The link between Dexys Midnight Runners and Status Quo?
Quo bass spanker played on 1985s Don’t Stand Me Down
(may not sound that unlikely, but I though it interesting)
Stuff I Learnt Today – More From the “I Never Knew That” File
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and on the subject of Don’t Stand Me Down, the album also features keyboarding input from former Crazy World Of Arthur Brown bloke Vincent Crane. He was born in Reading.
Why is that interesting? Because it means this sleepy humdrum town in Berkshire can now add another to it’s list of famous sons after Mike Oldfield, Ricky Gervais, Nasty Nick Cotton, Mr Tumble, and me.
My office, if ever get to return there, is based in Winnersh Triangle.
I used to drive through Reading a couple a of times a week, before that I only new the lovely refurbed rail station.
Reading looks alright to me…but a meringue?
No – it’s an OK place, but familiarity does breed contempt, and having been here for 5 decades I just wish it was a bit more exciting.
We once had 3 Our Price stores in the Town Centre – that’s about as wild as it ever got around here.
Well, Bert Jansch’s first post-Pentangle concert was in Reading (April 1973) – and then he disappeared to Wales to be a farmer for a few months.
A farmer for a few months? He can’t have got much done, it takes that long to fill in the forms.
Reading is a bit dull and had 3 Our Price stores. Can anyone guess why I chose Reading university?
Did they offer a B.Sc. (Hons.) degree course in Audio Fidelity and Dullness?
B. Eng. (Hons) in dullness, certainly. The audio thing was my personal enthusiasm, which made me one of the least dull on my course, if you can imagine that.
Universities in dull/out-of-the-way locations tend to make their own entertainment. I had 3 years of booking fantastic gigs for every Tuesday night, and rigging/soundchecks/sound/lights/2am breakdowns. 9am Wednesday lectures were hard going.
If I’d gone to my second choice, I’d have been in the Hacienda every night and probably thrown out of UMIST after a term.
Good job you didn’t go UMIST or you may have bumped into me…….
…and if you’d been a member of the Haçienda, you might’ve bumped into me.
Interesting that you mention Vincent Crabe out of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and not Atonic Rooster.
This brings up another question – who was the more famous of the two?
I would gave said AtomicRooster but stand to be corrected
Arthur Brown had a hit single, @SteveT
Devils Answer, Tomorrow Night: the Rooster had two.
OK, Doc – Arthur Brown had a memorable hit single 😉
Link between The Jam and the Quo?
Rick Parfitt knew Paul Weller’s Dad and let the lads have some of Quo”s old backline gear to get them started.
Plus, I was typically surprised to find out, when I saw Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook there, that the Reading Hexagon Theatre is in fact hexagonal in shape.
Plus, ver Quo was young Master Weleers first live gig experience
I saw Kevin Rowland by the River Lea Navigation early one morning a couple of weeks ago. And Don’t Stand Me Down is one of my favourite LPs. So…
Then there are two Dexys/Quo links.
Two or three years before Don’t Stand Me Down, Dexys covered Marguerita Time on a Too-Rye-Ay era b-side. It wasn’t very good.
So it was dull then?
No, I am dull. Dexys are rarely dull. Now I’m thinking of My Beauty.
To be fair to Kev et al, it wasn’t one of the Quo’s better tunes in the first place.
It was the tune that Alan Lacaster refused to perform on Top Of The Pops (Jim Lea stood on stage with them as a drunk Rick Parfitt climbed on the drums).
Alan Lancaster sort of quit soon after as he moved to Australia – I think he accepted a teaching post.
Teaching post, wasn’t that Leggy Mountbatten?
He was Leggy’s successor/ apprentice
I have fond memories of the original Marguerita Time. I was 10 when it came out, I thought it was great, and it has stuck with me. The harmonies are nice. It’s actually verging on Beatle-y.
I love (most) Dexys but their cover version is awful. And here it is… best listened to with fingers in ears.
Crikey, that is an acquired taste…
Marguerita Time was, to these ears, the first Quo single that didn’t sound like Quo at all. Not a bad song at all, but not Quo…
From Wiki
“Nobody but Francis [Rossi] wanted to record it,” recalled bassist Alan Lancaster. “All it did was advertise that we were a bunch of nerds.”
Next stop, “In the Army Now”.
Oh my, that’s pretty bad. The song itself is a solid little melody, but this manages to destroy it by… forgetting about the melody completely….
Don’t Stand Me Down Down
{tea now exiting nostrils}
I’m sure he’s a lovely man but Rhino’s onstage manner/movement has always just rubbed something in me the wrong way?
And those basses he plays without the twiddly things on the end.
Like I say, I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice chap.
@bobness
I know what you mean. He looks like a bit of a muso and I don’t think you really need to be if you’re the bassist in ver Quo. Bet he’d love a Steinberger or a 5 or , shudder, a 6 string bass.
Hmmm, not sure: had the pleasure of him supporting King King with his own band. Made Quo seem positively Mahavishnu.
@retropath2
Expand please!
Lots of look at me posturing, grinning and gurning. In truth his bass playing was more adventurous than his main paycheck demands but I can’t remember much else. Not knowing who he was, I was grateful he told the audience. Repeatedly.