Status Quo opened the UK Live Aid concert. The story goes that they had all but broken up, but Bob Geldof wanted them to commit to playing at Live Aid.
In fact the problem that Bob had was getting most people to agree to play at Live Aid. He’d announced the Live Aid concert and only had a few months to arrange it. None of the big artists were keen to do it originally so Bob had a bit of work to do. Once Bowie and Jagger said they were in, then others followed.
Status Quo were given the opening spot at the Wembley gig, coming on in the early afternoon.
I remember watching them at home – here in Australia it was later at night and I was 16 years old. I planned on staying up for most of the weekend to see the whole show – both the UK and US parts of it.
Being a guitar player, I’d played a few Status Quo songs (in fact they’re all much the same!) and even had a couple of their albums.
It was great seeing them live on stage – remember, this was pre-internet and YouTube so the only way we got to see footage of these bands playing was on TV.
The Status Quo guys played a great set that was received well by the enthusiastic crowd. Many people who reported on Live Aid said that Status Quo really set the tone for the whole day.
Of course, the Quo are still going (which is great to see). Here in Australia, they feature in commercials for Coles supermarkets with their ‘Down, Down’ ads. I guess they’re still living the dream!
If you want to see something funny, try watching the video without sound. It looks kind of weird!
And here the guys are making a quid in more recent days.