Status Quo have announced their last ever electric tour.
The ‘Whatever You Want’ hitmakers – consisting of Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, Andy Bown, John ‘Rhino’ Edwards and Leon Cave – are to head out on their ‘Last Night Of The Electrics’ European tour in October and afterwards they will be hanging up their electric guitars for good.
Frontman Rossi, 66, is adamant this will definitely be the band’s last ever electric concerts as they are finding it more and more difficult to tour a full blown rock show.
In a statement posted on their official website on Monday (01.02.16), he said: "We’ve talked about it for some time and have decided that it’s time for us to hang up the electrics. It’s getting harder and harder for us to play those shows. It’s 30 years since we last said we were stopping but this is a final decision. It doesn’t mean we won’t do other things, perhaps the odd special, but we’re agreed that the moment has come. There’s more to come from us in the years ahead, but we won’t tour the electric set ever again".
Parfitt, 67, admits performing live "hurts physically" now and although he is sad that Status Quo’s rock shows are coming to an end he accepts they cannot continue.
He added: "We always thought we’d see a red light when it was time to stop. The show hurts now, physically. It’s hard to maintain that level of energy and without that it’s not really a Quo show. So we don’t feel we should continue. This is definitely the end of our lives on the road with the electric set, life won’t be the same for us – or many of the fans – but we can’t go on at this pace any more."
In 2014, Status Quo released ‘Aquostic (Stripped Bare)’ – their first ever fully acoustic album – and played a stripped down set at The Roundhouse venue in London to launch the LP.
Go to Statusquo.co.uk for more information on ‘The Last Night Of The Electrics’ tour.
Status Quo announce last tour with electric guitars
