Francis Rossi

At 74 years old, Francis Rossi has this physical status:

Career

Rossi made good friends with future Status Quo bassist Alan Lancaster while playing trumpet in the school orchestra in 1962 while attending Sedgehill Comprehensive School. The two players, as well as other students Alan Key (drums) and Jess Jaworski (keyboards), formed the Scorpions, who performed at the Samuel Jones Sports Club in Dulwich for their first performance. Key was later replaced by Air Cadets drummer and future Quo member John Coghlan, and the band was renamed the Spectres. The Spectres produced their own songs and appeared live on stage; Roy Lynes, a Redhill-based keyboard player, was among them to appear with the Echoes, a band also based in Redhill, were seen on the lineup. The Spectres debuted in 1965 at a Butlins holiday camp in Minehead. The Highlights from There Rossi's meeting with his future long-time Status Quo partner Rick Parfitt, who was playing in another band. The two became close friends and decided to continue working together. The Spectres signed Piccadilly Records in 1966, releasing three singles that failed to chart. Since adopting psychedelia, the group changed its name to Traffic Jam, this time to Traffic Jam.

Traffic Jam changed the name to The Status Quo in 1967, but the definitive article was never published. Parfitt joined the band soon afterward, completing the original line-up and starting a nearly 50-year association with Rossi until Parfitt's death in 2016. Rossi had written "Pictures of Matchstick Men," which hit the charts in both the United Kingdom and the United States in 1968, which is also the beginning of their hit-making career. With Piledriver, the band reached #5 in the album charts in 1972. "Paper Plane," a song written by Rossi and Bob Young and released as a single on Vertigo Records, was included on the album. Status Quo thrived in major markets, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand through the 1970s and 1980s. They were the opening act of 1985's Live Aid, and Rossi produced and co-wrote some of the band's most popular songs, including "Caroline" and "Down Down," the band's first number one hit.

Rossi and Parfitt were the only remaining original members of the band until Parfitt's death in 2016. Rossi and Parfitt reunited with original Quo bandmates Lancaster and Coghlan for a string of reunion concerts in 2013 and 2014. Status Quo has sold over 128 million albums around the world in their career.

"Do They Know It's Christmas" was the year before Quo opened Live Aid, Rossi and Parfitt appeared on the Band Aid charity single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Rossi has also pursued solo projects outside of Status Quo. Bernie Frost, his longtime writing buddy, released two singles in 1985 when the band was on hold. The single releases were "Modern Romance (I Want to Fall in Love Again)" (UK No. 1) "Jealousy" and "54." In 1996, he released King of the Doghouse, a solo album, but it did not have a commercial success, although it did have a UK No. No. "Give Myself to Love," a 42-year-old boy from "Give Myself to Love." He appeared on the soundtrack album and film All This and World War II, which were essentially cover versions of Beatles songs. Despite the fact that the album credits "Get Better" to Status Quo, Rossi's vocals and the London Symphony Orchestra were featured on the track. He produced and performed guitar on John Du Cann's solo album The World's Not Enough in 1977. One Step at a Time, Quo's second solo album on sale, as well as a re-recording of Quo's 1973 single "Caroline."

Rossi appeared alongside Quo bandmate Parfitt in the adventure comedy film Bula Quo!, which followed the pair on an adventure in Fiji, and getting involved with local Mafia operations on the island in 2013.

On the earMusic label, Rossi released We Talk Too Much. He published his autobiography I Talk Too Much (published by Little, Brown), as well as a launching of a spoken word tour of the United Kingdom of the same name earlier this year.

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