State of Quo, The Beeches - 23rd Feb.
The Beeches.
On the day of the gig, I waited as patiently as I could, for Mark and Kara to
pick me up, and after getting a little lost, and looking in the A to Z several
times we found the venue. Upon entering we said our hello`s to Sue and Dave, Kim Queen Of Quo
and of course the band members. At just after 3.00 o`clock the band hit the stage,
they were half way through a cracking set, when they got interrupted by the geezer
with his card trick, that kind of spoilt the momentum a bit.
But State Of Quo soon put that right, blasting back into a great set of old
Quo classics, upon playing the crowd pleaser `Rockin` All Over The World'
the rest of the punters in the pub, suddenly came to life, and gave State Of
Quo their biggest cheer of the afternoon.
I happy to say myself, Mark and Kara went home with smiles on our faces,
as we knew we had just witnessed something special.
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Gigs - the story.
State of Quo, The Limelight - 9th Nov 2002.
This was our first SOQ gig.
We first heard about SOQ from Rhinos log. He mentioned them playing at The Band On The Wall in
Manchester and remarked how good they were. So I went to their website and noticed they were playing
the Limelight in Crewe that week. I made some enquiries and was told you could just turn up on the
night. So we did. £7 to get in. We had to queue up outside the hall in a sort of “anti” room.
We got in and went straight down to the front, we hadn’t got a clue what to expect. What we saw over
the next three hours shocked us so much… 4 lads up on stage, Paul Carr, Mike Grady, Dave Owen, Graham Peters -
This was State of Quo.
We didn’t know their names- we didn’t particularly care at this stage as we had both gone expecting them to
be passable at best and down right awful at worst. They opened with Juniors Wailing and just played track
after track of our favourite Quo tunes. But they didn’t just play them- they PLAYED THEM as near to SQ as you
could have possibly imagined. If you shut your eyes, you could just imagine it was 1974. Dave and I just kept
staring at each other in absolute disbelief at what we had found. I think we grinned for the full three hours.
The atmosphere was electric and everyone was up and rocking. When I looked on the internet site for SOQ I noticed
that John Coghlan played on drums sometimes but we were informed that he wouldn’t be this evening and we were
slightly disappointed but Dave Owen the drummer was amazing and we were definitely not disappointed!
The three hours flew by far too quickly and soon we were wending our way home buzzing. The next day neither
of us could move our necks and couldn’t hear for days. 10,000 Watts!!! I ask you. The next day I went back
to the website and put a comment on the guestbook about how good they were. We also had to find out where they
were playing next and we were in luck, the very next week they were playing.....
Cuban Nigts, Macclesfield, 16th November 2002.
Just round the corner, excellent. We couldn’t wait so see them again and we arrived early £3 to get in and we
were early enough to see the lads doing their sound checks. Dave saw Paul (Rick Parfitt) at the bar and decided
to go over to him and tell him how impressed we were with the gig in Crewe. The place was fairly quiet, not
at all like the Crewe venue. We felt so disappointed for them, we wanted to go outside and drag people in from
the street and say, “OY! Come in here and listen to this!” As the pubs closed the place began to fill up a bit
more. It ended up quite busy. Paul even gave us a mention and said “There’s a couple in tonight who saw us at
Crewe last week” We thought that was really sweet. The bass guitarist Graham Peters even gave me his plectrum at
the end of the gig..The gig went too quickly again. We had made up our minds that we would see the band at every
opportunity we could and the next opportunity was.....
Manor Golf Club, Kearsley, 6th December 2002.
They were also playing the MOSES GATE in Bolton the next evening- so we decide to make an evening of it in sunny Bolton.
The Manor Golf Club was a bikers bash, £5 to get in. The function room was quite big and there must have been about 200
bikers there and their families. They had a disco raffle, male and female strippers and then eventually on came SOQ.
We enjoyed the gig although we were not close enough to the front for our liking, but Dave didn’t particularly feel
like asking a big butch biker twice his size,“Is there anyone sitting there?” The lads from the band sort of recognised
us and came over to have a little chat with us and thanked us for coming- but they said they weren’t too happy with
the sound. We didn’t even notice, to us it was better than not hearing Quo at all. We stopped over in the Bolton Travel
Lodge and the next day went to watch our beloved Man Utd play. We beat Liverpool 2-0, what a weekend we were having!
As they say, things can only get better, so onwards to.....
Moses Gates, Bolton, 7th December 2002.
We got slightly lost beforehand and didn’t get their til 8.30pm. it was £4 to get in.
Small pub venue- first time we'd seen the lads just performing on a sort of raised dais. We were inches
from the cabs. Boy was it noisy! They played so well and looked very comfortable with the venue, they seemed
to know everyone, and everyone seemed to know them! Played a good strong three hour set- lots of heavy stuff
off, Ma Kelly, Piledriver, Quo, Hello, excellent excellent stuff. Dave SOQ’s drummer had to dash off as he
had work the next day. My Dave helped him load his car! We stopped and had a chat to Mikey, Graham and Paul,
and told them how happy finding them had made us. But sadness of sadness, we were off to Florida for Xmas and
that was to be our last gig of the year. What on earth were we going to do now? How could we manage?
We checked the website and found that the next one was.....
Strettles of Preston, 4th January 2003.
We turned up to this event not knowing that it was “Lanky’s” (Pauls mate) private 40th birthday bash.
We were slightly embarrassed but made to feel welcome all the same. Small, quiet affair, with a proposal
from Pie-Eater being the highlight of the evening and the lads playing my request for Lazy Poker Blues which
Paul sings so well. Crawled home from that venue still being jetlagged from our travels.
Next one please!
St. Helens Labour Club, 18th January 2003.
--We’ve never been to St. Helens.
--We’ve never been in a Labour club before.
Something told us this one might be a bit ‘different’! We got off to a wonderful start following some
instructions from Multimap on the net, which clearly weren’t meant to deal with roadworks and diversions,
we ended up 15 mins into the set! Then, it seemed a bit strange that we only had to pay 50p each to get in.
it was a huge room and was packed full of about 300 people all seated at long trestle tables with three pints
each before them. The guys were playing Caroline- we could hear them in the car park. This was going to be a
new experience for us as we hadn’t seen the lads do a cabaret performance before, and the way it is done is
two 45 minute sets with a break in the middle. So by the time we’d got a pint in and found a seat they were saying,
“Ok, were having a break now, see you at 10.30pm!” WHAT! We were horrified! But don’t worry, that’s what its all
about. The people who go to these clubs on Saturday nights find a table, have a bit of a disco, listen to 45
minute of live entertainment, have a few games of bingo, play “ open t’box”, second lot of 45 minute live
entertainment then finish off with a bit more disco - it wasn’t really an SOQ gig as such, they weren’t
really Quo fans, nobody got up to dance, not even me. Until they played “Rocking All Over The World” and
”Whatever You Want” Yes, that’s what they’d come to hear, and so the floor filled.
Mikey kept saying, “I told you not to come, I told you not to come!” but Dave had already made a New Years
resolution not to miss a gig this year, so we went anyway. The next gig was at a lovely little place near
Daventry called.....
Woodford Halse Social Club, 25th January 2003.
Took us three and a half hours to get there and we got lost again. This one was a new venue for the band and
they didn’t know quite what to expect. The landlady had told us that this was an experiment, having tribute bands on,
to try to get more people to come to the club. It was £5 each to get in. Huge hall with seats all around the edge of a
large dance floor. Massive stage for the band to perform on, we could have taken our daughter Jess, who is 11- cos there
were children there and I don’t just mean 1 or 2, I mean 20 or 30. Took a while for the crowd to get warmed up, but the
lads were on fire and played so well! Long way to go for us, but for anyone who lives Birmingham way, if this gig comes
up again, which the manager has requested they go back again he was so impressed, you must attend and support this
fantastic band playing early Quo classics. Ma Kelly - Blue 4 You- that’s what this group is all about.
I think we got in at about 4am from this gig, so very tired. We made a decision- we were getting addicted and
it was starting to damage our health!! “ This cannot go on “, I said to Dave, New Years resolution or not, we have
to make a choice about the ‘far away’ gigs for us. The next gig on the list was Skegness Rock and Blues festival at
Butlins and J.C was playing- oh no! HELP! We really wanted to go to this one, but then the snow fell and the roads near
us became impassable. God works in mysterious ways, does he not! We stopped at home. We heard all about Skeggy from
the lads- they said it was superb. Two 45 minute slots in two venues on the site- big crowds, great lighting,
fantastic sound and a good time was had by all! Whereas we sat at home, played Quo music all night and got pissed!
Boo hoo! That brings me to the final gig that Dave and I have been to before deciding to log our story and send
it to our president for serialisation/the bin ”Whatever You Want”, to coin a phrase.
The Merry Hill Arena Pub, Wolverhampton, 8th February 2003.
Guess what? We got lost again. When we arrived it was about 8.45pm, the pub was packed, but the lads were having
trouble with the cabs on Pauls side. Tiny stage which Graham filled all by himself, and we were sitting so close
to them that we could see the hairs up Mikeys nose.
It was a bit cosy! Took my digicam though and got some
brilliant pictures. I have yet to get a really good photo of all 4 of them at the same time. Played all the hits,
Caroline, Down Down, Whatever You Want and Down t |
