rossi’s Songs From The Status Quo Songbook And More is an aptly over-lengthy title for a man who must have stage managers night after night tearing their hair out as he regularly shoots off at tangents, throwing a no-doubt carefully curated running order into chaos. We finish the night at Harrogate almost 30 minutes beyond the scheduled finish time and some nervous glances stage right towards the climax hint a likely rebuke awaiting. But this is no rock ‘n’ roll excess for excess sake. Instead at the masterful age of 75 Rossi is clearly a man loving life far more than he ever did at the drug-fuelled height of Status Quo’s record-breaking career. And – whisper it gently – but one gets the feeling he much prefers delivering his latest acoustic incarnation of Quo music to intimate audiences as opposed to the sprawling stadiums and arenas his band spent decades filling.
He admits as much telling the sold-out audience at the north Yorkshire Spa town of Harrogate’s delightful theatre that had it not been for his well-documented £1,400-week cocaine addiction in the 1980s he is sure he would have discovered performing these stripped-down shows sooner.
It’s one of the more melancholy moments of a night when discretion is left at the door as Rossi intersperses a 20-song set with a barrage of anecdotes – both about the music and also his life in the rock ‘n’ roll fast lane.
Rossi has jaws-dropping as he drops the revelation of how shortly before heading out on tour his wife is holding a party at their home and her friends start expressing reservations about the musical capabilities of his surviving contemporaries Paul McCartney , Rod Stewart and Elton John. You fear he could be struck from Christmas Card lists and perhaps even spark a new war-of-words to rival the Oasis vs Blur spat from the 1990s. But he digs himself out of a hole – just – with a touch of self-deprecation about his own singing abilities.
There is an old-school music hall charm to the show that is fitting for a man whose LiLive Aid-opening band have been described as being “as British as fish ‘n’ chips”.
Accompanied on stage by fellow guitarist Andy Brook, the pair both wielding snazzy-looking Fender Acoustosonic guitars, Rossi defies his age with some beautiful guitar playing as they take a run-through a tasty selection of his favourite Quo tracks.
The first half sees a dive into some deeper cuts such as Claudie and And It’s Better Now from 1973’s Hello album and Spinning Wheel Blues from 1970s Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon along with an array of better known hits whilst in the second half we are treated to The Eagles-esque Someone Show Me Home from 1978’s If You Can’t Stand The Heat and Tongue Tied from 2007’s In Search Of the Fourth Chord – with it’s poignant lyrics of Rossi musing about the past after a journalist asked him about the bulk of his career being behind him, with the pay off line asking “Why does living go so fast?”
The home straight becomes a crowd-pleasing singalong with pared-down versions of hits such as Rockin’ All Over The World, Down Down and Caroline whilst Rossi expertly navigates his way around his guitar suddenly going badly out-of-tune during In The Army Now with such finesse that only the seasoned musicians in the audience would have spotted the minor mishap.
Francis Rossi 63-date two leg tour of the UK runs from April to June then September to November. 2025. Check out dates at FrancisRossi.com.