"ROCKIN' ALL OVER THE YEARS" - Status Quo in the year 1970

 german Cover of the Status Quo Single 'Down the dustpipe'  The first black and white poster in german's youth mag BRAVO 1970  Marquee poster 1970

concerts, publications, charts, infos

The year 1970 - it was the year of the splits and loss: the Beatles split. Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin died. And for Status Quo it was a difficult year. Their before successful music was out, the music went away from beat- and pop-singles. More and more bands were in the spotlight which basically tried to record good albums. Such as Led Zeppelin, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd. Status Quo continued with their new musical change into bluesier rockier songs and the boogie-sound for whom they were later known. And with 2 single releases and a new album they proved their new direction as well. With a new audience who loved their music and especially their live-performances they began to build up a new reputation. Again gig dates are missing. It's written that in Hereford "gerdundula" was first performed live, but the date of the show is missing. Dave Oxley mentioned a 2 week stay in Germany from Nov. 19 onwards, but nothing known so far. All known shows of 1970: ...more
Pictures: Single-Cover "Down the dustpipe" (Germany) - first poster in the german youth mag BRAVO (black/white) 1970 and the Marquee poster with the ad for Quo's second appearance Oct. 16, 1970. (Marquee poster from the "Marmelade Skies" website)

Chronological:

  • February 1970: The Doors released the album "Morrison Hotel" which included the song "Roadhouse Blues" later covered by Status Quo.
  • 06.03.1970: the first single release "Down the Dustpipe". A song written by A. Groszman, a songwriter for Valley Music. This song very much describes the new style. A total turn-over of the earlier music. A song who only achieved chart-success because of the "mouth to mouth" propaganda of their fans. He rarely was played in the radio stations. So the single made its way through the charts and eventually reached No.12 in May and spent a total of 17 weeks in the charts. The B-Side was the Rossi Parfitt-Song "Face without a soul". By the way: this B-Side was issued as A-Side single in Argentina.
  • 19.03.1970: an important meeting for Quo was the show in London's College of 'Fashion when the band were introduced to Colin Johnson who worked in music business. Colin soon recognized the potential of the band. Soon he beamce the "Booking Agent" of Status Quo and signed a lot of performances for the band. Later he became manager of Status Quo.
  • 28.05.1970: the song "Down the dustpipe" was played in the "Top of the Pops" show. Moderator: Tony Blackburn.
  • 11.06.1970: Status Quo with a performance in "Top of the Pops" with "Down the dustpipe". Moderator: Tony Blackburn.
  • 25.07.1970: Status Quo played the first time in the famous Marquee Club, London. Almost every day bands were playing live at the Marquee Club. The "Who's who" of the music scene played their.
  • August 1970: Album release "Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon". The album featured 11 songs, with 9 self-penned songs. The song "Lazy Poker Blues" - originally recorded from Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac and it can be heard on the album "Mr.Wonderful" (1968). The 2. cover-song is the more known song; "Junior's Wailing" originally written by Steamhammer was a long-time opener for Quo's shows throughout the 70'ies. It can be heard on the Quo-EP "Roll over lay down" and on the Live-Album "Live '77".
  • 26.09.1970: performance at the german beat-club with 2 songs "Spinning Wheel Blues" and "April (Summer) Spring and Wednesdays".
  • September 1970: Status Quo played at the Granada studios out of the series "Doing their thing". In the 1-hour-set sometimes even 6 band members were playing - featuring Rick Parfitt, Francis Rossi, John Coghlan, Alan Lancaster, Roy Lynes and Bob Young. It was one of the last shows with Roy Lynes. The keyboards were displaced more and more from the guitar-work and Roy Lynes was disillusoned with it. After the first shows worked with only 4 members in the band, they decided to go on without keyboards.
  • 16.10.1970: another Status Quo appearance at the famous Marquee Club.
  • October 1970: single release "In my chair" (Rossi/Young"). With this blues song Status Quo once again in the charts. A respectable No.21 was the highest position. The B-Side became "Gerdundula" (Manston/James). For copyright reasons they had to use pseudonyms. The name Gerdundula included 2 german fans who travelled around with the band; Gerd und Ula. (combined with the german word "und" which is "and" in english = Gerdundula). The song itself was written in Bielefeld, where the band stayed on their trips to Germany.
  • 22.10.1970: Status Quo in the "Top of the Pops" with the song "In my chair". Moderator: Jimmy Saville.
  • 19.11.1970: once again in "Top of the Pops", with the repeat performance of the october-performance. (from this date on the band was expected to do a 2-week concert-tour in Germany.)

    Discography 1970:

  • Single: Down the dustpipe (Groszman) / Face without a soul (Rossi/Parfitt) Cat.No.: PYE 7N 17907
  • Single: In my chair (Rossi / Young) / Gerdundula (Manston/James) Cat.No.: PYE 7N 17998
  • LP: Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon Cat.No.: PYE NSPL 18344 (Cassette: ZCP18344) (8-track: Y8P18344)

    Charts 1970:

  • Down the dustpipe No.12 (UK)
  • In my chair No.21 (UK)

    Miscellaneous:
    1. the Beatles: the most famous beat group announced their split-up.
    2. September 19780: Jimmy Hendrix was found death. He was the successfulst and best e-guitar player at the time. His myth still lives on.
    3. 2 weeks later on October 4, the american blues-singer Janis Joplin died because of too much drugs. The american blues-singer was very successful and she influenced the blues- and rockmusic.
    4.Hits of the year in UK:
    Singles: 1. The wonder of you (Elvis Presley) 2. I hear you knockin (Dave Edmunds) 3. In the summertime (Mungo Jerry)
    Albums: 1. Bridge over troubled water (Simon & Garfunkel) 2. Let it bleed (Rolling Stones) 3. Andy Williams "Greatest Hits" (Andy Williams)
    5. Football: english champion was FC Everton, in Scotland Celtic won the championship.
    6. Films of the year 1970: "Airport" - "Aristocats" - "Love Story" - "M*A*S*H"..