"ROCKIN' ALL OVER THE YEARS"
- Status Quo in the year 1993
concerts, releases, publications, charts, infos
Chronological:
01.01.1993: the new fanclub "From the makers of..." is now officially established. Its the first time that not Quo fans are running a Status Quo fanclub. Its in the hand of the Fan Fair Ltd. and this company is run by Mike Hrano. The company is representing fanclubs of some bands and artists and to date the Status Quo fanclub "From the makers of..." is still existing.
February 1993: a new Status Quo Fanzine appeared in Germany. The german written "Fan to Fan", written and published by Thomas Franckh/Norderstedt and Egbert Grumpelt/Hamburg. The first issue was published in the DIN A4 format and included 12 pages. Content: a news section and features of new releases with an emphasis on bootlegs. Then there were gig reviews and a report of the coverband "QUO" was included.
January / February / March 1993: Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi were being interviewed by Cindy Blake and Roger Kasper for their planned autobiography "Just for the record" due to be published at the end of the year.
Spring 1993: the band is in Francis Rossis own studio ARSIS (A roof somewhere in Surrey) to record new songs.
06.03.1993: the fanclub meeting of the dutch fanclub "The Army" took place in Middenmeer. The bands "Question Mark", the dutch revival band "Shuffle & boogie" (NL) and the german Coverband "QUO" played there.
March 1993: issue 5 of the english fanzine "Full Quota" is published. It included 36 pages and it contented a review of the first 1."Full Quota"-fan meeting, a few gig reviews of the "Live Alive" UK tour and a Status Quo videography.
May 1993: the Spectrum label released the Status Quo compilation "A few bars more". (Spectrum 550002). 14 songs were issued on this compilation and included classic Quo songs alongside older stuff and surprisingly such songs like Backwater, I saw the light or Softer Ride, who were rarely issued on compilations. But also songs from the "Rock til you drop" album. The compilation was issued on CD and cassette format.
May 1993: with the first issue of the new english fanclub the old members of the fanclub were given a copy of the single "Fakin the blues" (QUOCD31), whose release was stopped by the record company in 1992, but thousands of copies had been pressed. "Fakin the blues" is taken from the "Rock til you drop" album and its written by Francis Rossi and Bernie Frost. Additional songs on this Maxi-CD are an album-edit of the single and "Heavy Daze" (Parfitt/Williams) and "Better Times" (Rossi/Frost). Both songs were recorded at Bray studios during the "Rock til you drop"-sessions.
May 1993: the first fanzine of the new official fanclub "From the makers of..." Vol.1 No.1 is published. It included 22 pages with interviews of each band member and a good write-up by Garry Fielding about recent releases.
June 1993: the "Full Quota" fanzine issue 6 is published. The 36 pages containedDie the Status Quo Story part 4 (with the 1969 tracklisting), an Alan Lancaster Story with discography and a listing of Status Quo rarities (singles and albums).
June 1993: UK-release of the Status Quo CD-compilation "Ice in the sun" by the Savannah Label.
August 1993: the second issue of the german "Fan to Fan" fanzine is published, this time on DIN A5 format and included 32 pages with news around Status Quo, 2 Bootleg-reports and a good write-up of the non-Quo activities of Francis Rossi (with discography).
03.09.1993: Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi switched on the Blackpool illuminations, the main attraction of Blackpool, in front of a 25,000 crowd. Later that night Status Quo played their first show of the year at Blackpool's Sand Centre.
September 1993: another "Full Quota" magazine issue 7 is published. the 36 pages contented the Status Quo Story part 5, Andy Bown Story, start of a listing of Status Quo covers.
24.10.1993: at Park Lane Hotel, London the toby jugs of Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi were launched. The limited edition of 2,500 copies was produced by china porcelaine manufactures "Royal Doulton", Stoke-on-Trent. Its the first time since the Beatles that toby jugs from artists were produced.
04.11.1993: the first autobiography from Rick Parfitt and Francis Rossi "Just for the Record" (ISBN 0-593.035461) was published by Bantam Press in UK. The book is written in english and included 250 pages (including a UK-Discography) with black and white and coloured photos.
The book was a massive success and became a TOP10-Seller.
From 8th November to 17th December a "Book-Signing"-tour through Great Britain took place.
23.11.1993: in Reading the UK-Tour "Just for the record" was kicked-off. Until 21st of December the band played some 21 shows.
Special Guests are Little Egypt with Francis Rossi's son Nicholas on guitar and as singer.
November 1993: a very interesing relase in Germany by Castle Communications. At the Karstadt shops the Status Quo compilation CD "The Gallery Vol.9" could be bought. The special on this compilation: within the booklet a phone card is issued. It was released as a limited edition with only 5,000 copies. See cover above.
December 1993: UK-release of the Status Quo compilation "Ice in the sun" from the Success Label, a subsidiary of Castle Music.
December 1993: the english fanclub published his 2nd fanzine "From the makers of..." Vol.1 No.2. Again interviews with all band-members are included and a review of the recent releases by Garry Fielding.
the australian J&B-Label released the very rare CD "The very best of Slade & Status Quo". 8 songs from Slade and 8 songs from Status Quo were included.
in Australia the Status Quo compilation "Greatest Hits" (Cat.No.: TESSCD 010) was released. See cover above.
EMI record company/Netherlands released the Status Quo CD "All the Hits... and more" out of the series "Hol Dir den Beat zurück" (Cat.No.: 7243 827240 2). 20 Songs from the era 1968 - 1973 are included on this CD.
UK discography 1993:
Album: "A few bars more" (Spectrum: CD 550002-2 cassette: 550002-4)
Album: "Ice in the sun" (Cat.No.: Savannah SSLCD204)
Album: "Ice in the sun" (Cat.No. CD-CMACD108; cassette: CMAMC108)
Maxi-CD: "Fakin the blues" (Cat.No. QUOCD31)
Miscellaneous:
1. Hits of the year 1993:
Singles: 1.I'd do anything for love (Meat Loaf) 2. No limit (2 Unlimited) 3. Dreams (Gabrielle)
Albums: 1. In Utero (Nirvana) 2. Debut (Björk) 3. Siamese Dream (Smashing Pumpkins)
2. Football: first winners of the new founded "Premiere League" were Manchester United; scottish champions are (again) Glasgow Rangers.
3. Successful films of the year 1993: "Jurassic Parc" "Aladdin" "Bodyguard" "Hot Shots II" "Dennis"