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Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo
''Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo'' is the debut studio album by the English rock band Status Quo, released in September 1968. It features several covers, including "Green Tambourine" by The Lemon Pipers. Background The album's lead single was originally intended to be "Gentleman Joe's Sidewalk Café", with the original Francis Rossi composition " Pictures of Matchstick Men" as the B-side, but these songs were eventually swapped. It reached #7 in the UK, and remains the band's only major hit single in the US, where it reached #12. It also reached #8 in Canada. A second single, Rossi's "Black Veils of Melancholy" (with organist Roy Lynes' non-album track "To Be Free" as the B-side), flopped and has even been called "a carbon copy of 'Pictures of Matchstick Men. The third single, "Ice in the Sun", was written for the band by Marty Wilde and Ronnie Scott (not the jazz musician), with the Rossi/Parfitt composition "When My Mind Is Not Live" as the B-side. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Status Quo (band)
Status Quo are a British rock band that formed in 1962. The group originated in London as The Scorpions and was founded by Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster while they were still schoolboys. After a number of lineup changes, which included the introduction of Rick Parfitt in 1967, the band became The Status Quo in 1967 and Status Quo in 1969. As of 2022, the group have been active for 60 consecutive years (despite announcing a breakup in 1984, they would play Live Aid the following year and resume normal activities in 1986). They have had over 60 chart hits in the UK - more than any other rock band - including "Pictures of Matchstick Men", "Down Down", "Rockin' All Over the World", " Whatever You Want", " In the Army Now", and "What You're Proposing". Twenty-two of these reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart, and fifty-seven reached the Top 40. They have released over 100 singles and 33 albums, most of which were bestsellers. Since reaching number 5 on the UK albums chart i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Rossi
Francis Dominic Nicholas Michael Rossi, (born 29 May 1949) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is the co-founder, lead singer, lead guitarist and the sole continuous member of the rock band Status Quo. Early life Rossi was born on 29 May 1949 in Forest Hill, London. His father's side of the family were Italian ice cream merchants and had an ice cream business in South London, and his mother was a Northern Irish Roman Catholic from Liverpool. He grew up in a household with his parents, grandmother, and "lots of aunts and uncles" and was given a Roman Catholic upbringing, having been named after Saint Francis of Assisi. He spent his summer holidays as a child with an aunt in Waterloo, Merseyside. He attended Our Lady and St Philip Neri Roman Catholic Primary School in Sydenham, and then Sedgehill Comprehensive School, from which he was expelled on his last day. His desire to become a musician began after seeing The Everly Brothers live on television at a young age, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Young (musician)
Robert Keith Young (born 16 May 1945) is an English musician and author, who became famous for being the unofficial fifth member of the rock band Status Quo. Collaborations with Status Quo From the mid-1960s onwards, Young has been working in the music business, starting as a crew member for Amen Corner, The Nice and also for The Herd. Based on this experience he was hired by the management of Status Quo, after they had their first hit with "Pictures of Matchstick Men" in 1968. Since he spent a lot of time with the band while being on tour, he got involved with their music as well. As early as 1969 he started writing songs for the band. On Status Quo's single "The Price of Love" he could be heard on harmonica for the first time, making him an unofficial member of the group. In the following years he wrote a number of songs for Status Quo, usually together with lead guitarist and singer Francis Rossi. Among these songs were hits such as "Caroline", "Paper Plane" and "Down D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Coghlan (drummer)
John Robert Coghlan (born 19 September 1946) is a retired English musician, best known as the original drummer of the rock band Status Quo. Early life The son of a Glasgow-born father and a London-born half-French mother, Coghlan grew up in Dulwich and was educated at Kingsdale Comprehensive School. He left school at 15 to begin an apprenticeship as a mechanic. He attended drumming tuition under Lloyd Ryan, who also taught Phil Collins the drum rudiments. Career John Coghlan joined Status Quo, then called The Scorpions (latterly The Spectres), in early 1962 after a meeting with bassist Alan Lancaster, guitarist Francis Rossi and keyboard player Jess Jaworski. "The three of them were playing away through a single Vox AC30 amplifier," he recalled. "But it sounded amazing and that was the start of it all." Coghlan played on the first fourteen Quo albums, including their first and most successful live album, " Live!" in 1977, and songs such as Caroline", "Down Down", "Rockin' A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Leiber And Mike Stoller
Lyricist Jerome Leiber (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011) and composer Michael Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found success as the writers of such crossover hit songs as " Hound Dog" (1952) and "Kansas City" (1952). Later in the 1950s, particularly through their work with The Coasters, they created a string of ground-breaking hits—including " Young Blood" (1957), " Searchin'" (1957), and "Yakety Yak" (1958)—that used the humorous vernacular of teenagers sung in a style that was openly theatrical rather than personal. Leiber and Stoller wrote hits for Elvis Presley, including " Love Me" (1956), " Jailhouse Rock" (1957), " Loving You", " Don't", and " King Creole". They also collaborated with other writers on such songs as " On Broadway", written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil; " Stand By Me", written with Ben E. King; "Young Blood", written with Doc Pomus; and "Spanish Harlem", co-written by Leiber and Phil Spect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlo Donida
Carlo Donida Labati (30 October 1920, in Milan – 22 April 1998, in Porto Valtravaglia) was an Italian composer and pianist. Carlo Donida Labati was born in Milan on 30 October 1920. He graduated in piano and composition from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan.Enzo Giannelli. "Donida, Carlo". Gino Castaldo (edited by). ''Dizionario della canzone italiana''. Curcio Editore, 1990. Carlo Donida began his musical career as a pianist of the musical group " The Dandies". He was then hired as an arranger by Casa Ricordi, which at that time had just created a pop music section. Entered into the "songbooks," he decided to put on paper ''pentagramma'', his first songs, with the assistance of Gian Carlo Testoni wherein the songs "Tell Me I Love You" and "Under the Almond Tree" debuted on the radio and received a warm reception from the public. Then came the binomial Donida - Pinchi that gave rise to such hits as "Vecchio Scarpone" ("Old Boot") and "Canzone da due soldi" ("Song of Two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Lynes
Roy Alan Lynes (born 25 October 1943, Redhill, Surrey) is an English musician and occasional singer, who was the keyboardist for the rock band Status Quo (originally The Spectres then Traffic Jam). He joined the band in 1964/1965, two years after its foundation. He appeared on Quo's first three albums – '' Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo'', '' Spare Parts'' and ''Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon'' – and wrote "To Be Free", the b-side of the second Quo single, "Black Veils of Melancholy". The track "Umleitung" was a co-composition with bassist Alan Lancaster, but was not released until the first album after Lynes' departure, 1971's ''Dog of Two Head''. Lynes left the band in 1970, and was eventually replaced by Andy Bown in 1977. "We were frightened out of our lives to play without him," recalled Lancaster, "because the organ had always drowned out the bad bits." According to the group's producer John Schroeder, who wrote the booklet notes for the 3-CD compi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Leka
Paul Leka (February 20, 1943 – October 12, 2011) was an American songwriter, record producer, pianist, arranger, and orchestrator, most notable for co-writing the 1960s hits "Green Tambourine" and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", the latter of which has become a standard song at sporting events. Life and career Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Leka was one of four children of Theodore and Dhimitra Leka, immigrants from Albania. His father worked as a short-order cook. Soon after he started taking piano lessons, Paul was writing songs, and by age 16, his brother said, he was trying to sell them to music publishers in New York. Described as "one of those rare, genuinely prodigious musicians who was too talented to limit himself to actually being a member of one group or recording project",Bruce Eder, Biography of Paul Leka www.allmusic.com. Leka grew up in Connecticut and played piano as a child and later became a multi-instrumentalist. He played with a group called the Chateau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Lancaster
Alan Charles Lancaster (7 February 1949 – 26 September 2021) was an English musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Status Quo, playing with the band from 1967 to 1985, with brief reunions in 2013 and 2014. As well as contributing to songwriter, songwriting, he was also one of the lead vocalists on albums and live concerts, taking the lead on tracks such as "Backwater", "Is There a Better Way", "Bye Bye Johnny", "High Flyer" and "Roadhouse Blues". Alan Lancaster formed the group in 1962 with his then schoolmate Francis Rossi. His final performance as a full-time member of Status Quo was at Wembley Stadium on 13 July 1985 for the opening of Live Aid. In March 2013, he collaborated with his old bandmates for a series of "Frantic Four" concerts in the UK. Career Early career While attending Sedgehill School, Sedgehill Comprehensive School in 1962, Lancaster befriended future Status Quo singer and guitarist Francis Rossi while playing in the schoo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Roe
Thomas David "Tommy" Roe (born May 9, 1942) is a retired American rock and pop singer-songwriter. Best-remembered for his hits "Sheila" (1962) and " Dizzy" (1969), Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum artists of the late 1960s, but cut some pretty decent rockers along the way, especially early in his career," wrote the AllMusic journalist Bill Dahl. Biography Roe was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, where he attended Brown High School. After graduating, he landed a job at General Electric soldering wires. Tommy Roe first recorded his original song "Sheila" in 1960 for Jud Phillips's Judd label. "I wrote this poem for a girl I had a crush on in high school, and her name was Freda," recalled Roe in 2015. "ud Phillips said,'Son, I like that song but we gotta do somethin' about that title.' So he sent me home and Aunt Sheila was visiting that weekend. The rest is history!" The Judd single, misspelled "Shelia" and credited to "Tommy Roe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheila (Tommy Roe Song)
"Sheila" is a song written and recorded by Tommy Roe. The single reached number one on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on September 1, 1962, remaining in the top position for two weeks and peaking at number six on the US ''Billboard'' R&B chart. Background Roe originally conceived the song as "Frita", based on a girl from Roe's high school. The song was auditioned to a record producer from Judd Records, and while response was enthusiastic, it was suggested that the name be changed. By coincidence, Roe's Aunt Sheila was visiting, which inspired the final title of "Sheila." The original version of the song was recorded by Roe for Judd in 1960 (misspelled as "Shelia") and backed by another original song, "Pretty Girl". The songs were recorded with his then backing group the Satins and the female vocal group, the Flamingos. The record failed to make an impact on the charts. The song was later featured on the compilation album ''Whirling with Tommy Roe'' in 1961, featuring tracks fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Gibb
Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb (born 1 September 1946) is a British musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He rose to worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popular music. With his younger brothers, fraternal twins Robin and Maurice Gibb, he formed a songwriting partnership beginning in 1955. He has lived in Britain, Australia, and the United States, holding dual UK–US citizenship, the latter since 2009. Born in Douglas on the Isle of Man, Gibb was raised in Manchester, where he took part in the skiffle craze. In 1955, he formed his first band, the Rattlesnakes, which evolved into the Bee Gees in 1960, after the Gibb family had moved to Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. They later returned to England, where they achieved worldwide fame, then moved to the United States in 1975. Well-known for his wide vocal range, Gibb's most notable vocal trait is a far-reaching high-pitched falsetto. As a so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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