To anyone who grew up in the UK in the seventies with an interest in Rock music Status Quo were legends. Maybe the most ‘British’ of all bands of that era the sound they made was quintessentially ‘English’ – as English as cricket, or a quiet pint down the pub, and their denim-clad fans propelled them to the Top of the charts ‘Again and Again’ (sorry about that I couldn’t resist). To some it all started to go downhill when John Coghlan left in 1981 (the worst day of his life according to my Uncle) and when his partner in crime Alan Lancaster left in 1985 the magic rhythm section was no more. Quo after that just weren’t my cup of tea anymore.
The great news for vintage Quo fans is that original member John Coghlan is coming down under with his band to treat us to those seventies songs that made Status Quo great. It’s cold back in England when we speak…
Mark: Hi John, how are you?
John: (sighs) well England at the moment is grey, raining and miserable mate!
Mark: (laughs) I know what that fees like I was born in January, it never snowed at Christmas but always did on my birthday.
John: (laughs) I bet it’s nice there
Mark: It’s only about 30 or so, so getting there! You start off the tour over here in the West of course and in February we should be able to put on some very nice weather.
John: That would be good mate, because we miss it! I’m so excited to be coming out in February, it should be fun.
Mark: It should be and it’s always welcome when you hear about a tour like this. An interesting double bill though with the guys from the Ted Mulray gang, how did that come about?
John: I really don’t know we originally hot a call a few months ago from the promoter asking if we could come out in October (2018) but I thought it was too soon, so I said what about next year – February, March. He said he’d put something together and I was quite surprised it came round so quick. I mean the last time I was in Australia was when I played with The Party Boys and Alan Lancaster (Quo’s original bassist) and that was in Fremantle near Perth at the concert unveiling the Bon Scott statue. I think I played about three or four numbers with the Party Boys or something like that, it was really good fun.
Mark: That’s great, I remember that show, will you be catching up with Alan again when you’re over?
John: Yes, I spoke to Alan, we talk quite a lot on the phone and as you know he lives in Sydney, he’s been there many, many years and I said to him if we come out and play near Sydney are you going to get up? And he sounded really keen on maybe doing one or two gigs with us.
Mark: That would be great, and that would we the first time since those original line-up shows with Quo back in 2014?
John: Yes, and Alan also did come over, every year there’s a thing called the ‘Quo Convention’ and there’s a lot of bands that play Quo stuff and then there was me and Bob Young and they flew Alan Lancaster over from Sydney. We played and stayed down in Minehead in the Butlins where we first met Rick Parfitt many, many years ago. Rick Parfitt’s son who has his own band also got up and played. It’s always nice to see Alan, and when the tour finishes me and Gillie will stay on a few days and stay with Alan before we head off back to the UK.
Mark: It’s always nice in Sydney, I lived there for many years before heading west. Status Quo always held such great memories for me, one of the first live shows I ever saw was on the ‘Never Too Late’ tour, I loved all those 70’s releases and your first ‘Live’ album has to be one of the all-time great live records. You were with the band so many years you must have some great memories, can you highlight a few for us?
John: Well it’s difficult to answer a question like what is your favourite album, or your favourite song, because as I’ve told people many times, we made so many recordings, we did so much that I’m proud of. I often say speak to a Quo fan and you’ll get a dozen different answers as to what is the best. But there’s so much I love t play and you get used to playing all those songs, well not all of them as you’d be on stage 4 or 5 hours! (laughs) ‘Mystery Song’ was always one of my favourites that Rick sang. There’s so much, ‘Living on an Island’ was quite different and another that Rick sang. But I’m not sure about albums, I know a lot of the Quo fans like ‘Piledriver’; ‘Hello’; ‘Blue for You’ but you just get immersed in the songs and there are even some that you’ve forgotten about! I’ve sat there at times wondering how a song goes and not remembering doing this and that! And there was plenty of stuff that was recorded but never played out on stage or even heard on the radio. But I’m pleased to say that our band play all the 70’s and of course we only play what I recorded and I think that’s quite fair and the right way to go. I mean you won’t hear ‘In the Army Now’ or ‘Margarita Time’…
Mark: (laughs)
John: I didn’t record those and a lot of fans don’t like those.
Mark: My Uncle once told me that the day you left the band was the worst day of his life the beginning of the end! I’m not sure if he was being over dramatic but I know my interest in Quo started to wane then too.
John: (laughs) I guess when Alan Lancaster left after me in I think it was ’85 then the rhythm section changes, Rhino doesn’t play the bass like Alan Lancaster and the drummers don’t play the drums the way I play them on the records I don’t think. That’s what’s different really because when you change the rhythm section it will be different. If you can imagine replacing Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr back in those days it wouldn’t be the same.
Mark: It’s a sound that you all created and I think people underestimate that. One of the things I really wanted to ask you is what got you started in the first place? Why the drums and why a career as a musician?
John: I think it was really that my parents were ballroom dancers, they used to take me on a Friday or Saturday night to the Crystal Palace Hotel and I used to sit in the corner watching the band play. It was a dance band you know with saxophones, trumpets and double-bass and I thought at first I’d take up the bass but then I thought I’d rather play drums as the drummer gets the seat every night at the gig! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
John: So I learnt to play, I taught myself, I had a few lessons, but really I taught myself. The interesting thing is I’m left-handed, I write with my left hand, I drink my beer with my left hand but I play drums right-handed and it’s purely because in my day I didn’t really see any left-handed drummers. There’s people like Phil Collins now who set up left-handed but I forced myself to play the other way and purely because I didn’t think I should play left-handed. But anyway, now I’ve learnt to drink beer with both hands! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs) I was going to point that out that you could do that with both hands in emergencies if you needed to! You’ll need that when you get down here too!
John: (laughs)
Mark: One of my mate’s Dad’s prize possessions is a copy of a single you were involved in ‘We are the Boys’ that you did with Roy Wood, Phil Lynott and Chas from Chas and Dave.
John: Oh yeah! I got a call from this Dutch producer that I knew and he said would you like to play drums with this band, that was really never a band that was being put together to do gigs, it was just a one-off you know. I think Roy was busy, I was busy, anyway we recorded it and the only think I couldn’t do was be on the video because I think I was away playing somewhere so I think Bev Bevan (ELO, The Move) sat in on the video. It was just one of those things, but also the ‘Diesel’ album is out now, it took a helluva long time to get it out of Sweden from whomever owned it or something but it’s out there now if people are interested. It’s got Micky Moody on it, there’s so many musicians playing on it we could be on the phone for another hour just listing who was on it.
Mark: That’s great, it was one of those albums I heard of growing up but because back in those days there was no internet and you just had the music papers it was hard to know what really happened with ‘Diesel’ – what did happen?
John: Well really it was a band that was never gonna be a permanent band because all of the musicians had other gigs. Rick and Alan are on it as well because CD 1 is the studio album and CD 2 is ‘live at the Marquee’ and that has them jamming next to Micky Moody, Neil Murray, Phil May from The Pretty Things, Ray Minhinnett, Jackie Lynton, Lemmy, John Gustafson and Chrissie Stewart, I could go on forever. It was just fun, and it’s one of those things you might want to put together again but you always find that those musicians you really want to play on it are doing other things, so you ring around and see who’s free.
Mark: I’ll definitely check that out. What music moves you john and has it changed over the years?
John: Well I must admit I don’t listen to as much music as I used to. I find that radio especially in England is only playing the kid’s stuff now, and I don’t mind saying its crap. My wife heard some the other day and said it was like ‘suicide music’ fucking awful, you know. Then there’s this DJ in England called Johnny Walker I think he’s on on Sundays who plays all this seventies stuff and its really good. I always said they were the bands that could really play their instruments not like someone who sits in front of a computer and calls themselves a musician. Us old boys, we don’t like that, or that karaoke pop music.
Mark: They certainly don’t make them like they used to. If you could have been a fly on the wall in the studio to witness the creation of any great album of the past. What would it have been for you, what would you have liked to have seen being put together?
John: There’s loads, but without a doubt I would have loved to have sat in watching Led Zeppelin, watching John Bonham would have been great. But also watching people like Brain Bennett from the Shadows, remember Cliff Richard and The Shadows?
Mark: Yes, my mother made sure of that.
John: Or wow, imagine sitting in the studio watching Elvis Presley! Stuff like that, some of those great musicians he had in the studio. But I’d love to have seen a lot of Soul music as well from America, Aretha Franklin, it would have been superb mate, just watching those musicians she had, they got some great drum sounds: they had this kit in the studio for years and it looks really rough and you think oh my God what’s that, but you play it and record it and it just sounds great – it’s little stories like that that inspire me. Young kids today could learn a lot by watching and listening to some of these greats.
Mark: All great moments and Elvis in Sun Studios I think that would have done it for me.
John: Oh yes.
Mark: So getting back to your visit, how are you looking at putting a setlist together? As you said you played on an awful lot of Quo material. Loads of great albums. Did you ever fight back in the day over what you’d be playing? What would make it and what wouldn’t?
John: I think we all probably had our favourite songs and I know we’d disagree on some but I think we all knew what would be good on stage and what went down well. I always liked it when we’d play album tracks and the audience would love it. I think the key is that you need to change it now and again and put new stuff in.
Mark: And now you get to pick the entire setlist is it a mixture of your favourites and the hits? Maybe a few deeper cuts? How do you approach it?
John: Well I’ll tell you what we do – we do ‘In My Chair’ from 1970, we do ‘Paper Plane’ sometimes we do ‘Gerundula’, we play ‘Caroline’ and ‘Break the Riles’, ‘Down Down’, ‘Roll Over Lay Down’, ‘Rain’, ‘Rockin’ All Over the World’, ‘Pictures of Matchstick Men’ our first hit in 1968 and that always goes down really well, our version is extended it goes a bit longer with some good solos and stuff in there. I have fond memories of that – from our first time on Top of The Pops.
Mark: I think one of my favourites especially the live version was ‘Roll Over Lay Down’ which I think was one of those rare Quo songs that everyone had a hand in writing?
John: Yeah, we all wrote that and if you get to a show we’ll be playing that for you! Definitely!
Mark: You start the tour in the West kicking off in Mandurah just south of Perth and then up at The Astor a great old Theatre in Perth with a great sound – it should be a great tour and hopefully we’ll see a few denims out there in the crowds.
John: That would be nice.
Mark: There’s just one final question to ask, the easy one we close every interview with: “What is the meaning of life”?
John: “What is the meaning of life?” (laughs) Bloody hell! I don’t know the meaning of life is to enjoy it as much as you can and behave yourself!
Mark: I think we can all live by that. I’m really looking forward to seeing you down here, really looking forward to that hour of Quo and I think Australian audiences are in for a real treat from one side of the Country to the other and it’s great to see you playing places like Mandurah and Tasmania.
John: We’re all looking forward to it, and hopefully we can do some meet and greets when we’re over like we do in the UK. It’s great to meet the fans and it means a lot to me.
Mark: I really, really appreciate you taking the time to talk to The Rockpit today John
John: It’s a pleasure mate and we hope to see you when we get there and we’ll do a live interview if you’re up for it?
Mark: It’s a deal, we’ll set that up for you. Take care. Bye.
John: Thanks mate, bye.
LOOK OUT FOR OUR LIVE INTERVIEW WITH JOHN COMING FEBRUARY
