ROCK band Status Quo are to return to Glasgow next year - to play two nights at the Kelvingrove Bandstand in the West End.
The concerts, on May 30 and 31, will be the latest in a long line of Glasgow shows by Quo, who played Green's Playhouse as long ago as May 1972 (supporting Slade) and as a headline act in March 1973, and went on to play its successor, the Apollo, on numerous occasions.
The group has also announced that it will headline the MacMoray Summer Festival, at Cooper Park, Elgin, on August 11 next year.
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"We're heading to Glasgow's iconic Kelvingrove Bandstand next year for two very special nights in May!", the band posted to its 12,000 followers on Twitter/X. Tickets go on general sale at 10am on Thursday, November 23.
One of Quo's most recent Scottish appearances came when they supported Lynyrd Skynyrd at the OVO Hydro in 2019 on the American band's Farewell UK Arena Tour.
Quo always liked to play Glasgow.
In the band's autobiography, Just for the Record, co-founders Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt recalled the early days.
Said Parfitt: "In those days there were two gigs that really tested you - one down south and one up north.
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"The one up north was in Glasgow - a place called Green's Playhouse, better known as the Apollo. That was a real cauldron, a real tester gig.
"The Scottish were a hard-nosed audience. If they didn't like you, they'd let you know, but if they did, they let you know that, too - and they did like us".
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Quo played the Apollo on many occasions between September 1973 and June 1984 - the latter show a year or so before they kicked off the Live Aid extravaganza in London.
Such was the mutual affection between band and audience that the musicians hired the Rolling Stones' mobile recording studio to record three Apollo concerts in October 1976 for a live album. Tickets for all three shows sold out within a few years.
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Rossi later recalled: "For us, the Apollo was the gig in Britain ... I remember that Quo used to have to be sneaked out of the place, lying down in the backs of police cars. There'd be decoy cars going off in one direction and us going off in another. Great days".
Status Quo's current line-up is Rossi, on lead guitar and vocals; Andrew Bown, on keyboards, guitar and vocals; John 'Rhino' Edwards on bass, guitar and vocals; Leon Cave on drums; and Richie Malone on guitar.
In recent years the renovated Kelvingrove Bandstand has hosted shows by such artists as Van Morrison, The National, Squeeze, Saw Doctors, Glasvegas and The Delgados.
Tickets for Status Quo's Kelvingrove Bandstand gigs can be obtained from 10am on Thursday via www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/3/status-quo. To register for pre-sale ticket access visit bit.ly/SQ-presale.
Tickets for the Elgin concert are on sale on Friday, November 24, at 9.30 am from https://macmoray.com/
* https://www.statusquo.co.uk/
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