Haven't listened to the stereo mix for ages but I do remember Sheila sounding much better than the original mono mix. Didn't sound quite so tame and dated.
I've always assumed that "Make Me Stay A Bit Longer"/"Auntie Nellie" belong to the "SPARE PARTS" era, judging by the sound and release date. Either way, I love and cherish my original UK mono and (fake) stereo copies of the first LP. I'm a big fan of the early Bee Gees and this album sounds similar to that style. Great footage in this thread guys - thanks!
Thanks a lot for this! No idea who's doing the spoken word part - it's barely audible but someone's attempting it. I'll say again, I love this song; it should have been used in last years film of J G Ballard's 'High Rise'. (A 1975 novel that Paradise Flats seems to anticipate).
This crazy 5 song medley from Vienna is worth posting here as well! Almost a mini history of rock and roll!
So what to say about Quo's debut. I'd been into the band about 2 years before I ventured back this far to get the album. I knew Matchstick Men and Ice in the Sun, so I had a heads up this wasn't going to be the Quo I had just gotten into. Both those tracks are great. Especially Matchstick Men (the bands recent acoustic version of it is excellent too). Other stand outs are Black Veils, When My Mind is Not Live ,Sheila, Technicolour Dreams and Green Tambourine and Spicks and the Specks. The remainder don't really do anything for me. Can't believe they considered Gentelman Joe's as the lead single rather than Matchstick Men. Obviously there is no indication here of what they would sound like only a couple of years later, but It's quite a strong set and I can't believe it didn't chart in the UK.
It was released too late in the UK, well after Pictures... was a big hit. By the time the album was released the interest just wasn't there anymore and even by late 1968 it probably sounded a bit behind the times. It was released around the same time as Electric Ladyland and The White Album. Things moved fast then!
Being signed to Pye wouldn't have helped either. If the Pye sales team couldn't even get a Kinks album into the Top 100 in 1968, poor old Quo wouldn't have stood much chance.
Also they were on PYE, who I'm sure were giving the Quo albums the same kind of generous promotional budget and loving attention they granted The Kinks contemporary long players.. ie none.
Good point, I forgot about that. They were hopeless at promoting pop albums. I've just realised that Pye couldn't even get a Sandie Shaw album to chart when she won Eurovision and had her own TV show on BBC.
Oh snap! When I first started collecting the Kinks on CD, an abiding memory of mine is the bargain basement cheapo packaging that the PRT CDs of the Kinks and SQ Pye albums shared (as did the first 2 10cc albums). The generic packaging design they used had all the flair and taste of 1980s Iron Curtain supermarket own-brand cornflakes.
I think JulesRules said he didnt get to post that often so maybe a bit slow to start with the early years. Certainly i'm patiently waiting until we get to Ma Kelly and from there on it should be a pretty busy thread through the 70's and beyond. The early years have always been a bit of curiosity for me. Never really got into those early tracks.
Just googled the full discography for my own understanding, wasnt sure how many albums it was in total and also when we hit the boogie years. If thats the correct term. Edit: obviously this listing is not fully correct, misses the all important live album from Glasgow Apollo. Just the list copied/pasted quickly from wikipedia. Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo (1968) Spare Parts (1969) Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon (1970) Dog of Two Head (1971) Piledriver (1972) Hello! (1973) Quo (1974) On the Level (1975) Blue for You (1976) Rockin' All Over the World (1977) If You Can't Stand the Heat... (1978) Whatever You Want (1979) Just Supposin' (1980) Never Too Late (1981) 1+9+8+2 (1982) Back to Back (1983) In The Army Now (1986) Ain't Complaining (1988) Perfect Remedy (1989) Rock 'til You Drop (1991) Thirsty Work (1994) Don't Stop (1996) Under The Influence (1999) Famous in the Last Century (2000) Heavy Traffic (2002) Riffs (2003) The Party Ain't Over Yet (2005) In Search of the Fourth Chord (2007) Quid Pro Quo (2011) Bula Quo! (2013) Aquostic: Stripped Bare (2014) Aquostic II: That's a Fact (2016)
Think we need a full list of the albums including live albums that will be covered, just handy to refer back to and to see whats coming. Will wait for JulesRules to post next but happy to add a list in if needed. In the meantime i'll have a look on youtube for spare parts, again, i think i have a cdr copy somewhere but not sure.
Whilst we're at this period of the band what is everyone's view of Roy Lynes? The whole Hello Quo dvd was bizarre with plenty of footage of the man but no mention of him nor no interview. I think perhaps bad editing, i read the DVD was cut down a lot from its original version, but to ignore a key member was weird.
I've read somewhere, probably on the Quo site, that Roy Lynes now lives in Australia and is still friends with the band. He has joined them on stage there.
Here's an Aus news report from 2000 promoting the time Lynes rejoined the band onstage, with a rare interview with him. He kind of reminds me of Office co-creator Stephen Merchant in demeanour.
It's surprising that for such a big worldwide hit single, there's only one clip of Pictures of Matchstick Men.
The Top of the Pops clip? Yes, well we're lucky to have that seeing that 99% of the TOTP episodes from that era were wiped by the BBC. I would've expected some appearances from overseas would survive. Wasnt it a hit in the US? Did they go over and do TV to promote?
I'm not sure when SQ first made it over to the US but I've a strong suspicion it was post their psyche era. And I'm almost certain there were never any US TV appearances in that phase. (In fact, I'm now wondering if they've EVER appeared on US TV in any guise).
