Status Quo: In The 1980s: Decades

Status Quo are a British institution with an epic 50-year career. Although their heyday was the 1970s, the hits kept coming through the 1980s along with breakups, lawsuits, line-up changes, substance abuse and a high-profile, highly successful comeback after calling it a day in 1984. While much has been written about the ‘glory years’, Quo’s difficult but triumphant struggle through the 1980s is a much more exciting story with twists, turns and a sense of peril that feels like it could go any way at any time. This is a celebration of Quo’s music at its most vulnerable and experimental, at a time when the band lost old fans, gained new ones and made some of the most varied and creative recordings of their career. Their hits in the decade included ‘What You’re Proposin’’, ‘Marguerita Time’ and the far from typical ‘In The Army Now’. They even opened the 1985 Live Aid concert. No stone has been left unturned in this book, with several members of the band, including Francis Rossi, John Coghlan and John ‘Rhino’ Edwards contributing stories and anecdotes from their own perspectives that should leave even the most knowledgeable of fans feeling like they’ve learned something new about the band.

Gregory Harper (B.A. Hons, PGCE, MA) is a professional bassist, composer, arranger and educator based in Manchester, UK, where he lives with his partner Abigail and their two cats Gizmo and Liza. He performs all around the world and has composed for film and TV. A lifelong fan of Status Quo, combined with his passion for musicology and music theory, has resulted in this, his first book for Sonicbond Publishing.

© 2025 Sonicbond Publishing (Ebook): 9781789524918

Release date

Ebook: 10 December 2025