Status Quo at Swansea Arena (4.6.2024) with Laurence Jones supporting
I still remember standing in a little record shop in the parade near Rowlands, Ashford Common (Middlesex) – Squeeze Inn – gazing at the albums displayed on the wall. It would have been 1977. There was Rockin’ All Over The World, one of Status Quo’s 33 albums. It was playing regularly in there and I recall returning a few times wondering whether to invest. I do like that title track and single (I didn’t know it was a cover of a song by John Fogarty of Creedance Clearwater Revival). Instead, after consultation with school friends and much deliberation, I opted for No More Heroes by The Stranglers, released a few months previously, and which I had the single from. My path was set. My post 1977 approach to music was up and running, not to be revisited for many years.
The Quo came to the fore in a big way again in 1985, with their stint at Live Aid, Wembley Stadium. From then on, in my mind, they’ve always been around: part of British rock’n’roll culture, on the fringes of my consciousness with the occasional single catching the ear. I picked up their 10 Gold Bars compilation album on used vinyl for 50p last year and that is the sum total of my Quo collection. But, when offered some free tickets I had little hesitation in saying yes. A band to see some time, surely, even if it was a bit of a trek – we made a 5-day holiday out of it.
I did see Francis Rossi at an interesting evening chat show at Poole Lighthouse (Theatre) a couple of years ago – he is an amusing raconteur and he has a lot of material- but this was my belated Quo debut. Some would say too late, especially given the death of Rossi’s partner in song and guitar, Rick Parfitt, in 2016. But the band still has history. Guitarist and keyboardist Andy Brown has been in the band since 1981 and bassist John Edwards has been with them since 1985.
Swansea Arena – a new one on me
The Swansea Arena opened in 2022. I am impressed. Perhaps the very word ‘arena’ makes me shudder a little – it smacks of all the wrong things about big gig, big business. This is no ‘arena’, it’s more a giant lounge. The maximum capacity is 3,500 when some standing – it’s all seats tonight (not that anyone down on the flat floor sits for Quo). More a Hammersmith Apollo or Plymouth Pavilions scale. I’d rename it.
Approached from the city centre by a gold bridge that everyone’s clearly quite proud off, it has a statement gold exterior.
Inside the bar areas in the concourses have goldie lookin’ chains (sorry!), hanging in patterns. It’s spacious. I don’t find dreadful queues.
You can see from the photo below of support act, blues guitarist, Laurence Jones, that the stage front (front stalls on the flat) has an almost cosy feel for anything called an arena. The auditorium is not much wider than the stage. There are small, quite exclusive balconies each side, but where the room finds its capacity is from the bank of seats that goes beyond the rear stalls and on, up and up to the front and rear circle. It really goes up and steeply back a long way. What this means, I presume, is that for smaller shows the back sections can be blacked out and/or curtained off so that the place still looks full, even with half the crowd.
Considering I haven’t heard a thing by Laurence Jones, this really does the job. Loud, blues, guitar.
Status Quo tonight
The Quo open with Caroline. Immediately recognisable, even by me, and the whole of the seated flat section at the front rise up, and there they remain, heads a banging (a particularly hairy bloke continues to catch my eye down front right), and some just lolling from side to side. Good effort given that the audience is largely… well bloody old. I feel more youthful tonight in this company. The sloped seating must be an Everest to some, limping and clutching rails as they make their ascent….then down and back many times to use the facilities. Fair play – loyal fans – rock on.
Rossi says good evening and remarks on his own age, an age he escalates through the evening to nearer the truth of his 75 years.
It’s easy listening heavy – their distinctive full guitar sound, through the bank of beautiful looking Marshall amps and speakers, is loud but not excessive. My ears ride the storm without protection, maybe unwisely. The Quo are not so heavy – blues and pub rock – and almost Chas and Dave with guitars at times.
I’m not that familiar with the early songs – everyone else seems to be – but then an enormous non-stop medley, consisting of eight songs, including What You’re Proposing (can’t get that out of my head); Again and Again and Wild Side of Life. What a blitz of Quo classics.
Things slow a little for In The Army Now and another singalong chance. (Another one I didn’t realise was a cover.)
Rossi and the band really keep moving, playing together in a group and in pairs and I presume it was Andy Brown switching between keyboards and guitar. Rossi goes to face the drummer at regular intervals. He and the band all look slim and fit, as I sit lazily in my seat, with a very good view of it all.
Then the show comes in to land with the best known songs: Down Down; Whatever You Want and best of all – yes this is what I came for – Rockin’ All Over The World. I can visualise the Top of the Pops appearances to these. Well I got there in the end, thanks to my gig buddy’s spare tickets.
Keep rocking…all over the World.
Gigs with Ivan 