Status Quo - B and the North

Now in their 45th year Status Quo still managed to pack the Plymouth Pavilions with the most eclectic audience you are ever likely to witness, and rock it to the very core.
Received with all the warmth and enthusiasm of long lost friends returning, Status Quo came to entertain, and that they did, rarely will you witness a band on stage who always seem to be having such a good time and so much fun, even the title of the tour and new album, In search of the fourth chord, is a quirky, micky take of themselves.
 The curtain dropped and the instantly recognisable intro to, Caroline, started the crowd jumping, with a start that good it is difficult to go wrong from there on.  It has to be said that there is very rarely a surprise at a Quo gig, you pretty much know what you are going to get before you go and tonight was no exception, The massive lighting rig with QUO spelt in huge light blocks, the bank of Marshall amps backing the set, the mix of new songs and the old, old favourites, and the mucking about on stage as the band seem to have the best time ever! But this is NOT a bad thing, Status Quo do what they do better than anybody else, which is the simple reason they are still filling venues, and playing to millions.
The classic tracks included, Rain, Just Supposin, Down Down and the ever present, but brilliantly done classics medley, Gravy Train came off the new album and the one slight surprise of the night was the new song, Beginning of the End, which stood out for me as a slight depart from the normal Quo twelve bar sound, but I doubt they have produced a song this good for a while.  All around me people were enthralled from beginning to the end, I checked the bar, (a good test for how a gig is being received) and it was completely empty, it seemed nobody wanted to miss any of the gig, very few bands have the level of committed support of Status Quo. The very noisily demanded encore saw the arrival of the, In the Army now and Rocking all over the world before the evening was finally closed with Rock'n'Roll Music to send yet another crowd of happy Quo fans home to wait for (hopefully) their return again in 2008 - long live the mighty Quo!