One of the music industry’s great mysteries is the fact that British boogie-rockers Status Quo never broke the United States. They had the songs, they had charismatic characters and, contrary to popular opinion, they have varied their style quite a lot between 1967 (when the band then known as The Status Quo came into existence) and the present.
There are theories. Some say that there were already bands of a similar type wowing American audiences, including Creedence Clearwater Revival and Grand Funk Railroad. Others say that Quo’s look was “too British.”
The good news is that it’s not too late to discover them (although beloved longtime member Rick Parfitt passed away in 2016), and we’d encourage all our readers to deep-dive into Quo’s extensive catalog. Meanwhile, singer and guitarist Francis Rossi has stretched out a little with new solo album The Accidental.
The most recent Quo album is 2019’s Backbone, and Rossi has since said that it will be the last full-lengther from the band due in part to the costs involved nowadays. “People say you shouldn’t mention that,” Rossi says. “I’m going to. I mean, I’d rather make money but as long as I don’t lose, I’m happy.”
After spending a few days in the studio with producer Andy Brook, Rossi found that his creative juices were flowing again, some creative excitement had returned, and he was ready to record something new.
“I came back to the wife and said, ‘God, I so enjoyed that,’” Rossi says. “I had a kind of realization that it’s one of the things I’ve enjoyed over the years. The idea of structuring songs, and even more so now with computers. My generation says that they miss the days of multitrack. Oh yeah, you don’t miss how much it costs you for so many reels. So anyway, I enjoyed doing it so much.”
Part of the appeal for a solo album is having total control over the music. “I’m used to being in a democratic outfit, which I don’t really believe in,” he says. “I believe in democracy, but it doesn’t really work in many scenarios. And I’d have to do two of [one member’s] songs, two of his songs, or whatever else. And there were certain people who, over the years, would only bring two. So there was no fucking choice, and there was no quality control. So I realized I didn’t have to do that.”
That’s telling, the fact that Rossi feels that some Quo records were let down by a “too many cooks, not enough good broth” approach. It’s understandable, then, that the creation of this solo album was a freeing experience for him.
“I realized that a lot of the songs I’ve done with everyone else, it doesn’t mean I think they’re all shit, or that any of them are shit,” Rossi says. “In our political state of the world these days, the thought police are telling you how to think and feel. With the band, I did these things that I probably wouldn’t have done. We did, years ago, decide we were going to have quality control, and we never actually did. There are things about Quo I thought were great, but to assume that everything we did was wonderful, it’s far from the truth, and that applies to nearly every band on the bloody planet. Great stuff guys, but Christ there’s some shit on that album.”
Rossi says that his working relationship with Andy Brook blossomed on this record. “I enjoy working with Andrew a lot,” he says. “Working with Andy Brook, we both have the same aim. I’m sure people have said this before with me, but the aim changes, or the position changes. We just go, ‘Well, look at it again tomorrow.’ And then, ‘No, I don’t like that. Change that for me.’ And he’ll try. He won’t argue, I don’t think. And then I go back, ‘sorry, you were right,’ or I’ll ask him his opinion. So I feel very much at home, working with him.”
Rossi also worked with guitarist Hiran Ilangantileke on this album, who he met through his son.
“It’s happened so bloody late in my life,” Rossi says. “I’ve known Hiran since he was 12 or 13. He’s been around the house many, many times since he was young. And he’s a stunning guitar player, if a little too stunning, you know what I mean? I’ve always liked his company. I get on very well with him. We love talking politics and just general life.”
Ilangantileke suggested to Rossi that they write together, jam together, with no new initial view to making a record. But, as the title suggests, something happened by happy accident.
“All those things just fell into place,” Rossi says. “You lay a sketch to get the format, and sometimes change the format around."
As for gear: “I took a camper out on tour after being told not to, and I recorded this little baby Vox in my bedroom,” Rossi says. “There are so many presets that are really good. And we tend to use a box. It’s in the box, so to speak, and we use Logic. And I quite like that, because you can leave it in MIDI. I might have used the AC 30 in the room, I don’t know, but generally the box, or my Kemper came out, and we might have used a four or 12 here or there, but generally, most of the stuff is kind of against the grain for someone of my age.”
