Hello Quo

This programme contains strong language

When the call came through,

"You're going on Top Of The Pops." I mean, that was just unbelievable!

They were hard and tough and rocking.

You could listen to Tales From A Topographic Ocean

or you could listen to Piledriver.

I mean, just the titles alone sets you apart.

Every frigging newsreel in the world carried us!

# Rockin' all over the world. #

Three chords, bang!

There's only three chords anyway, isn't there?

# Whatever you want

# Whatever you like

# Whatever you say

# You pay your money You take your choice

# Whatever you need

# Whatever you use

# Whatever you win

# Whatever you lose... #

I grew up in a family that manufactured ice cream

in a place in Catford and there were various relatives

that made it, people say, "Rossi's!

"I know! I used to love your ice cream." I'd go, "Oh, good. Yeah."

We lived in this most amazing setting because

just to the left of the cul-de-sac was a cricket field

and then behind that was a wood and then there was a river

and then it was open fields.

And then it went into, like, proper fields,

like football and stuff like that.

And I was completely surrounded by everything a kid could ever want.

My dad was a hard-working guy. He was a...

Never any violence in my family.

Perfect, I had a great upbringing. Very happy upbringing.

No qualms about that.

At the age of 11, that's when I met Francis at school.

His dad used to park the ice cream van outside

and on a very few occasions, Francis used to get into the van

and help him, but he didn't really like that.

I somehow ended up playing trumpet

in the school orchestra with Alan Lancaster and Alan Key

and got to know Alan Lancaster very well

and I got to know his family very well, who I subsequently realised,

last year when we were in Australia, I loved his mum and dad.

They were so good to me. They were such lovely people.

We used to, you know, go down the local working man's club

and my dad would say to me,

he'd say, "Are you going to take your box down?"

He used to call it my box, which was my guitar.

And I would get up and sing Babyface and, you know, I'd really enjoy it.

And I won a talent contest out of pub, the club,

the working man's club.

I won five quid, which was an absolute fortune.

My dad, you know, he was well knocked out.

We'd started rehearsing in Alan Key's place,

cos of his brother, and his brother sat us down and said,

"One of you has got to sing."

Lancaster went like that, and so did Alan Key. He was even shier.

So I became the singer! It was that much of an audition!

We had gone to this place near...

We rehearsed in Forest Hill, Jess's place,

and we had gone to this place, an ATC,

an Air Training Corp place.

I don't know why, we rehearsed in this garage once...

And lo and behold, this other group came near that were working there,

called The Cadets! And...

John Coghlan came in, and somehow...

I suppose to show off or whatever,

and he started just belting the hell out of this snare drum

and blatting the hell out of this thing and he was a very good drummer.

I first started playing drums...

I started playing in the band at the Air Cadets at school.

We formed a little band in the squadron

and these two guys kept coming over on a Sunday

to ask if they could watch us rehearse.

And they were playing in the TA barracks,

which was across the road from the Air Cadets.

And it was Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster, and they said,

"Are you doing anything next weekend? Would you come and play with us?"

So I went down to Forest Hill and set the little drum kit up

and that was it.

So the band was formed in the autumn of '62.

There were various gigs we were going to do and we backed out

and then Alan Lancaster's dad worked for...

..Samuel Jones, they were called.

I think it was something to do with metalwork

and stuff like that and they had a sports ground in Dulwich,

which is still there. Lovely little place.

And they had a work do there once a month or something

so he came in and said,

"I've got you two..." not a gig, "..got you two a booking."

"Oh, right." "Fucking hell," I thought, "If his dad's involved,

"Alan has definitely got to go."

Because his dad would have mullered him.

And we started off with Savage, the first number we played,

and that was it.

So we turn up at this thing and we set up and I'm shitting myself.

There's no way I'm going on until Nuff's mother's there.

Until May turned up, I was not going on. He said, "We've got to go."

I said, "I don't care. If your mum's not here we're not going on."

"Yeah, we..." "I don't care. We're not going on until your mother gets here."

His mum got there, "Thank God for that!" Not my mother, his mother.

And I couldn't play naff all.

I was just happy to strum and...

So they passed a hat round, which was...

Going round everybody. Lovely.

We got about five quid, which was fucking marvellous at the time.

We played there a month later and they passed round the hat again

and we got two quid, so we were buggered before we started,

we were on a downhill slope.

This guy walked up to us, "I'm a manager."

"You'd better go and ask Alan's mum," I said.

"Don't fucking try that on with us! You've got to get past May!"

And she went, "Fine."

And she said it was all right and this is Pat Barlow, who was great.

Pat Barlow was managing us at the time and he said,

"I think we can get you into an audition for Butlins."

And thinking about it, I think we didn't think we'd get it.

So we went into London somewhere,

did this audition, and passed it!

And we ended up playing in Butlins Minehead for the summer season.

Until we see you around later on, this is Tom,

on behalf of all the gang, saying bye-bye.

ALL: Bye-bye.

-NARRATOR:

-And back to the nosh,

happy in the knowledge it has all worked out for him.

I did what's called a shop window at the Feathers pub

in Goodge Street in London.

And this agent was there from a holiday camp

called Sunshine Holiday Camp, which was down in Hayling Island.

He said to my dad, "I'd like to book this lad.

"When does he leave school?"

My dad said, "You know, a few months' time."

He said, "Right. He's got the job."

We were always just a double act called the Harrison Twins.

It was never going to be anything else,

not as far as we were concerned,

-until we went to Sunshine and we bumped into Richard.

-Ricky.

We sat and rehearsed a couple of songs like Island Of Dreams by The Springfields,

I think that was probably the first song we ever did.

We learned three songs initially, for the very first show,

and we called ourselves The Highlights.

And after that, you know, I said to the twins,

"I'll come up and live with you in Plumstead." You know.

We was with a guy called Joe Cohen in London. He was our manager.

He was one of the Keystone Cops.

Ricky said, "I don't want to be on my own when we finish the season."

And we said, "We don't want to leave you either."

So we said, "Shall we ask him if he can get us work as a trio?"

And he managed... God knows how!

He managed to secure us a season at Butlins!

And of course, way back then, I mean, Butlins was...

You know, if you got a season at Butlins, you'd all but made it.

He's kind of ashamed of the fact he's come from cabaret

and I think he's a dickhead cos it's training but it's still showbiz.

I know Francis thought I was gay.

He thought I was queer cos I kind of minced over, you know,

I had my sort of silver suit on, which I'd been rehearsing in.

I just went up and said "Hello," you know,

"I'm Rick. I'm working over there."

And we literally struck up a friendship.

I just wanted to go and see the band. It just blew me away.

I just thought they were just great.

I'd sort of got pally with everybody there

and I was right into the bass player at the time, believe it or not,

after we left for about a year.

And then the manager at the time, who was a plumber,

good-looking bloke, though, said,

"Do you want to join? We need another voice, believe it or not."

We got our first recording contract in '66.

We got that because I was asked to do a cover and the cover I arranged

was a Shirley Bassey number called I (Who Have Nothing).

# I, I who have nothing

# I, I who have no-one... #

Yeah, so the first one was I (Who Have Nothing).

The second one...

was a track of Alan Lancaster's called Hurdy Gurdy Man,

which was great.

And then we did a cover that John Schroeder had got

by a band called the Blues Magoos.

They knew how to have names in those days, didn't they?

And they had a song called We Ain't Got Nothing Yet,

I'd wrote Almost But Not Quite There

and then Matchstick Men went out, it was a hit.

I was only a kid. I remember myself as a kid.

And they were already rock stars or pop stars.

I didn't know the difference.

I didn't know there was a difference, really.

He had an amazing record, which has this, # Dew, dew, dew, dew, dew... #

MUSIC: "Pictures of Matchstick Men" by Status Quo

# When I look up to the skies

# I see your eyes a funny kind of yellow

# I rush home to bed, I soak my head

# I see your face underneath my pillow... #

I remember Alan Florence, the engineer, suggested,

"Let's put this phasing on."

And as I remember it - again, it's a long time ago now -

there was this wheel on the wall

like Dan Dare, you know, like Flash Gordon.

And he kind of, fshh...

..phased it, you know.

# Pictures of matchstick men and you

# Mirages of matchstick men and you

# All I ever see is them and you. #

Which just made for this fantastic little record,

that was just different, lyrically fantastic,

melodically, you know, really good. Everything about it.

# Windows echo your reflection

# When I look in their direction now

# When will this haunting stop?

# Your face, it just won't leave me alone. #

And it sounded very kind of psychedelic to me.

I don't know if psychedelic was even invented in those days

but it sounded rather sort of trippy and mysterious.

We'd finished, walked out the studio, I'm talking to John Schroeder

and I said to him, "What's next? What happens now?"

He said, "We'll just see what happens."

We didn't quite know which way we were going,

although Matchstick Men had taken us, had got our foot in the door,

as it were, which was amazing.

I mean, the thing about going on telly, when the call came through,

"You're going on Top Of The Pops."

I mean, that was just unbelievable.

Cos you'd watched Top Of The Pops, that was for other people.

You don't visualise yourself on there.

Matchstick Men was a massive hit, a hit in the States

and all over the place. God knows how it was a hit in the States!

As a matter of fact, when it was released in the United States,

it was put on a label called Cadet Concept,

a subsidiary of Chess Records,

which would please all fans of the blues,

for their more psychedelic material.

So when we've broke, we were a rock band with a soul set

and a psychedelic single.

I didn't know what psychedelic meant and people keep asking me!

I don't know! I was copying things!

We were sent off to Carnaby Street.

We were sent off. You know, you've got to look for part.

You're going on Top Of The Pops.

There was this place in Carnaby Street called Carnaby Cavern

and there was this guy with what we call a shock of red hair

who you would always see dancing on Top Of The Pops.

"Hang on a minute, summat going on here."

And so the entire industry went to his shop

so you'd do a photo session or something like this

and I remember doing this fucking photo session

and there's this yellow shirt

with these huge dew-drop fucking things, you know.

I come out and, "Here we go, that'll do."

"You can't wear that, mate." "What?"

"You can't wear that. I did that with Jimmy last week."

"Shit!" Go and get another shirt out.

"No, I did that with Amen Corner." "Fuck it."

And that's what it was... They had all been to the same shop!

But when Francis says he felt he got pressurised

into sort of wearing the wrong things or being

part of something he wasn't quite ready for, I can understand that.

I can see Rick enjoying a kaftan, but I can't see Francis.

# No-one cares who you are

# You won't come back

# It's too late now... #

I mean, all the pop bands after '67 all dressed like that, didn't they?

Whether they were dressed or whatever, I don't know

what the deal was but they all wore strange outfits, didn't they?

Funny little bolero jackets and massive great flares

and all that, but I liked it. I like that look.

We were missing what we were, really, you know, which was,

you know, we were jeans.

We liked jeans and pumps and T-shirts, you know.

And that's really how we kind of saw the band.

Because we were out in Germany

and Francis and I went to this club,

I think it was called Studio M in Bielefeld,

and the fucking Doors come on, playing Roadhouse Blues.

HE HUMS ROADHOUSE BLUES

Roadhouse Blues. "Fucking listen to this!

"It's up our street and look at them two move!"

And there was this couple on the dance floor

and they were dancing so slinkily

and Frame and me were just sitting there

and we just looked at one another and thought,

"We've got to do this song."

It immediately turned us on,

this whole slinky feel of this 12-bar shuffle, you know.

And we thought, "Well, this is the end of the Mecca ballrooms,

"this is the end of the frilly shirt."

You know, let's take a chance.

Pop music moved so fast.

Every year between 1955 and 1972 was like a decade today.

So it's no wonder that we could say that

Quo had their psychedelic period and whoosh, it was gone.

Status Quo means, in Latin, it means "us as we are".

Status means your rank and position

and quo means an unaltered condition.

-He's got it!

-It means the existing state of affairs.

THEY CLAP

We like the meaning of it. Thanks! We like the meaning of that.

Although there was no thing of creating a meaning,

we just liked the sound and it went with the band.

We tried to make ourselves look ugly.

That was the trend at the time.

Everyone was looking so ugly in the hippy area,

long hair and spots and things. "Oh, they're cool."

The jeans had to be ripped.

They had to be as scruffy as they possibly could be.

You couldn't buy new jeans ripped in those days

so somebody had really beaten them up and washed the fuck out of them.

The knees were out. Brilliant.

And they were hard and tough and rocking

and quite different from the Matchstick Men kind of image.

In those days, the heads, as they were called,

were all sat on the floor cross-legged because that was it.

If you want to have a good night, on the floor, head down, rocking.

Long hair, couldn't see anything.

And the way I remember it was, you know,

they were all down there so let's get down with them.

You want to just rock out, not to think too hard.

If you want to think, listen to Bob Dylan. Listen to Leonard Cohen.

Status Quo weren't there to represent them.

They were the antitheses of that. They were the opposite.

They were the relief from all the hippie, overblown prog crap

that was going off in the '70s.

You could listen to Tales From A Topographic Ocean

or you could listen to Piledriver.

I mean, just the titles alone sets you apart.

MUSIC: "Paper Plane" by Status Quo

"Riding on a big white butterfly" -

physically not possible.

"Turned my back away towards the sky."

The fuck's he saying there?

But if you had a joint, it's "Yeah, I know what you mean, man!"

Nearly everything I've done I think is a nick.

And I'm only saying it cos Leonard said it a few times.

And then I realised that Matchstick Men...

# Da da da da Da da da... #

The opening verse of Down Down...

# I want all the world to see... #

It's exactly the same. Shit!

At least I've been nicking from myself. Ish!

# I want all the world to see

# To see you're laughing

# And you're laughing at me... #

Every band has this, maybe, it could be

anything from 18 months to 18 years where it's their momentum period.

Nothing they do is wrong.

Everything they do is like a snowball.

It builds its own momentum going downhill and it just keeps going.

It's like a big juggernaut.

And between '72 and '74, they had it down.

# Come on, sweet Caroline

# You're my sweet Caroline

# You know I want to take you

# I've really got to make you

# Come on, sweet Caroline

# Take my hand

# Together we can rock'n'roll...#

Three chords, bang.

There's only three chords anyway, ain't there?

There's no more than three chords.

I don't know any more than three chords.

If I was in Status Quo, I'd be very proud of myself.

It doesn't matter how many chords you use.

And they have a great sense of humour, of course.

They've always done that.

And this great thing, searching for the fourth chord.

I don't think they were ever purporting to be

breaking new ground musically.

They just did what they did.

They had their sound and it's a very recognisable sound.

I mean, what else do people want from you? I don't know.

There's huge truth in the three corners.

My response would be, "So what?"

These are the same people that would give

ten-star reviews to the Ramones.

Two chord wonders. And look at The Adverts,

even had a song called One-Chord Wonders. You know?

Simplicity is a real hard thing to accomplish,

if it's not just bland or boring. They make it exciting.

And it's just three chords, you know?

It's sometimes five or six, don't tell anybody.

# When I get home tomorrow night after this morning

# Show me the care you showed in the note the night before

# Maybe I won't take a drink from the table

# Reckon I'll lay me straight down on the floor

# Roll over, lay down and let me in

# Roll over, it's a long way where I've been

# Roll over, lay down and let me in

# Roll over, lay down. #

Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll in the 1970s?

HE LAUGHS

There was heaps of it.

We got to the studio about 11, like we do.

And I was going to have a cup of tea.

And he whacked a couple of spoonfuls of speed in my tea.

And I didn't know that he'd done it.

So I'd drunk the tea and I obviously tasted it.

And he said, "I put a little bit..." I said, "Oh, fine." You know?

I didn't know he'd put two spoonfuls of it in.

"Where's that..." "I drank it."

"No, that's too much!

"That'll fucking kill you! No! Come with me!"

So I get him down the bog, me fingers down his throat

trying to... No, nothing happening.

So the day went by. It was the Blue For You album.

If you listen to the Blue For You album,

we can't play shit that fast any more.

I don't care how good your hand is.

So, everybody left the studio eight, nine o'clock that evening.

I'm still going. I'm still flying.

And I'd got this tuning,

which I loved, this open G tuning

that I started to mess about with.

And it was one of those things where everything sounded good, you know?

Because you're away with the fairies.

And Rick was on a stool.

# Do do do

# Do do da-da da-da

# Do do do

# Do do da-da

# Do do do

# Do do da-da da-da # Do do da da... #

And I sat there all night.

"Ta-ra, you lot! See you tomorrow!

"Everything's fine, don't worry about it.

"Leave me here, I'm fine. Don't worry."

And so, I just sat and played that.

When they came back in the morning, I had the Mystery Song.

I think I had the lyrics, everything.

Just did it, you know, overnight.

And you get so wrapped up in it.

# Oh, my legs are shaking

# Oh, my heart is breaking

# I'm just feeling like a boy... #

I love rock'n'roll!

AUDIENCE SCREAMS

I love rock'n'roll!

And I know we need 10,000 of the best

rock 'n' rollers in this country tonight!

And that's in here!

Will you welcome the greatest

rock'n'roll band in the world!

Status Quo!

# When I get home tomorrow night after this morning

# Show me the care you showed in the note the night before

# Maybe I won't take a drink from the table... #

They were the first band I ever saw.

1972, I think, at Guildford Civic Hall.

And me and the band, my band, we got tickets

and we were in the last row

in Guildford Civic Hall.

And it was the first gig I'd ever seen, anyway.

And it was so fucking loud.

We were just like this, pinned back like this.

And we were just like, "That's fucking..."

That was all the confirmation we ever needed about being in a band.

We just thought it was amazing.

# You spend my money

# You drink my best red wine

# You think it's funny

# To see me all the time... #

My old man was mates with Dick, who was Ricky's dad.

They used to play cards.

They'd just have a regular card school round the working men's club.

The Woking Working Mens Club in Walton Road.

So that was the connection, really.

He lent us a few bits and pieces, a few bits of equipment,

some of which he got back, some of which he didn't.

I remember us going down the A3 one day on the way to London,

doing a gig, and Rick was coming down the other side.

And he was saying, "Where's my amp?"

And we were like, "No, you'll get it back."

But he never did. Sorry, mate.

Listen to radio something, and again,

this is why I like not looking for music.

I don't know where I was going, down the hill here.

"Fuck me! This is blinding!

"Jesus Christ, that's good!"

It was The Jam. That's like...

Well, that taught you, then, didn't it? I said, "It teaches me."

I said, "I can't stick... Love the record."

So things I think I don't like and

then suddenly along will come a record.

"Shit! Didn't want to like that, but I do."

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: "Rockin' All Over the World"

# Ah, here we are and here we are and here we go

# All aboard and we're hitting the road

# Here we go

# Rockin' all over... #

I was driving home from town one night and I was probably out of it.

I don't remember. But this song came on the radio.

And I'd never heard it before.

I obviously knew John Fogerty,

but I'd never heard this Rockin' All Over the World.

And I thought, "What a great song!" The chorus...

-# I like it, I like it...

-#

# I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it

# I la-la-la-like it

# La-la-la-la

# Here we go-o

# Rockin' all over the world... #

"That would be so great for us."

And the fact that I'd never heard it, I thought,

"Well, this couldn't have been a hit here." You know?

Very few people had known John Fogerty's

version of Rockin' All Over the World.

Because, when he left Creedence Clearwater Revival,

his first solo album was an undeserved flop.

It just turned out like it turned out. Just magic, straightaway.

It was magical. And the bit on the end...

# Da da da da da da... #

To my mind, the point where I became

a full-time member was after

we'd recorded the Rockin' All Over the World album

and then the band got together

about three or four months later,

after a nice break,

to start touring the Rockin' All Over the World tour

to promote the album. And they decided that...

..they would need a keyboard player full-time.

Yeah, I love Andy.

He's a great guy.

We spent many a good day together.

Andy likes sightseeing. I always thought I was wasting my time,

because Francis never went out of his room. Rick was always sort of,

"I'll go in a minute." But never would.

But Andy liked to go out and see the sights a bit.

So I always clung to him a bit.

I enjoyed Alan's company a lot of the time.

One of the best days out I've ever had, Alan and I went for

a day out in Venice together,

just us and the pigeons.

# Living on an island

# Looking at another line

# Waiting for my friend to come

# And we'll get high

# Hugh, he got a real nice place

# Cruxie gonna be there soon

# And I just want to see his face

# I'm getting lonely in my empty room... #

Well, Living on an Island, I was...again...

I was doing a tax year and I was flitting around Europe.

I'd spent quite a bit of time in Germany.

And it was then suggested that we all go

and hole up on the island of Jersey.

# Waiting for my friend to come

# And we'll get high

# Passing time away

# In blue skies... #

There wasn't a lot to do on the island, really. You know?

And... So I just...

I started the song off with Bob Young, I think.

And we just talked about being bored, really.

Living on an island, waiting for somebody to come out.

Waiting for somebody maybe to sneak a bit of Niki Lauda

onto the island, cos bad news there, you know?

And that song was really lovely

and it reflected the time spent on Jersey.

So, I suppose you could say the old nugget,

if something good came out of it,

it was Living on an Island.

But... God, we had such a...

I mean, lucky to be alive, really.

Cos I was going out of my skull.

I so nearly drove a car over a cliff one night.

I mean, lost it on a corner.

And the back end of the car was

literally a couple of feet away from a 200-foot drop.

And falling off bicycles.

I hurt myself so badly on bicycles and stuff.

And backing cars into trees.

Just going out... Just bored!

Going out of my skull, just didn't know what to do.

So you used to start drinking and doing what you can.

It was a wild time.

Coke was getting into the...

You can see Rick changing considerably. And...

kind of becoming coke-driven, I think.

In rock bands, maybe it doesn't seem like it,

but there's a lot of downtime on the road.

So there's a lot of boredom to try to get rid of.

So, you know, it's easy.

You smoke a joint here, you rack up a couple of lines of coke there

and then you start getting into really heavy, Class A staff

and that feels even better, you know?

I'm not at liberty to talk about

things like sex and drugs

and rock 'n' roll,

but I would say that what you've heard is

probably only half of the truth.

# Whatever you want

# Whatever you like

# Whatever you say

# You pay your money You take your choice

# Whatever you need

# Whatever you use

# Whatever you win

# Whatever you lose... #

And then we kind of got into the dope smoking

and I think Spud felt so alienated, you know?

Because we were laughing at nothing.

We were laughing at anything and nothing.

Of course, he's sitting there, scratching his pissed head,

going "What the fuck are they laughing at?

"Why aren't I laughing?"

You know, he's just sitting there,

talking to Jeremy, you know?

Well, I think there was a lot of bub open

and a lot of drink happening.

And I think, let's be honest about it, I overdid it.

And I think Francis was tuning my drums, or something.

Which I didn't like the idea of that.

I'd set up two or three drum kits with Johnny, whomever the thing was,

ready for Spud to come in and try. Cos his attention span was...

He'd get fed up quick.

We'd say, "Just try a little longer..."

It's too late, he's lost it.

And again, that's not going at him, that's just how shit was.

And he'd inevitably kick the kit all over the friggin' place,

cos he lost his temper with it.

I don't particularly remember ever kicking drums over,

because I like playing drums. I don't kick them around.

But I do remember the next morning

Ian Jones coming into my room.

And he was called The Axeman in those days,

because he used to sack people, roadies and stuff,

and just go around sacking people.

We were in the hotel room that night,

and Francis came in with our tour manager at the time, Ian Jones,

and said, "We're going to get...

"We think John should go and we should get somebody else in.

"We can't stand it."

And me and Rick thought, "Oh, this'll blow over tomorrow.

"We'll be gone tomorrow." "Yeah, OK, man."

Carried on playing our backgammon.

Because of what had happened last night in the studio,

the band have had a meeting

and they want to use a drum machine.

"Oh, right. A drum machine.

"A shuffling drum machine. That's an idea." And...

And I think I just remember going,

"Bollocks. I'll get on the plane."

And it was quite funny,

cos it took not just The Axeman

and someone else to put me in a cab, take me to the airport.

It was a representative from the record company and someone else.

And, you know, I think I can find an effing airport on my own

without you having to show me where it is.

Next day, Rick and I were down in the breakfast room

and the tour manager came in and said,

"John's on his way to London. He's gone back."

And I believe, looking back now,

I don't think I touched a drum kit for a year.

Because I'd really had enough of it.

And my wife and I just went on holidays

and put our feet up, really.

And Pete, who I'd worked with before,

we'd all worked with Pete before,

Pete Kircher, great drummer,

came in and we recorded the album. We forgot about John.

But, of course, once you step outside the frame, that circle,

that bubble of the band,

you soon know who your friends are.

So, John was out and that was the start.

That was unthinkable at the time.

And it was never the same since.

We made bad albums after that.

Now on Top of the Pops, Status Quo, this week at number five,

with Marguerita Time.

# Captured my heart... #

'Various frictions come over the years.

'Marguer...Rick didn't want to do it either

'and we were about to have dinner in Montserrat

'and came up to an old school, where we used to record.'

About six o'clock, we'd stop for dinner and people to get shit-faced.

You'd work till two in the morning and waste your time.

But, I think Alan said to me,

"Shall we do that one of yours? That Marguerita?"

So we kind of put it down and said,

"It's not going to be used."

It just had this impact on Alan,

where it was just a bit too much for him.

Yeah, that's a load of rubbish.

Why did I record it if I didn't want to record it?

I didn't think it was right for the band, that's another story.

We put it into the set, as well,

and fans loved it. Loved it.

# Picture a dream

# Picture a fantasy... #

I thought it looked quite big

to have the bass player from another big band on with us.

I thought it looked really good. I was quite excited by that.

So I went in and told our lot. Our lot didn't like it at all!

So, anyway, they never mentioned it again.

Just when they were going up - we'd opened the show -

a knock came on the door.

And the door opened. "Jim, if you're up for it...

So, we hadn't rehearsed.

And I just went up on stage.

# Find no other reason

# I never knew what had happened to me

# I didn't think it was true... #

So, this week of us doing Marguerita Time, it was live.

So I said to Pete Kircher, I said,

"Right, what I'm going to do towards the end of the song..."

And nobody believes this story.

Over the years, I've fought with people, saying

"No, I did it deliberately!"

They, "You were pissed, weren't you, pal?" "No, I wasn't!"

All right, so I had had a couple of drinks, but it was all pre-planned.

I said to Pete, I said,

"Towards the end, I'm going to walk back to you."

I hadn't told Francis, I hadn't told anybody.

Just the drummer.

So, towards the end of the song, I thought, "Here we go."

And I walked back and just fell into the kit.

And, of course, it worked brilliantly.

The whole thing went off the side.

We all fell off the stage sideways.

And it caused a bit of a furore.

CHEERING

LAUGHTER

# I've known a lot of women and I've known a lot of men

# I've always known the difference

# Ever since I was ten

# I married a girl from the sweetshop

# Who turned out to be a bag

# And now she's getting on a bit

# All she does is nag

# Oh, I'm fond of her

# Very fond of her

# But she goes on and on and on and on and on... #

Barker did me, didn't he?

It's just not possible!

However, it was the closest to looking like Rick ever.

# And if she's out when I come home, it really gets my goat

# She can't nag me in person

# So she leaves a naggy note

# I'm fond of her

# Very fond of her

# But she goes on and on and on and on

# And on and on and on... #

And he came out, straight out of his shop.

"Hi, guys!" And it was almost like some Quo puncturing,

we was so taken to talking with him.

So, thanks very much. You made me feel great.

For the best thing that I've ever seen done of us. Hilari...

# And I'm fond... #

In fact, for a few years, Rick and I sing

"# I'm fond of her, I'm very fond of her... #"

We'd sing that instead of Wanderer.

It's very, very clever. Bastards.

Status Quo's farewell tour was in '84.

I always thought that's far, far, far too premature, that is.

And I think it started with Hammersmith Odeon,

as it probably was then.

And they did seven nights, and they sold out in a couple of hours.

And, I mean, I remember the queues.

There were queues from round the block.

If you look at the posters

"At the end of the road, but still making tracks."

Somebody said to me, "Quo will never sell an album unless they tour."

You shouldn't have fucking said that.

What You're Proposing, and Never Too Late.

Both sold without touring, you see?

And I was getting to the thing with them. I said, "Let's do the end..."

And I said, "You don't do that. It's a bad move to say, 'end of the...'

"You think it's great to pull in tickets,

"but I don't think you should say it."

You know, we weren't getting on at all well.

And it was real pressure, being in the band.

It was the end, yeah.

People keep saying, "Oh, Status Quo,

"you've reformed again, have you?

"Another reformation, or another final tour?"

No, we've only stopped once, and that was it.

And we did that gig and I remember being on the stage

at Milton Keynes there, thinking,

"Well, we finished Caroline."

You think, "God, that's the last time I'm ever going to play that."

And 4500 Times, all that, "Never going to play this again."

The great thing about Bowie retiring,

Quo knocking it on the head,

Bruce Dickinson deciding to leave Maiden and then,

oops, coming back again, you know,

we had Frank Sinatra as a great yardstick.

You know, he retired more times than everybody put together.

FRANCIS: And, to be honest, what we should have done is said,

"We'll take two years out. Or a year out."

But I do believe that, with our various managers, other than Simon...

..is that they always thought, "This won't fucking last long."

Thank you! Good night! Goodbye!

CHEERING

We had a secret weapon. And it wasn't secret, it was Geldof.

You don't say no to Geldof.

When he calls you up and says, "I need your help.

"I need you to do this." He's incredibly persuasive.

And, bear in mind, this was at a time when

his bubble had been and gone.

I think it was a few minutes to 12, when we went on stage.

Little did I know, 20 minutes later,

that would be the last chord I'd ever play.

-ANNOUNCER:

-'It's 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia,

'and around the world, it's time for Live Aid.'

CHEERING

-MIDGE:

-And, of course, you want to kick something like that off.

You've got to have a killer opening.

'And now, to start the 16 hours of Live Aid,

'would you welcome Status Quo!'

CHEERING

Hello!

-CROWD:

-Hello!

Hello, are you all right?!

CROWD CHEERS

You all right?!

CROWD CHEERS

# Oh, here we are and here we are and here we go

# All aboard and we're hittin' the road

# Here we go

# Rockin' all over the world. #

Go on, son!

The artiest of people backstage would have gone, "Oh, yeah."

I can imagine Bowie, you know,

or Brian Ferry going, "Yeah, that makes sense."

It was real. All of a sudden, they kicked off

and the whole thing was real. It was genuine.

# I like it, I like it, I like it, I like it

# I la-la-la-like it, la-la-la

# Here we go, rockin' all over the world... #

It's just the best fit ever, really, isn't it?

Rockin' All Over The World, and it's the world concert, so perfect.

I said, look, Bob, we ain't getting on, we ain't rehearsed,

and he said, "It doesn't matter a fuck what you sound like,"

but he said that to everybody so he made you feel,

and all credit to him, he got us all down there.

Yeah, Live Aid stirs up memories, of course, for me, with Quo,

because we sat in the Royal Box with Charles and Diana,

and Bob Geldof, and David Bowie and a few other people

and watched Quo open the whole day, doing Rockin' All Over The World.

# I like it, I like it, I like it, I la-la-la-like it

# La-la-la

# Here we go, rockin' all over the world... #

Most people, you want to jockey for the top spot. Not interested.

And then you realise how many cameras there are, all of a sudden,

you realise that the whole pit is full of cameras, you know,

not just photographers, movie cameras, you know,

so we went on first

and every frigging newsreel in the world carried us.

That's when I think everyone went, "Shit, should have opened the show."

And contrary to common belief

that we were out of it when we went on there,

well, I don't know about Frame but I certainly wasn't.

I did it completely straight.

We came off stage and I immediately hit something quite strong,

I don't remember what it was, and we were chatting away to Janice Long

a couple of minutes after we came off

and I remember because my whole body was fizzed anyway

and I'm pumping from what we've just done.

Hey! Hello, darling, are you all right?

How did it go? Rick Parfitt, Status Quo.

It was fantastic, it's an incredible atmosphere out there

with the weather and everything, and the crowd are wonderful.

Just wish we could have stayed on a bit longer.

But actually launching the whole thing must have been amazing.

It's very exciting, especially with Rockin' All Over The World

because it's been advertised with Rockin' All Over The World.

-Come on, mate!

-Come on, lads. Hiya.

-How are you doing? How did it go?

-Don't stick it up my nose!

-I'd like to shove this up your nose.

-Steady on, steady on.

-How did it go?

-Have you had a drink?

-Pardon?

-How did it go?

-Quickly. Very quickly, yeah.

Once you get there, you want to stay a bit longer. He said, "Wind it up."

Wind it up because I think The Style Council are coming on.

And that was that.

I don't remember another thing about the day, not a thing.

It's show business, right?

After the event, I think Dire Straits' album went...whoosh!

So did Tina Turner and so did U2,

but some of us didn't have any extra product out.

Somebody had the nous to put product out, and so on.

We've got time for one more. Have we?

No?

No more? One more.

We've got time for one more, maybe a favourite.

We'll have some hands in the middle of this with a bit of luck.

After four. Four.

# You spend my money

# You drink my best red wine... #

Come on, let's see you in the room.

We got on great that day. It was a fantastic day.

I was staying with Rick in Rick's apartment, we were having great fun

and I spent most of the day with Francis -

we was walking around everywhere,

and I flew back to Australia not long after that, about a week after,

and received a letter from the office, the management office,

signed by Francis,

typed out by the office, obviously, with their address,

and signed by Francis, saying they didn't want to work with me any more

because the end of the road had really come.

Alan had gone. He had gone from the band.

He came back for Live Aid, he came across to do Live Aid,

but as far as we were all concerned then,

certainly as far as I was concerned, the band was over, it was finished.

It was really Alan and Francis

that just couldn't work together any more. They just couldn't.

How many bands can you name me

that have all the original members in it, right?

And there's really, when you play the game, there's maybe that many.

How many fingers do I got up?

That's about how many are left that have all their original members,

so you just, you've got to find the hurdles to get over

and you got to be able to jump over them,

you have to grow a thicker skin

and you have to just kind of drive through the whole thing.

I always felt in the middle of Rick and Francis,

and Francis said he always felt he was in the middle of me and Rick,

and Rick said some time ago

he always felt he was in the middle of me and Francis, so even there...

At that point, I dare say he was advised to go for the name,

stop them doing it, so he did, and we...

I didn't want to go, I hate all that shite,

and we went to court

cos obviously people were behind us, saying, "Get the fucking name,"

and Nuff had this way, he said,

"I did warn you two I would do this, blah blah blah,"

which is Nuff, fair enough,

and we'd left the court, sat there drinking tea

because they're going on and on, the bollocks that goes on,

and when he lost, he went bloody mad.

I had been out and done a solo album called Recorded Delivery,

which I was really proud of. I loved it. And on this album,

Pip Williams had said to me,

"You've got to use this bass player and this drummer,"

respectively John "Rhino" Edwards and Jeff Rich.

So we went down to the studio and met Rick.

Songs were really good, really good songs,

and it just went fantastic, really great album. We had a good album.

Then the record company said,

you know, "Quo, we want another album off you."

So I said to Francis, "Look,"

I said, "I've met this bass player and this drummer."

I said, "You'll like them. They're good eggs, nice people."

He said, "Hmmm," he wasn't keen at all.

I said, "We've got to do it, Frame."

So we ended up in the studio.

And to me, they were just another couple of players at the time.

I'm sure John will tell you, I just went, "Yeah, right, mate."

I didn't get too close to anybody any more, you know.

I got asked to go and have a jam with Francis

at Gaslight Studios, I think it was.

He walked in and he had the, "Right, mate, how are you doing, yeah,"

not interested at all.

And then by the end of the rehearsal, you know,

we were getting into it, and my head was just going bang, bang,

it was so loud, I couldn't believe it.

And then he said, "Yeah, it was really good,

"Nice and quiet as well!"

And when it reformed, it reformed without Alan

because Francis didn't get on with Alan.

What myself and Rhino did,

hopefully, was put our own stamp onto that music.

There was no tension, there was no aggro,

these two new guys, fresh, you know, and it worked wonderfully.

We went into the studio.

Frame had found In The Army Now,

played it to me and I went, "No, not really."

Dickhead. Great song.

And so we did it and did that In The Army Now album with Jeff and John.

And once again, I mean, it was a huge success, Army was a huge hit,

and all over Europe.

The first gig in Dubai, I think I was a little bit nervous,

but then at the end of it,

all Francis said to me was, "John, don't jump on the monitors,

"We'll leave that for Lemmy."

# Uncle Sam does the best he can

# You're in the Army now

# O-o-oh

# You're in the Army

# Now

# Now you remember what the draft man said

# Nothing to do all day but stay in bed

# You're in the Army now

# O-o-oh, you're in the Army

# Now. #

Five, four, three, two, one,

go! They're off!

When we put that together,

and we started holding the venues and doing the whole thing,

we were told, "You're absolutely fucking out of your brains

"to even think about it." I mean, it was nuts.

As far as I know, as far as we know, nobody's ever attempted this before.

-So you're making a record?

-We're setting a record, yeah.

And we've got to do the four shows, which will be

roughly 50 minutes to an hour each show, in under 12 hours, right?

All the money the tickets make tonight is all going to charity.

-It's all going to charity.

-Every penny.

Because Britannia, the music company, sponsored the whole thing,

we didn't want to be seen to be making any profit,

it's children's charities throughout the country, basically.

We took off from Northolt and I saw a plane in the distance.

"Ah, near miss."

So, on the phone!

"It's nearly a disaster before it starts!

"Quo have just had a near miss."

Made every news. Blown.

# Whatever you want, whatever you like

# Whatever you say, you pay your money, you take your choice

# Whatever you need, whatever you use... #

Any idea where we're going?

# Missiles flying over your head

# If you want to survive, get out of bed

# You're in the army now

# O-o-oh, you're in the army... #

I can taste being on that helicopter now, heading for the third show,

thinking, "Oh, my God, we're only halfway through."

It was ju-ju-ju-juh!

Deafening. That was another David Walker,

or Flapper, as he was known, nicknamed.

MUFFLED MUSIC: "Jump" by Van Halen

CROWD CHEERS

Have we got a microphone?

Listen, you're done really well so far,

but you must be feeling terrible.

We are starting to feel it now, but we've got our own equipment here.

It sounds like a good crowd, so we should be all right.

Have you been eating all your pasta?

(HOARSE) No, we missed the first two meals. We've had one bowl of pasta.

Francis, what's the matter with your throat?

It's like this. I don't know. We'll go on with it.

I'll tell you what, never again.

Is this it? Has it been harder than you thought it was going to be?

Yeah, a lot harder. We thought we'd breeze through it.

When we'd done the first one, thought it'd be pretty easy,

but it's been really difficult.

# Whatever you want... #

I thought it would be a piece of cake,

and I found out afterwards they were going to do This Is Your Life

just as we finished at Wembley,

and we were at Wembley playing, out on our feet,

I really didn't think it would be a problem at all.

And at the completion of this 25th year by Status Quo,

having done their gigs at Sheffield,

at Glasgow, at Birmingham,

now here in Wembley, we want to present certificates to them

from the Guinness Book Of Records for decibels and for duration.

I think we said we did it in 11 hours, 11 minutes at the time,

but actually that was a made-up figure.

Had to come up with something to put on the certificate!

But it was under 12 hours.

CHEERING

The performer renowned as one of rock's wildest characters,

Rick Parfitt's energy has lasted as long as Status Quo's popularity

over the last three decades.

The band had just completed a whirlwind world tour

when 48-year-old Parfitt was rushed to hospital yesterday evening

complaining of chest pains.

Well, I got up, it was a perfectly nice day, and...

I was feeling fine, I was feeling normal,

I was living on my own, um...

..near Kingston, and I went to make a cup of tea,

this is about 8am, 8:30am,

and I got this massive pain from one shoulder to the other

which literally kind of dropped me down on my knees.

I realised I was still alive and,

was that a heart attack? And I've survived it? What was that?

But it really, really hurt, I'd never felt anything like it before,

so I thought, "Well,"

sort of unlike me, "I'd better go and see the doctor."

He had a quadruple heart bypass operation

lasting more than four hours.

A spokesman said Parfitt had now regained consciousness,

even asking a nurse how England's football team had fared against Georgia.

They came back in and they said, "Well, it's bad news,

"We've got to operate on you within 24 hours or you could die."

I went to see him the morning after the operation.

He was sat with a glass of wine and a cigarette,

I thought, "He's all right." As soon as I saw him I knew he was all right.

People said, did I worry? And I did until I saw him and "That's Rick."

Rick has this incredible talent of bouncing back.

I reckon he could be dead 25 minutes and still bounce back.

"Oh, it's all right, I'm all right now."

I had to take a cushion everywhere with me in case I sneezed

because you think it's all going to go "ping-ping-ping-ping".

I had to hold this cushion.

The first time I did sneeze, it was fucking frightening

because you think your chest is going to split open.

But, yeah, I kind of got used to it.

12 weeks later, I was back on stage.

We thought it was a novel idea to ask the fans to write in,

"Do you want Quo to play at your pub?"

It was like the lottery, really. Put your hand in, pick one out.

It was a brilliant marketing ploy.

The Bull in Walkden,

yep, so there we go, there's a little podium in the corner,

you know, diamond-shaped podium, so you play on there.

"Ha! This will be fun!"

It was a novelty.

But it wore off, and when the novelty had worn off,

it was really a pain in the arse.

I thought it would have been better

if we would have done maybe just one pub, to be honest.

To do six wasn't a good idea, as far as I was concerned.

There were a couple of real shitholes.

Particularly one in Birmingham I remember, where they literally,

it was like they were set up in the corner of the room, which...

I don't know how many we did.

I just remember it was great for me because I used to drink

a lot of bitter beer before I became Rhino the Rhino.

But I loved playing pubs.

I like playing really small gigs, as well as big ones.

David was a great ideas man, and you know, he came up with things

like the Butlins anniversary, which was fantastic at the time, and again,

it was one of those reinventions of the band. They needed it at the time.

On a business level, he was extremely good in those days.

I'm going to ask you something and I don't want you to hit me.

I want you to think seriously before you say, "No fucking chance."

So you know what you're saying!

-The Germans...

-No fucking chance, yeah.

..love the idea of the pub. We're doing the five pubs in Germany.

-We're doing Berlin, Hamburg.

-We've seen what we're doing, go on.

-They also love the idea of doing a sh-small show.

-"A shmall show".

In the atrium, it's not an atrium, what is it, a big fucking hall?

-Yes, it's a big foyer.

-You know Axel's been dead for a long time.

-The Axel Springer building.

-Hotel receptions?

No, it's the actual Springer building in their big foyer.

Yeah, it's a big glass...

For all their staff, which is a couple of hundred people.

-Yeah, we heard about that.

-Ah! That's the good news because they want it.

-The bad news is the only...

-It's only four staff.

LAUGHTER

The only sensible way of making it work...

-Somebody else does it.

-No.

Is to do it at...

Christ, you do milk things.

-..on the day of... I've said it. Is it clear? I thought we agreed.

-What?!

I'm sorry, I just said that's great.

It's to do it on the lunchtime of the Hamburg show.

On the third?

No, we can't do that.

Simon had been around with us for years as our PR man.

We always used to work as a great team with David, Simon

and ourselves.

We had a lot of laughs, everybody got on great, you know.

Simon had been with us for a long while and then when,

so unexpectedly, David died,

Francis and I just immediately said to Simon, you know,

"You'd better step into those shoes."

What he has done with this band is continue David's legacy in one way,

but then he's enlarged it.

We did a TV show in Sweden.

I went out with them, as I would have anyhow.

I went out with them and we all sat down and I put my case as to

why I thought it would work this way.

And... they agreed.

MUSIC: Theme from "Coronation Street"

I've always loved Coronation Street.

Ever since I was a child, watching it in black-and-white

with Ena Sharples, I have always loved it.

We were doing the Manchester Apollo, or one of them up there,

and Bruce came to see us.

Les Battersby, Bruce, he always comes along to see us.

Nice enough bloke, other than he's a ginger, what are you supposed to say?

I got downstairs. I said to this other guy,

"Why did we get thrown out of that dressing room,

"so quick and smartly like?"

"Coronation Street is on at 7:30, you should know that, Bruce."

We were like, what?!

He said, "The Quo won't perform till they've watched Coronation Street."

"So why don't you put us in your show sometime?

"Me and Ricky'd love to stand at the bar in Corrie, having a drink."

He said, "We might do that." Didn't think anything of it.

A little while, they came up with some idea then Simon said there was a possibility,

and I went, "Oh shit." Dum, dum.

Don't tell me...

And six weeks later, they're in the show.

Now...7:15.

Jesus.

That's rock 'n' roll.

No, rock 'n' roll is midday you get up. I read in a book once.

It can't be that small!

Do they ever use this for shooting in?

The only people who've ever appeared in it as themselves have been

Prince Charles, Cliff Richard and Quo.

See that?

-Yeah... That is just unbelievable.

-See what I mean about the effects.

You won't get that looking at it from down there.

Just the storyline was incredible about Francis,

with this neck brace on and stuff, it could be nothing but amusing.

Action!

Francis! Rick!

Hey, hey! I'm your number one fan!

I'm your number one fan!

There was a real scuffle going on. I remember there was a load of trouble.

I remember Francis shouting he'd never worked with a lunatic before.

Top. That's how it was. We had some great fun.

It's really nice and they're great people.

They walked us round the set. You know what TV sets are like.

Then I saw Rosamund Street. Wow!

I don't know why, fucking Rosamund Street. Fucking marvellous.

As you get to the end, they said to me,

pass the Rovers, there's where the turning is.

You can see this arch and a car parked in there.

Have you been there? Do you know it? You know it, don't you?

You look there and it's a picture on the fucking wall.

It's not there at all.

-That was freaking me out. I thought it was marvellous.

-Action.

-Two pints and a brandy, please, love.

-Right.

-Do you do food?

-Hotpot.

-Gentlemen, congratulations.

-Thank you very much.

Can I have a look at the medals? Show me your medals.

She's got a way with words.

-Isn't it marvellous, look?

-Wonderful!

When you're young and 16 and setting out to do this,

you're playing in the band, you never believe that 40 years

later you'll be standing here with something like this in your hand.

It really is unbelievable.

What's it like standing in front of Her Majesty?

We've met Her Majesty a couple of times before,

but on these occasions she represents the Establishment.

We've grown up with seeing her since I was really tiny.

She's met Prime Ministers and Presidents around the world.

-There you are.

-And she's met you now as well.

-But you're with this woman, and it's...

It's like you know her or something.

I found it very nerve-racking.

Although she makes you feel very at ease.

But the walk out into the centre of that room, to meet the Queen,

felt like half a mile.

-I tell you, it was very nerve-racking.

-Really.

# Rock and roll and you

# It's all I want to do

# It's all I ever knew

# Rock and roll and you, no fancy pants... #

As a musician, we all saw this coming years ago

when we first saw the free download thing hit the scene.

I was like... It was easy to predict.

Now we're looking straight at it so,

we'll see what the future actually brings on this little puppy.

The business has changed so much over the years.

It's so much more cut-throat now.

You can have your face on the front page of NME - big deal!

You know... I'd rather have my face on Coronation Street, if you like.

Quo can say, "We were selling records when we were really selling records."

Not just 35,000 a week but sometimes 50, 60, 70,000 a day.

# Give me half a chance

# That'll do

# Give me rock and roll and you... #

Lady Gaga wears a bacon dress.

Why? Gets her on the front page of every paper in the world.

That, sadly, has become more important than the actual music they make.

Which is sad, cos she's actually quite good.

We had two very good offers from two of the majors.

And...

you know, I think, I suddenly look at things and think, even if

you've got a top ten album nowadays,

you're going to be on the supermarket shelves for two,

three weeks if you're lucky.

About three minutes after the deal was signed,

HMV in Bond Street collapsed.

Suddenly it's not there anymore, it's gone.

It's over!

There's only about...

ten record shops left in the UK!

And with this new Quo album, I sort of meet people

and they go, "Have you heard the new one, Two Way Traffic, Status Quo?

"It's really good, isn't it?"

Which has been a breath of fresh air. Quite interesting

that people are talking about the Quo in a different way again.

GUITAR INTRO

SPEECH DROWNED BY GUITARS

# Work work busy busy bang bang

# 25 hours a day

# Feels like working on a chain gang

# I never seem to get away

# Money to earn, money to burn

# A platinum card for show

# Where does it go? How should I know?

# It's two-way traffic on a one-way street

# All the voices in the air are stuck on repeat

# It's a two-horse race in a one-horse town

# Like a house of cards it's gonna fall down

# War plays out, getting ready to... #

Yeah, I think we're all very proud of how it's turned out.

Like I say, it's probably the best album we've done

since Heavy Traffic.

Somebody said to me the other day,

"Obviously, you all went in a room and played it together."

I says, "Yeah..."

HE WHISTLES CASUALLY

It's not what happened.

Whoever would be on first,

me and John would be on here or me and Andy standing here doing...

You get that thing going on.

And that's what I think has made that album so...

..well-received.

You know, the reviews - wow - were great.

Everybody - "Fantastic", "What a great album from Quo."

You know, so there is every reason to carry on at the moment.

Personally speaking, track three on that, Dust To Gold,

is the best song I have ever been involved in the writing of

in Status Quo. I really, really love it.

# War plays out Getting ready to rumble

# Survival of the fittest The law of the jungle

# Fold back, hold back Get yourself a seat

# For two-way traffic on a one way street... #

In some ways, a lot of people will be giving a big hurrah

that it's no longer a record company.

But does anybody think that a supermarket is any different from a record company?

I guess the only difference is, the supermarket's wastage ends up