BLOG 79 19.10.12

So here we are and I’m only a month late with the website update. Usual excuses of being so busy but no-one to blame but myself. I seem to have been travelling so much this year. Aeroplanes almost a second home and plenty more to come before Christmas.

In no particular order of events over the past couple of months…. Last month I flew into Los Angeles from London and INXS singer Ciaran Gribbin arrived at the same time from Sydney and we both spent a full on 6 days of meetings with a variety of film and TV people, music publishers, songwriters and producers to discuss Ciarans work as a songwriter and artist. It was a most successful trip and a great introduction for him to LA ahead of the time he’s intending to spend over there next year when INXS are off the road. www.ciarangribbin.com

Ciaran played a big charity show called DUETS in Sydney recently without the band and performed the Gotye song ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ with the lovely Natasha Stuart. www.INXS.com

The day before I leave for Oz is the premiere of the new Status Quo documentary ‘Hello Quo’ at the Odeon in Leicester Square London that I’ve been working on for the past several months as a Consultant. Fifty years on and they’re still working as hard as ever. I know a lot of you are disappointed not to be able to get tickets for this opening night but I do know how difficult its been to arrange with only a limited amount of spaces in the cinema. I’ve been reading the reviews and they’re all 100% positive so I know we’re all going to enjoy getting a hold of the DVD package and seeing all the extras. Alan G Parker the director has done a great job and what a big plus it was to get the original Frantic Four Quo members, Francis, Rick, Alan and John back together again and actually see them spend 45 minutes playing together for the first time in thirty years. I speak to Alan on skype a couple of times a week and I’m looking forward to spending a bit of time with him when I’m in Sydney. In fact we’ve arranged to go out for an evening with John Fanning who some of you might remember was Quo’s first tour manager when I started with them in 1968. John was also best man at my wedding that year so it’ll be good to see him again after all these years.

The ‘Bula Quo’ movie that the band filmed in Fiji earlier this year is coming along nicely and the clips that I’ve seen look brilliant. I reckon it’s going to be a very funny and a real treat not only for Quo fans but anyone who enjoys a good comedy action drama movie. As well as several Quo classic songs in the soundtrack there are also nine new songs written especially for the movie and I reckon they’re going to surprise a lot of people with their variety and colour while retaining the Quo magic. I think the movie is due to be released start of summer 2013.

Since my last Blog Grandson Leo is now walking and learning new words every day. What a joy he’s brought to so many people. Yep you can’t beat being a grandparent….

If you’ve seen the new Men In Black 3 movie you’ll know that Quo’s Pictures Of Matchstick Men features for a whole three minutes in one of the key scenes. I watched it on the plane home from LA and loved the movie and felt good to hear Francis’ classic song feature.

The Olympics I enjoyed very much and Sue and I managed to get a couple of tickets for a day at the Paralympics. What great stadium it is and all such a great boost for Great Britain to enjoy such a success in every way.

‘Down Down’ in Oz which Coles Supermarket have been using for the past two years for their ads and promotion is a huge success. It’s been driving a few of the citizens crazy as it played night and day but its been done with such good humor which we all know is one of the keys to Quo’s success and longetivity… I’m putting together a new book of poems. I get so many requests for copies of the first collection ‘Alias The Compass’ which came out in 1978 (only 34 years ago  ) and with only a handful of copies available I decided it was time. What has spurred me on is I recently found a long lost file of poems and lyrics I’d written over the years, mostly on old scraps of paper, and realized that along with the new ones over the past few years I would have enough to put together as a new book. So I’ve started and want to try and get it out early in 2013. I’ll keep you posted and let you know when it’ll be completed and ready for publication.

Over the August Bank Holiday I paid a long awaited visit to Liverpool to spend time with old friends and enjoy the fun of Beatles Week and The Mathew Street Festival which has been run so successfully over the past twenty odd years by my good mates who own and run the Cavern Club business in the City www.cavernclub.org They get 300,000 people there and if you’ve never been then go and have some fun next year www.mathewstreetfestival.org And what a brilliant weekend Sue and I had. I particularly enjoyed the American band The Tearaways who like to come over every year. Great bunch of fellas who know how to have a good time www.tearaways.com Also The Cavern Club Beatles who are brilliant and well worth catching. I also went along to the Counterfeit Quo gig on one of the open air stages and had a lot of fun listening to their excellent performance to 4000 happy people of many Quo songs I hadn’t heard in a long time. Definitely ones to check out.

My old buddy author James Herbert has a new book out that’s doing great business. Scary stuff . www.jamesherbert.com

So best finish this Blog now and get another suitcase packed.

Thanks again to Jurgen Adametz who chases me up regularly so I keep on top of my website and does a great job for me.

See you all soon…

Cheers
Bob x