Career
He has enjoyed minor success with brief projects outside the group. In 1985 when Status Quo were on hold, he recorded two singles and a (so far unreleased) album – which was provisionally titled Flying Debris – with his longtime writing partner Bernie Frost. The single releases were "Modern Romance (I Want to Fall in Love Again)" (UK No. 54), and "Jealousy". In 1996 he issued a solo album, King of the Doghouse, which was not a commercial success, although it produced a UK No. 42 single, "Give Myself to Love". Some years earlier, in 1976, he appeared on the soundtrack album and film All This and World War II comprising cover versions of songs by The Beatles. Although the album sleeve credits the performance of "Getting Better" to Status Quo, the track featured Rossi's vocals and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1977, he produced and played guitar on John Du Cann's solo album The World's Not Big Enough.
In 1980, Rossi and Frost contributed vocals to "Ships in The Night", a track from Exiled, a concept album by Bob Mitchell and Steve Coe which featured various other artists, including Colin Blunstone and Dan McCafferty. In 1981, he produced and played the Coral sitar, synthesizer, and guitar on two tracks on Line-Up by Graham Bonnet, one of which was the Top 10 hit, "Night Games".
3 May 2010 saw the release of his long-awaited second solo album, One Step at a Time, including a re-recording of Quo's 1973 classic "Caroline". Rossi wrote and recorded three songs with Guy Johnson, who penned the UK Top 20 hit "Going Down Town Tonight" for Status Quo in 1984. On the news that Rossi will embark on a six date tour of the UK to promote the album, he commented, "I never stop writing songs and melodies but there have been many tracks over the years that just weren't right for Quo. These songs have been gathering dust in my mind for too long and now seems the right time to showcase them. It's a big step for me but I hope to see lots of the same faces out there on the road!"
Despite Status Quo remaining hugely popular (especially in the UK and mainland Europe and also Australia), Francis has recently hinted that the time might be drawing near for Status Quo to finish as a band. In an interview with Classic Rock Magazine in May 2012, focusing on the reunion of Quo's classic 'Frantic Four' line up, Rossi said “I don’t think Status Quo will be around much longer either. It’s increasingly difficult to cope with the energy discharge a concert requires.” Despite that, the band will be touring for the foreseeable future.
Read more about this topic: Francis Rossi
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