Summary
In this episode of The Quo-Cast, Jamie Dyer talks to David Wood from the Status Quo tribute band The Quo Experience.
Transcription
Jamie Dyer: This is the Quo Cast. My name’s Jamie Dyer and I’m joined today via the telephone for a change by David Wood from the band, The Quo Experience. He is their Rossi as he termed himself. How did you get involved with the Quo experience?
David Wood: It all started back in 2017, which I was still at college, and the old front man gave me a message, do I want to come along to a gig as a guitar tech, funny enough, nothing to do with performance, so I went along as a guitar tech and things just sort of spiralled from there really.
Jamie Dyer: Did you have you’d obviously been playing guitar for a long period of time before that?
David Wood: Yeah I’ve been playing since I was about four or five.
Jamie Dyer: How do you decide the set list of which to play with the Quo Experience?
David Wood: So when the band first started out, again, it’s, “What setlist do we choose”, “What songs can we put where?” So, the original lineup of the band really sort of based the set around the Just Doin’ It DVD. Most of the songs are in the same order. Obviously as the years have gone by, we’ve changed a few, so we don’t want to keep it as the same. But because we do a lot of theatres and a lot of people that come to see our shows are theatre-goers, and quite a lot of heavy Quo fans, we sort of try and include all the hits, but also maybe throw one or two obscure songs in there, just to mix things up a little bit.
Jamie Dyer: Have you tried a specific track from, say, a rare album track or something, and it just hasn’t worked?
David Wood: The one song that we have tried that didn’t really go down that well was Don’t Drive My Car. We put that in the set for about three or four months, but it just didn’t really seem to get people going, if you know what I mean.
Jamie Dyer: I do. That’s a very, that’s an odd one, isn’t it? Because it’s not really like anything else that they did before… Or since.
David Wood: Yeah it’s quite, it’s quite a different one. Like the beat’s quite different and just the way the song (is) set out. But we thought, cause it’s different, we’ll give it a go. It’s a Rick song and Rick obviously liked his cars. So we thought, why not? We’ll give it a go. So we rehearsed it quite a lot. It sounded alright to us, so we put it in the set. And then, the Quo fans knew it, but a lot of people didn’t, like theatre-goers didn’t really know it too much and they just sort of sat there and didn’t quite know what to do with themselves really.
Jamie Dyer: I have been in that position at actual Quo gigs, actually, not just tributes, because there are quite a lot of casual fans, aren’t there?
David Wood: Yeah, especially doing the theatres, you get a lot of people that sort of see the ads in, like, the window or in, like, a brochure and go, oh, a bit of Quo, I know one or two songs, we’ll go along to that and have a good evening. Like, obviously they’ll know the hits, but they won’t know the more obscure album tracks.
Jamie Dyer: No, I have seen a few videos. It’s very impressive. How long did it take to get everything together? I mean, you say you joined a little bit later on. Did it take long to get into it?
David Wood: The actual band formed in 2016, in the summer. As far as I’m aware, it was all sort of like, everything happened at once. They got all the gear at once. They got everyone that was committed to the band and just rehearsed, rehearsed and rehearsed for a couple of months and then went out and done a gig and then there’s been quite a few lineup changes and we’ve always made sure we’ve had enough rehearsals so the new people that come in are up to par. It’s it’s taken a while to get to where we are especially like getting our name out there because we are still quite a new band but it’s done quite well. We’ve got Over 3, 000 followers on Facebook now, I think it is. So we’re definitely getting a name for ourselves.
Jamie Dyer: And especially doing the theatres as well, because that’s a really unique experience. I know there are lots of bands out there that will do pub gigs, but the theatre is the next level, isn’t it?
David Wood: Yeah well, what we want to do is sort of give Quo fans the Quo show, but at a cheaper price, because you go to the O2 and see Quo; you can be paying up to 80, 90 a ticket, and not everyone can really afford that, so we want to give them as good as we can give them at a much cheaper price.
Jamie Dyer: Well that is you know, that is very important, especially if people want their Quo fix. What was your first exposure to the band?
David Wood: Oh, well my dad’s always really he’s a big Quo fan, he’s played Quo to me a lot when I was young. And when I was four years old, we went out one night, and I didn’t know where I was going. My mum dressed us all up in our denim and everything, and then it turned out we went to go and see Status Quo live in Southend. I was only four years old. It was a great night.
Jamie Dyer: You never forget your first one, do you?
David Wood: No, not at all. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Jamie Dyer: And have you been many times since?
David Wood: Yeah, I’ve been about sixteen times to see them , I think. I’m not one to sort of travel to [00:05:00] go and see him. If I come locally, I’ll go and see him, or if we’re in London, I’ll go and see him. I won’t go much further.
Jamie Dyer: Where’s The Quo Experience based?
David Wood: Three of us are from Suffolk. I’m from Essex, and our drummer is from Kent. So we’re all fairly local. Within about an hour’s drive from each other.
Jamie Dyer: Well that’s good. So do you get together quite a lot and, sort of, rehearse?
David Wood: If we’re changing the set or trying new songs out, we will. If not, we’ll just meet up before the day of the gig and just sort of run through a couple of little bits and soundcheck just to make sure we’re up to scratch.
Jamie Dyer: One thing I’ve wondered actually, because you do theatres, obviously Quo themselves have those in-ear monitors.
You don’t have that privilege, do you?
David Wood: I do myself, but the rest of the band don’t. A couple of years ago we all used to use them. But they were quite hard to get used to, so we all went back to having wedges on stage. And only recently I’ve sort of gone out and got myself… My own in-ear monitoring system just to try and give it another go.
Jamie Dyer: Well yeah because for you, you’re playing the lead in most cases. How hard was it to get used to playing those solos? Because some of them are quite tricky.
David Wood: When I first saw Quo, I was mainly inspired by Rick. I wanted to learn the rhythm side of things. But then, somehow, I was more focused on Francis. And I started learning his bits. I’ve never had a guitar lesson, so I don’t know any scales and I don’t know what’s where on a fretboard. I just sort of watch a video of Francis and work out what he does from that. I also look at Tab online to sort of get the right idea of where he’s playing it and what can come next. Technically, I don’t know what he’s playing.
Jamie Dyer: Well, I, think there are quite a few guitarists out there, myself included, that do it, that method and, you know, people are happy when you go out and play it, obviously. So, you know, it doesn’t matter how you learn these days, is it?
David Wood: No, exactly., I had one guitar lesson when I was about seven, but they taught me what I didn’t wanna know, so I sort of took it upon myself to go on YouTube and watch where he’s playing it and try and figure it out myself.
Jamie Dyer: Which is actually quite a difficult thing to do, because Quo’s music is often kind of misquoted as being a bit simplistic, and yet it’s not that at all, is it?
David Wood: No, not at all. Everyone goes, “Oh, Quo three chords, yeah, that’s easy to play”, but I can guarantee you if you’re not a Quo fan and you can play guitar; If you give them a guitar and say, I’ll give you two hours to learn that song; They’ll come back and they’ll tell you how difficult it is to try and learn it.
Jamie Dyer: Do you have a particular song that you enjoy playing when you’re in The Quo experience?
David Wood: Well that’s quite a hard question because I enjoy playing them all. The one song that probably[00:08:00] just tips it for me would probably be Caroline. That’s my favourite Quo song, so I enjoy it playing it.
Jamie Dyer: There is always this focus with Quo tribute bands of playing that core sort of seventies and early eighties stuff. Do you ever kind of throw in say, a post 86 track?
David Wood: We’re currently working on Jam Side down, which hopefully that will work and we can put it in the set ’cause that’s something completely different. I couldn’t tell you about the setlist; What else we’ve done.
Jamie Dyer: Do you have a website?
David Wood: Yeah, we do have a website. It’s www.TheQuoExperience. co. uk. You can find everything on there. You can find the band. We’re a five-piece band. We’ve got the keyboards as well. We’ve found out it makes all the difference because we have actually played without our keyboard player in Soundcheck before, and you can feel there’s something missing. The keyboards really do pad out the sound a bit more, it just adds that something different, you can find the band members, the gigs on there, we’ve got a gallery on there which shows us in action, I think there’s a few videos online as well.
Jamie Dyer: Yeah, I get what you mean about the keyboards, because they’re very underrated, aren’t they?
David Wood: Yeah, absolutely. Quite a lot of people turn their noses up but to me, it does make a lot of difference. Especially Rockin’ All The World, you’ve got that iconic keyboard intro.
Jamie Dyer: That intro that they always say Andy could kind of fall over and still play it.
David Wood: Yeah it’s such a great intro, and as soon as you play it, everyone knows what’s coming.
Jamie Dyer: And you get that you get that really rush of feeling, I suppose, when you’re on the stage.
David Wood: Yeah well… Cause it’s such a well-known song. As soon as that’s played, everyone’s on their feet. They’re jumping around, they’re dancing, they’re singing. They’re just having a good time, really.
Jamie Dyer: Yes, and you’re also on Facebook. Do you find that, these days, makes a difference?
David Wood: Facebook’s quite a hard one, cause where the, the Quo fans are, they’re at that age where some of them have got Facebook, some of them don’t. We’ve attracted quite a lot of younger audience members, which again is quite nice, cause we can, push the music for a little bit longer, bringing in the younger generation to come in and listen to them. Obviously we’re still hitting the original Quo fans from the 70s and 80s, but we can’t pinpoint them all because not everyone’s got Facebook, which is difficult to an extent.
Jamie Dyer: No, but as they used to say, there’s quite a wide kind of amount of people from different backgrounds that like the band, not just on Facebook, but elsewhere as well. So it’s an interesting one. Do you think in some ways, I mean, the, the band, there’s so much material and things to draw from, how do you possibly choose?
David Wood: it’s one of them where you sort of just all stick your heads together in a meeting and see what everyone comes up with and have a vote at the end of the day. it’s not really one person’s decision. Loads of stuff gets put into a hat and you just end up drawing them out really.
Jamie Dyer: It is interesting because you’re, you’re the third Tribute Act that I, that I’ve spoken to, and all the differing opinions on stuff is, is always really interesting. Do you do any kind of on-stage banter as well?
David Wood: Yeah, we’ve always got, the talks in there. It makes all the difference, because I find that, especially, even though I’m only young, I’m only 20, I am getting old. You know, so, doing all these songs, they are quite frantic and fast, I do get very tired very quickly.
So it’s nice to have a little (cuts out) stuff and a little breathe and have a little chinwag with the audience.
Jamie Dyer: Now that is interesting. In age terms, how far away is everyone from you in age terms?
David Wood: As I say, I’m 20 and I think the next youngest in the band is about 52, 53. So quite a difference.
Jamie Dyer: Do you ever find that they have to catch up with you?
David Wood: I find it’s the other way around really, I have to catch up with them.
Jamie Dyer: It’s almost as though I needed to ask that at the beginning, because you do sound young, but as I say, you know, talk to so many different people.
David Wood: Yeah, see, it was one of them, when I first joined the band, it was like oh oh he’s young? Is it going to work? Is it not? Are people going to frown, because all the other people in the band are quite old and they’re bringing in the young frontman? Would it work? Would it not? And to be honest, it’s worked out quite well for the band, me and the guys, we get on really well, me and Dave or Rick Parfitt have got such a great on-stage and off-stage chemistry.
I couldn’t, I wouldn’t want any other band members in the band to be honest with you. We all get on really well.
Jamie Dyer: And do you have anything else in the pipeline?
David Wood: Oh, you’re making me think now. So many things have happened and I’ve got to, I’ve got to remember. We’re looking at hopefully branching out.
Hopefully to Europe within the next couple of years. We’ve got our agents looking at doing a couple of promotional stunts for us, which should work out well. Yeah, just gonna carry on as we are, getting into theatres, festivals, hopefully some holiday camps.
Jamie Dyer: And building from there. Well we’ve, we’ve come to the end of the podcast, but thank you David for coming on today to talk about the Quo Experience. Can you just remind us what the website address is?
David Wood: It’s www.thequoexperience.co.uk.
Jamie Dyer: Right, well thank you very much.
David Wood: Thank you, it’s been a pleasure talking to you.
