Status Quo interview: SNJ arts editor Matty Airey meets music legend Francis Rossi.

I WAS surprised to see that Britain’s best-loved rockers, Status Quo will be headlining at a Gloucestershire music festival on Sunday.

The Quo - who since their formation in 1967 have notched up nearly sixty Top 40 hits, including two No 1s, plus four chart-topping albums - will be performing at Lechlade Festival over the bank holiday weekend.

And I was even more surprised to be granted an interview with one half of the dynamic duo at the heart of the band, Francis Rossi.

Thinking it was unusual to see such a big name at a relatively small local event, I began by asking why they were playing there.

“It’s just one of those things that comes up. I’m sure I could go all show biz and say, ‘Yeah, I’ve always wanted to play there’, or something like that,” he said.

“The only problem with that is it means you weren’t looking forward to playing the previous night, so to me they’re all the same.

“I have no idea what the place is like, it’s on the itinerary, so we’ll turn up and do what we do. I could try and big it up, and say something like, ‘On stage right we’ll have two Spice Girls, dancing around, and stage left we’ll have two Chippendales’.

“But it’s just Status Quo. We’ll turn up, do our thing - sometimes it’s really great, sometimes it’s not. And if you’re not a fan you won’t like it anyway.”

Last year, the band confounded expectations and went off grid with their first ever unplugged album, Aquostic. It charted at number 5, giving the band their highest chart placing for 18 years.

“We won’t be playing Aquostically at Lechlade, all the upcoming gigs are electronic. We’ve just finished the Aquostic tour, and I’m thinking, ‘What a shame, I’m really into this now’.

“When I’m doing the acoustic, I find I sing better, which is kind of weird for me. I never see myself as a singer, I don’t have much of a voice and I can’t really sing. Whereas with the acoustic stuff, I really enjoyed singing it. It’s weird to get to 60 odd and think, ‘Blimey, I like singing’.”

You don’t think you have a good voice?

“I don’t have a good voice. It’s a fact. It’s not me looking for compliments, or being bashful, or being modest. I do not have a good voice.”

Do you enjoy hearing yourself on your recordings?

“No, never have done. And I don’t like looking at myself either. The worst thing mankind ever did was to invent the mirror. We’d be happy as Larry if we didn’t know what we looked like.”

What part of performing do you like?

“Coming off.”

Anything else?

“I have such a fear of going onstage, it’s ridiculous. Even when I’m really, really enjoying it, I’m thinking, ‘Can we go now?’ And then I get on the tour bus and - it’s a sad thing really, and there’s probably a lot of people who become institutionalised like I have - the joy is walking up the backstairs to my room on the coach, and I sit on the bed for the moment and I can see my reflection in the window, sitting there, and I’m thinking, ‘This is great’. Particularly if we’ve had a good show, or it’s gone down well, it’s just marvellous. I’ve got food in my fridge, I get changed, I put my pyjamas on, and everything’s around me, my bed, my pillow, everything. But I cannot get the joy unless I do the show.

“But I’m a contradiction, obviously something inherent in me does like playing and showing off in front of people.

“As I said, I’m frightened of going on stage, and yet amazingly I know how to do Jack-the-lad. I’m doing it with you now, kind of, aren’t I? It’s kind of mouth almighty, a little bit South London, cor blimey. I had to learn to do that because I got beat up.

“Most of the kids in my school seemed to aspire to knock a teacher out of the window and I couldn’t deal with that. And so, I taught myself to swear. I remember walking past some old woman one night and I was trying out my swearing, saying **** and **** and ******.

“And this little old lady was not impressed. Every now and then I think I’d love to go and find her and apologise for doing that.”

Did learning to swear help?

“Yeah. For some years, people used to say, ‘Cor, I was frightened of you’, when really I’m a wuss. I couldn’t knock my way out of a paper bag.

“I just learned to do mouth almighty. And it has served me quite well I suppose.”

Mouth almighty indeed - Francis Rossi, a thoroughly nice bloke, who could chat for England.

Lechlade Music Festival runs from May 22 to 24, with Status Quo headlining on the Sunday night. For more information visit www.lechladefestival.co.uk