Rhino:How's your fingers then, Beth?
Beth D: Still broken.
Are you gonna interview me as well then?
If you have the time...
Yeah, go ahead.
Rick N: Is there going to be another Man United Song?
Not with us, not at the moment...
Er, I don't think there's any plans at the moment - I'm sure there's not.
I wish there were, I really enjoyed doing them; they were so easy...
Are you going to do a Brentford one?
Well, I'm actually thinking about it because they've actually just got to the final of a competition and they'll be playing at the Millennium Stadium. If I've got time I think I would love to.
Is that the FA Vase?
Rover, LDV Vans...
It's just for the lowest two divisions, it's between us and Port Vale...
'Cause you have a northern team and a southern team don't you?
Yes, that's it.
Port Vale? Robbie Williams will write a song for them then...
I know, exactly - got to do it then I suppose! It's just a question of time really.
Are you actually planning to do another solo album?
Well I've written another song. They don't come easy but once I get the idea it's very quick - you know. And I've just written a new one; which I'm going to be premièring on my gigs called Gigolo. Which is quite funny.
But I'm getting so into words at the moment… but it's straight heavy rock/rap - lots of talking. It's a funny story.
Where's my Marlboro?
And that's at London and Crewe?
Yes. Well, the London isn't selling as well as the last, but I don't care
The Crewe one's selling really well - everyone seems to be going...
Apparently the guy at the venue says it's amazing - they don't usually get that many in advance so that's good.
I suppose it's a more attractive thing to do if you're a Quo fan...
I think it's a bit of a treat for you to come up north that far - apart from when 4 Bills played Pocklington: that was a treat for us! When are you playing there again?
I don't really play with that band any more - there's a different version of them, The Mods, it's without the horns, it's more my kind of thing... I feel an affinity.
Well, I do! I grew up listening to English Sixties music. I can play the American stuff but I play the English stuff better 'cause I ain't no black guy. It's the stuff black musicians play, and black people play differently.
You know it's weird - it's something you almost aspire to. Black people don't try to play white music - they're about as good at is as white people are at playing black music, you know?
Did you hear that thing on the Radio 2 documentary [24-3-01]?
I didn't hear all of it - I only heard one bit.
Well, they were saying that they didn't know who all these famous black blues guys were - they started off copying Fleetwood Mac.
They were brilliant - Fleetwood Mac. But they just made it their own thing. As did, er... this lot - what are they called?
They made their own thing of it.

I wish I'd bought a computer 'cause we could have had a good butcher's. But what I will do is I will email bits to you.
I've been trying to find newspaper articles and stuff on you but because you're mainly session there's so little.
Tevye gets lots of stuff on Andy Bown from guys in America. Finding stuff on you is impossible.
Well yeah, I mean Andrew did loads of stuff in America as well. But I only did four tours, but not under my own steam.
I think the RhinoSite will be where People go for Rhino information and factoids.
Yeah, Rhinoid's Factoids !

What did you think of PopStars?
Not a lot. I watched bits of it 'cause I've got kids - my little girl's quite taken in.
But I wouldn't buy the record.
I think it's awful that it's basically them saying, 'Look, we're a manufactured band, we can make you do what we want - we can manipulate you completely' - and then everyone goes out and buys the record!
It's the power of Telly - the power of marketing.
Their budget is about one-and-a-half million pounds, which is one-and-a-half million pounds more than mine was.
Although Revenge was well placed - available everywhere... no problem buying it... from Grimsby to Chichester.
I just wish more people had!
I got my statement from the record company the other day and it was rather un-recouped.
Plenty of people at Quo gigs bought copies.
It's done OK. It's done about 5000 copies... but it's got to do about 10 for the record company to be chomping at the bit for another one. I don't want to have to persuade them. But I have another record company I can do it through...
Why don't Quo sell their albums at gigs?
I supposed they could. They could sell the back catalogue as it's been deleted.
But it wouldn't count as a chart sale.
Well, yeah, and if you do that the shops will say, 'Well, why the f*** should we promote it', you know?
But they don't promote it anyway. You can get it from Our Price - can't even order it from them - and they're now V-Shops.
You what? V-shops? Well, you know why - they only stock Top 20 albums and that's because they're going into mobile phones.
Wrong move!
But how can Quo get into the Top 20 without being stocked?
Well, I got an interesting email the other day. And it's the only way you can do it.
Have you heard the Bee Gees new single? [This is Where I Came In]
It's really good.
Yeah, and Francis said to me he'd been listening to it a lot, and when I checked it out I knew it was them but it was...
Different.
Yeah, and that's the way to do it, I suppose.
Terry Wogan plays a lot of Quo.
Does he?
Well, I don't know that our audience buy singles, you know... don't know if they buy albums either!
Famous has done OK though.
I think Quo fans desperately want the new album though - and no covers - from what I've been reading.
Oh no, I read the message board too, you know!
I went on the other night and saw, 'Sign your name here if you think Rhino's the man' or something... but I think it was just one bloke putting it all in under lots of different names!
I've got nothing against the odd cover at all, but…
Not if it works.
What about Quo doing 'Watching the River Flow' by Bob Dylan?
We tried it for Don't Stop.
But the problem was the way the vocal is - it's so spoken though.
YOU could do it.
Well, that's not down to me...
No, I don't think that's ever going to happen because David Walker, I sent him my album and he said, 'There's some really good songs on there but you can't sing'.

What this we hear about an anthology?
Well, that's been mooted for years. I think it would be a good idea but it's all from before my time.
I don't know what's around.
Bob Young has everything. Demos the lot. Loads of it.
There must have been demos in the last 15 years though.
We don't demo.
Only very rough ones. We never used to.
I remember Rock 'til You Drop; that was - funnily enough - supposed to be a covers album - which we didn't know about.
Francis turned up one day to the recording studio with 11 songs and we hadn't heard any of them.
He said, 'Right, we'll do this one next', and we said, 'Alright'... 'And now this one', 'Alright'...
And that's the way it goes. The thing is it ain't my band. That's fair enough.
I ain't got a problem with it.
If you and Rick write a song together, how does it work? Do you both sit together and have a think? Or does one of you have an idea and rings the other one up?
Well we've done 3 new ones at the moment. One of them I pretty much did.
And other one he pretty much did.
We both had core ideas and them we worked on other bits together.
Does the way order the names are credited in mean anything?
No, if it's co-write it's a co-write.
Means nothing. I'm almost always last!
Do you think of words first or a melody?
I like to do the words first but with Rick we tend to do the words afterwards.
Driving to Glory we didn't.
He came up with the title and I wrote the song. Because all we need is the inspiration - that's the thing.
We were sitting in the car, I think, and everything was going wrong and he said, 'It's a f***ing Obstruction Day isn't it?', and I said, 'Yep!'.
So we said, 'let's do that'.
I wrote the song and Rick... well, I did 'that and that' and then Rick came and put 'that and that and that' in. Bits on top.
None of it's forced in anyway then?
No, Driving to Glory  was done together. It was quite easy.
Wrote that in a couple of sessions.
Quite heavy t...
Yeah, I like that sort of thing... Although my stuff didn't turn out like that.
Rhino's Revenge wasn't as heavy as when you first played it to me at Brighton. Or as I had expected.
Well, turn it up!
No, it's not meant to be soft at all...
What's your favourite song off it?
I like Shame.
I'd have to say I like it all, really. The only one I'm not so keen on, I'd have to say, was Get a Life .
That's probably one of my favourites - especially for melody.
Well, that's why. When you come to stuff with a strong melody I'd have to say my singing does let me down a little bit.
I'm the Frank Sinatra of Rock - I get to the note in the end!
I was making you a cup of tea wasn't I?

So where do you work, Rick?
In a Power Station.
Coal or...
Gas.
Where is it? Grimsby?
Hull.
Hull! That team's doing OK aren't they?
Not bad.
Funny that. Went to see Halifax play Hull on one of our days off. And one of the Hull players was at a gig in York.
Cracking ground isn't it?
This was at the Shay.
It was with Tonto, Toot and this other guy, went up from York to Halifax - an hour and a half by train - to see the bottom club of the football league as they were at the time.
It was good fun though - a good day.

Do you think it was heavy then? Live?
Yeah.
A bit harder.
A live album next then!?
I obviously don't like Heavy Metal or Hard Rock too much - I like a bit of a tune... but not much!
Any Quo songs at these gigs?
I don't think so. Not with State of Quo - it would be sacrilegious.
State of Quo and their fans think that they should support Quo on tour. What do you think of that idea?
Well they're supporting me!
Oh yeah, but you're not playing Quo songs.
If State of Quo supported Quo on tour...
What would they play?
You'd end up with two sets the same.
Some of the support acts have been great, that you've had recently.
Two Timers?
Yeah, I saw them and thought, 'Oh wow! I've worked for them!'.
You've worked for them?
My uncle is the road manager for Nine Below Zero and we also do a lot of blues festivals in the south as crew.
Are you still working with Nine Below Zero then?
Occasionally - I do the South Coast gigs that I can get to and get back from easily.
And Gwyn Ashton - I liked the support act on his tour, Colin John...
Wasn't he in Man?
I think that was Clive John...
Ah, well I bought their first single.

Looking forward to the Beach Boys concerts?
We were just talking about it earlier.
Well, it's selling really well. We booked quite early and we're about 20 rows back. Your side though so you'll still hear me!
Well, a gig's a gig...
It's headlining as well isn't it? It says Status Quo.
Well, we're on after the other lot.
I just like it - you can only go on and do your own thing. I mean the politics of it doesn't a) concern me and b) interest me.
Too much like hard work all this stuff.
Well Gidea Park [Beach Boys Tribute] went down well at Norwich, at Rick Parfitt's Comeback gig.
Wasn't Shaking Stevens there?
Yes, he sat down for 'This Ol' House' .
Sat Down?
I remember him well because his suit, his top and his trousers didn't quite go and I was thinking, 'No!'.
Dunno what he's doing now, you know. I imagine he made a lot of money then.

How's the new Quo album going?
Well I went across to Francis' last week and heard a load more songs and me and Rick are demo-ing our stuff at his studio so we'll hear them all again then.
There's a couple of real blinders.
So is that how it works then?
Do you write songs together and then pool them all in for everybody else to hear?
Yeah, and I mean, with Paxman producing it's better.
Will it be recorded at Rossi's?
Yeah...
Will Andrew be on the new album?
Yeah.
Is he still writing songs and stuff?
Yeah he is - he writing with Francis at the moment as well, in fact I'm doing a demo tonight I'd like him to do the lyrics for and I'm sending that over to him tomorrow.
Some woman was saying Francis had kicked him out.
I mean, f***ing hell, get a life. I mean rumours start. I've got to go to the other sites - 'cause they aren't censored that much.
The Yahoo Quo Club is censored as much as possible.
The ChatRoom's quite interesting at the Quo club - have you ever been there?
No...
Dyllan and Gwerfyl are always in there having nutty conversations.
Is that the one run by that guy Steve?
No - it's me and Pete Quoling.
Pete Quoling and you?
Dunno who he is...

Will Andy be on tour at Christmas time with Quo?
Yes, well, the tour's all in hand.
What about the Beach Boys?
What? On the Christmas tour?
No the Beach Boys tour. Will Andy be back for that?
Nope. He will be back when he can.

That Matthew is an animal!
He's a game of two halves that boy - he's really quiet when he's talking.
That TOTP2 comes across really well.
I think that since Jeff left we've moved up a speed.
I think generally we've moved up.
Probably less visual than Jeff, 'cause Jeff was very much 'bang, bang, bang'.
What's he up to now?
I haven't spoken to him in about 3 months, he's doing his thing. I don't now if he's playing in another band, I don't think so.
So it's just his MasterClasses then?
Yeah.
You know, I think Matthew just hits them so much harder.
What I like about Matthew is he goes on stage, all quiet and shy with his hair slicked back, and by the end of it it's all in his eyes and he's sweating like a pig.
He works his arse off. He gives 150%.
He looks like he's really been working when he comes off stage.
Well, he has been.
That's one thing Jeff said when I told him - he knows Matt and he said, 'Great, he's really good, I just hope he can stand up to it physically.'
Well, Matthew does get incredibly tired, but he really goes for it.
He uses thicker sticks than Jeff but he hits them a lot harder. You'd be amazed - he's so much louder.
Is he a songwriter?
He's a musician. You get drummers and drum-owners.
Will he be contributing? Will he be writing with you or the band?
I wouldn't like to say - haven't really thought bout it.
The thing we only ever struggle on is lyrics. And Andrew's really quite good with them.
What about the Rossi/Young songs 'cause Bob's good with words.
Yeah, Bob's done some of the words. There's some good stuff there.
Real blinders.
I always find it the other way round. I find it easy doing lyrics, it's the tunes - they always sound like something else.
Nothing wrong with that!

So what films do you like then?
Films? The last film I saw was Oh Brother, Where art Thou?
Heard of it?
No!
Well, it's got George Clooney in it. It was out quite recently.
The Coen Brothers films - like their films.
And I'm really looking forward to seeing Best in Show. 'Cause that's by the guys who did Spinal Tap.
Christopher Guest and Michael McKean, isn't it.
Are they in it?
Yes. Christopher Guest is the lead role and there's a cameo from Michael McKean.
Oh, fantastic!
And Derek Smalls is on the Simpsons - what more could you want?
Harry Shearer? Yeah, Mr Burns.
I didn't know that, I didn't know they were in it.
It's supposed to be very, very good.
It's supposed to be hilarious. I'm sure it is.

We were watching your 'Artie Fuffkin' bit from Rocking all over the Years the other day.
My what?
At the start of the video there's loads of shots of you guys doing Spinal Tap bits - amplifiers up to 12, the lot.
Artie Fuffkin, Polymer Records... Yeah!
He... have you ever watched any of those chat shows, Conan - whatever they are - and Letterman. I think he's the musical director of one of them.
Schaeffer his name is.
Yeah?
Baldy guy, has dark glasses.
Spinal Tap got a limited release last summer - when and saw it. 6 people there, midnight.
I think I've seen it about 30 times.
Seen Spinal Tap 2...
Got that on video.
Somebody bought me the book last year - which was a bit much.
I used to play in a band with the drummer, Rick Parnell.
Spoke to him in the summer - he's in LA, he's had a bit of a time with the drugs. He's in a bad way.
No I used to do this gig at the Bridgehouse in Canning Town and there was him and a guy called Steve Bolton on guitar, just f***ing amazing.
I used to do 31 stops on the tube with an amplifier and a guitar for £2 to do this gig. And they'd stick a joint in me and I'd be in a coma for the whole thing. And I'd never understand why they wanted me to play but I loved it!
Makes you a better musician to play with better people than you. You learn very quickly.

Spider! F***ing hell!
Used to love that when I was a kid. Didn't realise it was you until somebody said.
Me and Jeff, yeah.
You aren't on most of it though, are you?
We did bits. C-Rocker, 'Crocodile, I like your style' and a couple of others I can't remember. We did them all in an afternoon.
I loved the animation, it's a really nice cartoon.
They were really nice guys too, that did it. Except when they said sign here.
They said, 'how much you charging?'. We said, '150', they said, 'no, no, no, no, no. We thought about 350.', 'Oh alright then'. It was a sell out. A buy out.
But the guy, Jeff Stevenson got ripped off. But that's the business, you know?

Er... Brentford, Brentford, Brentford, definitely under your list of other stuff.
Are you a season-ticket holder?
No, there's no point. I was a few years ago, but...
Too busy...
Well, I'm interrupting our European tour in a couple of week's time. We're playing on the 22nd
and luckily we've got that day off so I'm flying back down to Cardiff, then we're off to Dublin the next day, for our shows over there. Should be alright.
You ever been to Dublin?
No, we're going to though. Not to the gigs, but Beth's never been in a plane so the short flight would be great. And you can do it for about £25 return.
Really? It's nice; do you drink?
No. I sniff - he drinks, I sniff his beer.
Oh! Well, I don't know about Dublin if you don't drink - everybody drinks there.
Even more so than over here.
3 nights isn't it?
Yeah.
Should get a bit wild.
I don't know why we don't just play the Point you know. Do the big show.
They know what they're doing.
I suppose it's difficult to know what the demand's going to be though, when you're going somewhere you haven't been for a while though.
Well, we haven't been for a while. I know, it is difficult, I agree.
In the 80's you used to play Dublin first, Ireland first as a warm up and then you came to the UK.
Yeah, we used to go there.

My son Max, he's a guitar player.
Oh, that was funny the other day. We got a band going - me and the boys. This other bass player came along. So Freddie's been playing bass, so I taught him guitar. He couldn't play so I showed him E and A and a couple of other bits and we were playing 'Waiting for my Man'. Know it?
Vaguely...
It's really simple, it's great - sounding exactly as it should, only it's all about scoring Heroin. These 11 year olds going 'Waiting for my Maaaaaaaan'. It's funny, quite bizarre, bit sick I suppose but there you go.

We found a Space CD the other day too - the Very Best of Space.
Oh, f***ing hell, I don't go there very often.
It's very definitely you.
I was called the Cosmic Ice-Cream Salesman, you know, because with the synth there I could have been anyone. So that's what I used to call myself. 'Cause with this synth I could have been in this space-aged cinema down the front, selling choc-ices.

That's all, yeah 4 Bills, the initial lineup used to be Jeff, Me, Johnny and Gary Grainger - the guitarist with Rod Stewart.
Did he write songs with him at all?
Yeah, Hot Legs...
That could be a Quo cover, that could.
With Rick on vocals? Yeah, that's a good one, actually, yeah...
If we'd done Old Time Rock and Roll on a Quo album, that would have been a good one. We were scraping the barrel the second time around.
That's something we disagree on, I like Famous and Beth hates it.
I think it's a very up, very happy album.
We weren't very happy when we recorded it!
I think it shows!
Yeah, it's not quite... there...
Jeff's swansong, that was.

I'm cold; I'm going to have to go... I hope I haven't dragged you up here...
Oh no! You haven't, not at all.
Is that dictaphone still on?
Yeah,
F***ing hell.
Love you Jeff...