STATUS QUO – The Frantic Four Reunion – CD review

STATUS QUO
The Frantic Four Reunion
Fourth Chord

Has there ever been a major band who have had two different, official line ups touring and releasing records at the same time? I suspect not, as it’s usually legal shenanigans that result in alternate groups competing on the chicken in a basket circuit. But not the Quo. Nope, Rhino and the drummer got to have some time off, while Spud and Bomber returned for the first time in 30 years. But even as the Quo gird themselves for their annual Christmas tour with Rhino and the drummer, the Spud / Bomber lineup have announced a second run of shows for 2014. It’s madness, I tell you, madness.

But here’s the result of the first round of Frantic Four shows, which is out in a hundred different formats. But I’m a poor boy, so it’s the vanilla CD version for me. And they’re not hanging around as Bomber leads them off into ‘Junior’s Wailing’ and ‘Backwater’. He sounds a bit ropy, but it’s good to hear him leading from the front.

They’ve used their 1976 “Live” album as the template for these shows, and there will be many a denim clad pensioner weeping with joy as they clatter their way through tunes like ‘Rain’, ‘Most Of The Time’ and ’Forty-Five Hundred Times’. There would be even more tears at the sounds of long lost numbers like ‘ Blue Eyed Baby’ and ‘(April) Spring, Summer and Wednesdays’ bouncing off the walls.

There are a few duff notes here and there, but it’s a live, unvarnished album that serves as a reminder of why people like me love The Status Quo. As I mentioned there are several hundred versions including vinyl release, a live DVD /Blu Ray recorded at Wembley, and a 120 page earBOOK which contains the DVD and live recordings all in one package. So let’s rawk!

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