Francis Rossi on stage in Germany (Image: ullstein bild via Getty Images)
From discovering an album at a dope dealer’s house to getting annoyed with Britain’s biggest band for being more concerned about their image than the music, Status Quo’s frontman Francis Rossi certainly doesn’t hold back when it comes to discussing his top ten favourite and most influential albums.
He reveals why the Rolling Stones annoy him, names the guitarist whose onstage farewell he copied, and reveals the band “who should have been drowned at birth”
The 75-year-old rocker from south-east London and son of an Italian ice-cream merchant, certainly knows what he likes to listen to after more than half a century in the music business. Here are his top ten albums as , in the order they were released.
1. The Rolling Stones – The Rolling Stones (1964)
He said: “It’s their really early shit that I was into. This was the band’s first album, and it really appealed to me because besides their own stuff they did R&B songs by Chuck Berry (Carol) and Willie Dixon (I Just Want To Make Love To You).
“In those days they were still really earthy, they didn’t have such a thing about being – cue the fanfare – The Rolling Stones. But in their last 20 years their image has overtaken them, and it really gets on my tits.”
Mick Jagger on stage during The Rolling Stones recent Hackney Diamonds tour (Image: Getty Images for RS)
2. The Beatles – Revolver (1966)
“It used to freak me out when people said that George Harrison couldn’t sing or write. I mean, for f*** sake. The Beatles affected my life, and everybody else’s in the world. Revolver was where they really settled down and became a rock act, as opposed to a pop one.”
3. Chicken Shack – OK, Ken? (1969)
“We played a lot with them during Status Quo’s big change-over [from pop to boogie-rock]. We’d be wishing we could play music like our soundchecks, and sit on the side of the stage with a joint watching bands like Chicken Shack or Fleetwood Mac. F***ing lovely. When he wasn’t drunk, Stan [Webb] was a great guitar player. We used to travel between gigs in a Bentley, and listen to Chicken Shack for days at a time.”
4. Taste – On The Boards (1970)
“He’s Irish, but for the sake of this story let’s just pretend he lived in the North [of England]. Rory Gallagher could do no wrong with me. I knew him rather well and, funnily enough, he always used to ask how my Telecaster was. Odd fella.
“Musically, Rory had a profound effect on me. We were playing together somewhere in Europe, and I remember watching him and thinking: ‘Shit, how can he be that good?’ He used to say: ‘Thank you, g’night’, which I’ve copied ever since.”
5. Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy (1973)
“I was mad for this when everyone else was saying they’d lost it. I wish I could’ve lost it like that. When I heard D’Yer Maker, on side 2, I thought what b******s they were – how could they be that good? I loved Side 2 so much that, for some reason, I completely blanked Side 1 until very recently, when I heard something from it on Radio 2. I had to dig the thing out again.”
6. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (1977)
“There’s some English people in the band, so I hope I can get away with this one. I heard it for the first time at a dope dealer’s house one night, and knew right away it was a musical benchmark.”
7. Charlie Dore – Where to Now (1979)
“It has that great song Pilot Of The Airwaves. She’s the fantastic writer and singer that did Jam Side Down [recorded by Quo on the Heavy Traffic album]. I was playing my cassette of that album in a hotel in Switzerland, and the woman that cleaned the room nicked it. I never got it again.”
8. Jeff Lynne – Armchair Theatre (1990)
“His first solo album. I knew Jeff when he was around 16, and you just couldn’t touch him; he could do anything. I’ve got all the Electric Light Orchestra stuff, and I can never understand why people say it’s hammy. Armchair Theatre is a unique album. It has a lovely drum sound.”
9. Electric Light Orchestra – Zoom (2000)
“Jeff Lynne released it as ELO when he got the name back. Like everyone else, I thought: ‘Oh no’ when I heard he was using [the ELO name] again. But I bought it, and played it on the bus one night, and thought: ‘You talented b******’. I played it to my writing partner, Bob [Young], and within two or three tracks he looked at me and said it was a ridiculously good album.”
10. Muse – Absolution (2003)
“I still think of Muse as being a pretty new band, but apparently they’ve existed for more than 10 years. This was their third album, and it has my favourite song of theirs, Stockholm Syndrome. It’s great that the guitarist [Matt Bellamy] has mastered how to use his harmoniser. They’re a band that really thinks about what they do. They should have been drowned at birth.”