february 25th extract-status quo

Status Quo-Down Down

The Hindustan Ambassador is a car manufactured in India by Hindustan Motors. It has been in production since 1958 with very few modifications or changes and is based on the Morris Oxford III which itself was made in the U.K. between 1955 and 1959. The only major change since production started in 1958 was been the design of the front grille. You can see where this is going.

Status Quo. Status Quo? How on earth did this end up on the iPod? I don’t ever remember downloading this or ever buying any Status Quo track. Even if I had, would I admit it?

Status Quo (hereafter referred to in the correct parlance, as “the Quo”) seem to be a particularly British phenomenon. Whist they have that obviously reductive blues/60’s r & b sound i.e.  American I cannot think of any group from the U.S. that is analogous to the Quo. Possibly ZZ Top come sort of close but they are a bit more arch and knowing. Status Quo, sorry ,the Quo, just do what they do-no more and no less.

Looking on the internet, they’ve had 60 hits on the U.K. charts and over 22 in the Top Ten. They also seem to have done well in Northern Europe as well-Scandanavia, Germany, Belgium etc. New Zealand and Australia love them equally. In the U.S. their only ever chart hit was “Pictures of Matchstick Men”-their first ever single from 1968. In America they must be some sort of one hit wonder/novelty act. That’s the Americans loss and our gain.

The Quo seem to occupy a strange position- both rock music with a capital R and classic rock with a capital C but they are not classic “Classic Rock”. But they are so popular as well. So pop music then. But not really “pop”. Let’s just say classic rock pop. Or popular rock. Or classic pop rock. That’s the best description. Classic Pop Rock- or CPR if you prefer acronyms.

I don’t think that the Quo would ever inhabit a landscape where they could be considered “cool”. They may have, at some time in their past, but not now. Whereas there are some bands that sometimes are out of fashion who can surprisingly become rehabilitated, feted by the cognoscenti gaining a hip kitsch appeal before fading away again, I cannot perceive the Quo going down that route. They are too well grounded in that middle ground. I wouldn’t wish that on them and I don’t think that they’d look for it either.

What is staggering is that they have been around for so long and have remained doing the same sort of thing, year in, year out ,for decades. You know exactly what you are going to get with the Quo.  Denim, ponytails and shuffley rock and roll. Nothing will come as a surprise. But they are so enduringly popular-tour after tour sells out and although the hits are sort of drying up a bit, I wouldn’t ever discount them getting yet another top ten in the future. They’re always good for a tv appearance as well-usually some Saturday night show  on ITV at 8.30 -not too late night, lets keep it popular-when they come on to promote their latest single. Mustn’t forget their appearance as Les Battersby’s favourite band in Coronation Street-this wasn’t a fleeting visit either; they stuck around for a bit of a storyline and gamely played the game .That’s what they do.

I don’t know of anyone who dislikes the Quo. You may not actively love them but it’s impossible to to dislike them. On those multiple choice surveys where you are asked to rank things in preference, on a scale of 1 being “very positive feelings” to 3 being “no strong feelings” to 5 being “actively strongly cannot see anything redeeming” (or something like that) ,the Quo would only have boxes 1 to 3 .There’d be no point in wasting the ink to print boxes 4 and 5 because nobody would ever tick them.