For many people Status Quo’s story begins with their third album Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon and their move into blues rock territory. In a similar fashion, most compilation albums only pay lip service to their pre-1970 work, with a token track or two representing Quo’s most interesting era. That anomaly has now been rectified by The Early Years 1966-69, a lavish 5 CD set that shines the spotlight on their psychedelic work by curating their first two albums (in mono and stereo), their pre-Quo work in The Spectres and Traffic Jam, a disc packed with contemporary singles, demos and outtakes, and another featuring BBC sessions, making this the most comprehensive inspection of Quo’s genesis.

Disc One: Original Mono Albums: Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo / Spare Parts

From the Bee Gees to ZZ Top, some surprising bands have their roots in the psychedelic boom of the late 1960s, and none more so than Status Quo. The heads down, no-nonsense boogie rock for which they are known is the complete antithesis to the abstract nature of psychedelia, and their 1968 debut album Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo does sound far removed from, say, If You Can’t Stand The Heat… released a decade later. However, what does connect them is the strength of the songsmithery; when you strip away the cladding from their debut you’re left with a dozen well-crafted songs, and no more so than opening cut ‘Black Veils Of Melancholy’. It’s the two charting singles (‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men’, ‘Ice In The Sun’) that everybody remembers, yet there’s some exceptionally good deep cuts on here, such as ‘Paradise Flat’ and ‘Shelia’, and the album has a similar feel to The Kinks with Dave Davies at the helm (which was undoubtedly The Kinks at their best).

Released a year after their debut album, Spare Parts was not as cohesive as its predecessor. At the bequest of their record label (Pye), the band were ordered to storm the charts at any cost and, as a prime example of why suits shouldn’t get involved in rock music, it largely failed. While the experimental nature of the debut propelled it forward, their sophomore effort sounds a tad flat. Despite a couple of high profile covers (‘You’re Just What I Was Looking For Today’, ‘Are You Growing Tired Of My Love’) none of these tracks really jump out of the grooves. In fact, The Beatles affectations on ‘You’re Just What I Was Looking For Today’ sound so obvious, they’re slightly embarrassing, Quo sound like one among imitators when before they sounded like no one but themselves. That’s not to say Spare Parts is a bad album, but it does pale in comparison with Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo.

Disc Two: Original Stereo Albums: Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo / Spare Parts

When listening to the stereo mix of Quo’s Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo directly after the mono, I had something of an epiphany. The tracks sparkle in a way that the mono don’t, and they give an extra dimension to a sound that was flat, and when you’re dealing with psychedelia, that’s vitally important. Although opening track ‘Black Veils Of Melancholy’ was viewed as a cheap copy of ‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men’ (an assertion hard to deny), its stereo rendering adds a certain fizz, and along with closer ‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men’ gives the album a cyclical feel. Such is the lively nature of the stereo mix that he tracks in between are now delivered with pizazz and panache, and that makes the lack of chart action Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo obtained all the more puzzling.

Although Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon is generally considered to be Status Quo’s moment of rebirth, the seeds were sown with Spare Parts. The band have often been dismissive of this release, yet it can be seen as the stepping stone between Pictures and Spoon. The packing crate cover and the parred back nature of ‘Antique Angelique’ were more in line with what the band would become. However, make no mistake this is still an exercise in psychedelia, yet it doesn’t have the frills of its predecessor, neither does it have the thrills of an ‘Ice In The Sun’ or a ‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men’ to lift it above the average. Spare Parts is a flat album and not even the stereo mix can inflate it. This album is the sound of a band reaching the end of one road, and about to depart on another.

Disc Three: Before Status Quo 1966-67

Before Status Quo came The Spectres, and Traffic Jam, and they were typical of the Golden Age Of British Pop in which they existed. In fact, the hard driving nature of Spectres songs such as ‘Neighbour, Neighbour’ are more in tune with what they’d become in the 1970s, rather than their psychedelic detour in the late ‘60s. There’s a hard mod, amphetamine punch to ‘(We Ain’t Got) Nothing Yet’ that brings to mind The Small Faces and The Who. Even older cuts like ‘Spicks And Specks’ that would be dressed up for Pictures sound far more powerful when stripped bare. This is a sound rooted in the British blues boom, with ‘Love In Vain’ sharing common ground with Them, an idea given credence by a fiery cover of ‘Gloria’, included here via a 1966 BBC Session. From the same session comes The Everly Brothers’ ‘Bird Dog’, put the two together and you have a fair indication of The Spectres/The Status Quo circa 1966.

A name change to Traffic (later amended to Traffic Jam to avoid confusion with Steve Winwood’s band) found the band toughening up their sound to release their fourth single as a unit, the prophetically-titled ‘Almost But Not Quite There’ (included here with its B-Side). More commercially leaning than The Spectres, Traffic Jam still had their roots in the mod scene, and this becomes patently obvious on a 1967 BBC Session; the Stevenson/May composed ‘It Takes Two’ and The Bee Gee’s penned ‘Spicks And Specks’, both of which find the band in full flight. The only surviving Traffic Jam BBC Session, along with recently unearthed and unreleased Spectres tracks makes this disc manna from heaven for Quo collectors.

Disc Four: A-Sides, B-Sides, Demos & Outtakes

If there was one thing that Status Quo had in their early days, then it was sheer belief that they’d eventually strike musical gold. It was a belief that served them well when many of their early singles sank without a trace. Some of those A’s and B’s open this fourth disc, and with the benefit of hindsight it’s easy to hear why they didn’t set the world alight, there’s no ‘Ice In The Sun’ to spark the interest and are more of historical interest. As the disc progresses we get into interesting territory; two hard rocking Spare Parts outtakes tease as to what that album could have been, while alternate versions and remixes put a fresh spin on familiar tracks, with ‘Paradise Flat’ becoming more haunting and ‘The Price Of Love’ infinitely heavier, all of which makes this disc a carnival for the ears.

Disc Five: BBC Sessions 1968-69

The BBC were so careless with their archives that it verged upon neglect; the amount of classic TV performances that were wiped (and often replaced with footage of steam trains) is shocking, and verged upon the criminal. Thankfully, they seemed a little more careful with their audio archives, and they’re raided here to comprise the 18-track BBC Sessions 1968-69. Running chronically from January 1968 to March 1969, it’s interesting to hear how the band evolve over the course of six sessions. Just as the stereo mix spiced up the mono albums, so the live-in-the-studio feel of these cuts add a certain chutzpah. Spunky covers of ‘Gloria’ and ‘Bloodhound’ signpost future mayhem, and even the pure pop sensibility of ‘Ice In The Sun’ starts to pack a punch. It’s only the half-wit presenter talking over the beginning and ending of the tracks which interrupts the rock action. It’s pretty apt that two heavy versions of ‘The Price Of Love’ close this collection and foreshadow the coming of the 1970s and Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon, but that’s a whole different story…

Beautifully designed and accompanied by an informative booklet, The Early Years 1966-69 is a thing of aesthetic beauty that’s a joy to hold. Yet, more importantly it shines the spotlight on an often overlooked period of a British institution and what’s revealed is a band learning their craft, and it’s an education that would hold them in good stead over the following decades. But if you want to know where it all started, it’s all here.

• The Early Years 1966-69 is released via BMG Records on 8th March 2024.
• Official Website

Track List:

Disc One: Original Mono Albums: Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo / Spare Parts

Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo:

1. Black Veils Of Melancholy
2. When My Mind Is Not Live
3. Ice In The Sun
4. Elizabeth Dreams
5. Gentleman Joe’s Sidewalk Cafe
6. Paradise Flat
7. Technicolor Dreams
8. Spicks And Specks
9. Shelia
10. Sunny Cellophane Skies
11. Green Tambourine
12. Pictures Of Matchstick Men

Spare Parts:

13. Face Without A Soul
14. You’re Just What I Was Looking For Today
15. Are You Growing Tired Of My Love
16. Antique Angelique
17. So Ends Another Life
18. Poor Old Man
19. Mr. Mind Detector
20. The Clown
21. Velvet Curtains
22. Little Miss Nothing
23. When I Awake
24. Nothing At All

Disc Two: Original Stereo Albums: Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo / Spare Parts

As Disc One; Tracks 1 through 24

Disc Three: Before Status Quo 1966-67

The Spectres:

1. I (Who Have Nothing)
2. Neighbour, Neighbour
3. Hurdy Gurdy Man
4. Laticia
5. (We Ain’t Got) Nothing Yet
6. I Want It
7. Spicks And Specks
8. Walking With My Angel
9. When He Passed You by
10. Love In Vain
11. Say That You Need Me
12. Neighbour, Neighbour (Alternate Version)
13. Gloria *
14. Interview With Francis Rossi *
15. I (Who Have Nothing) *
16. Neighbour, Neighbour *
17. Bloodhound *
18. Bird Dog *

Traffic Jam:

19. Almost But Not Quite There
20. Wait A Minute
21. I Don’t Want You **
22. Almost But Not Quite There **
23. It Takes Two **
24. Spicks And Specks **

* BBC Session, September 1966

** BBC Session, June 1967

Disc Four: A-Sides, B-Sides, Demos & Outtakes

1. To Be Free (single B-Side)
2. Make Me Stay A Bit Longer (single A-Side)
3. Auntie Nellie (single B-Side)
4. Are You Growing tired Of My Love (single A-Side)
5. The Price Of Love (single A-Side)
6. Little Miss Nothing (single B-Side)
7. Nothing At All (Demo Excerpt)
8. Josie (Spare Parts session)
9. Do You Live In Fire (Spare Parts session)
10. Pictures Of Matchstick Men (Alternate Version Mix)
11. Paradise Flat (Alternate Version Mix)
12. Hey Little Woman (You’re Just What I Was Looking For Today) (Alternate Version)
13. The Price Of Love (Alternate Version)
14. Auntie Nellie (Stereo Remix)
15. Josie (Alternate Mix)
16. Pictures Of Matchstick Men (Alternate Version Mix)

Disc Five: BBC Sessions 1968-69

1. Spicks And Specks *
2. Judy In Disguise *
3. Pictures Of Matchstick Men *
4. Interview With Brian Matthew **
5. Pictures Of Matchstick Men **
6. Things Get Better **
7. Gloria ***
8. Interview With Alan Lancaster ***
9. Black Veils Of Melancholy ***
10. Bloodhound ***
11. Ice In The Sun ****
12. When My Mind Is Not Live ****
13. Paradise Flat ****
14. Interview *****
15. Make Me Stay A Bit Longer *****
16. Are You Growing Tired Of My Love *****
17. The Price Of Love *****
18. The Price Of Love ******

* BBC Session, 16th January 1968

** BBC Session, 13th February 1968

*** BBC Session, 29th March 1968

**** BBC Session, 30th July 1968

***** BBC Session, 27th January 1969

****** BBC Session, 31st March 1969