COLIN JOHNSON: STATUS QUO

Colin Johnson, 72, used to be at the top of the music chart for 35 strong years. He worked with musicians such as Atomic Roosters, The Stranglers, Rod Stewart, and of course, Status Quo. After years upon years of success Colin retired and has since lived quite a modest and relaxed life. Ive come to talk to him to find out about his time with the boys and if he would ever consider getting back into the business. So, how did you first get the chance to manage Status Quo? How did the opportunity come about?
I was working for a gentleman in the music industry called Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles, and I was working for him in Argyle Street in London. I used to know a young lady who worked for Pye Records, who, every time someone was going to bring a new record out she would send me over, what we used to call in the old days, an Acetate, which was a thick plastic record with 45 RPM. One week she sent me two records. One was of Status Quo, Pictures of Matchstick Men, and the Rick Parfitt and John Coghlan) plumber that was his regular job, but in his spare time he managed Status Quo. The record hadnt come out yet but it was due to be released in 2-4 weeks time. I phoned Pat Barlow, the manager of Quo, and I said, Pat, I love your record Pictures of Matchstick Men, would you like to talk a deal about an agency? He said Yeah sure. So he came into the office in his overalls other was The Foundations, Baby Now That I Found You. I loved both of these records! So I phoned up and asked whos the manager, whos the agent, this that and the other. She said, Status Quo have got a manager, and so have The Foundations. But they dont have an agent! So I said, fantastic, I got the phone numbers, phoned both their managers up. Status Quos manager was a (L-R Francis Rossi, Alan Lancaster,

and his big greasy hands and he sat me down and said So, what you gonna do then? I said, I know its mad, but I want to be the agent for your band through Nems Enterprises, which was Brian Epsteins company. Two weeks later, I get a phone call from another agent saying Col, I hate to tell you but Ive already got the band signed so I missed out on Quo as an agent, but I signed The Foundations, whod be able to come up with a couple of really big hits! Fourteen months later I get a phone call from Pat Barlow, the manager of Status Quo at that time, saying Mr Johnson, weve just got released from the agency, we now dont have an agent, would you be interested? at that time they had only had two big hit records, Pictures of Matchstick Men and Ice in the Sun so I said Id be interested! He came in and we started working together and I signed him as a manager again. Within a few months, the boys were very unhappy with their manager and they saw me as a father figure, so they asked me to manage them. So I see what I could do, and we had a trial period over a year or so, and within that year we were going from strength to strength. But they changed their image from a pop bad into a rock band so we struggled to get work for them but we managed to get some. In those days you could be the agent, manager and publisher, so thats what I did! Of course you could make a lot of money, but we were only putting them out for 10 a night until they built up, within a year we were getting 150 a night, within two years we were getting 1,500 a night, and then suddenly it just went crazy! This was all in 1969.

And did you enjoy working with them?

I loved working with them! They were a fantastic bunch of fellas; they were a lot of fun. We had so much fun on the road, as a manager I didnt have to go on the road necessarily but I enjoyed it so much that I left people to work in the office back in London whilst I went off on the road with them and had a wonderful, wonderful time! It was fantastic, so much fun! A laugh a minute, in the early days we got picked up in vans and cars and after a while it was all in a big tour bus, but it was a laugh in the bus, in the car, on a plane, anywhere! We were laugh, laugh, laugh, thats all it was! Until, the sound check, at four oclock, which was when it got serious and from that moment on, until they came off stage at eleven oclock at night it was all serious stuff. But other than that it was laugh around the clock, real good fun! So yes, I enjoyed it a hell of a lot.

Was there ever a time where you thought you couldnt control them as a band?
No, never a time. They were always really good; they werent the most fantastic band in the world, musically certainly not, with Eric Clapton, Freddie Mercury, Queen, and Brian May who were brilliant! As musicians, our boys werent that fantastic, but they put a show together, and gave the public what they wanted. They would moan at times, for example once I told them that we were going to do a tour of

France, 14 dates and they replied with we dont want to go to France! so I told them that were going to France because youre selling records there and we can sell a lot more. We got more gold records out of France than The Beatles or Pink Floyd, so we did really really well, and we were really proud of that. But they were great to look after, theyd have a moan and groan, and of course the bigger the artist gets, the more input they want and they want to know whats going on, so you just have to tell them whats going on but there has to be someone in the driving seat. But once you get to a certain level the attitude of the band towards the manager changes and vice versa because they think they know better than you, even after years of your nurturing them looking after them through the good and the bad times, they still think they know better than you, but they dont.

awkward chap. He wasnt a fantastic drummer, but he was alright, he fitted in with the rhythm section we had with the bass player, guitarist and all that. But he was such a pain in the bum sometimes! He was a real pain, and he would throw a moody, and have an argument with his wife on the phone. We were in the middle of a recording session in Queens Studio in Montreux when it happened, and he would throw a big moody, slam things about, throw thing around, and thats when we had to say You know what John, you cant do this, you have to go and that was the decision at that time. So no it wasnt easy really, but it wasnt difficult because firstly, everyone was in agreement and secondly, he was just a pain and it upset everyone else.

I understand that you also worked with Rod Stewart and The Stranglers? How were they compared to Status Quo?
Rod was much more serious about his music, and he was a good songwriter. Rod had the Small Faces, thats where he started out and then Small Faces split up so he went on to be on his own and we were still doing things with him then. I was actually in partnership with his manager but we all looked after the bands together, so we had Rory Gallagher, Atomic Rooster, and Status Quo. Rod was so focused on being a success that he didnt really have much time for other people so it was all me, me, me but a lot of artists are like that, and they need to

(Meeting Prince Charles at the Princes Trust.)

Was it hard seeing John Coghlan walk away from music after all of those years?
Not a great deal, because he was an

be in order to succeed, they need to do whatever they can to get to what they want even if it means treading on other peoples toes and Rod was like that. He had a vision, he knew he was going to be good, and he was good, I mean I think hes fantastic. The Stranglers were a whole different thing; they were quite nasty bits of work! No secret that they were into heroin, Hugh Cornwell got put into prison for dealing heroin, taking heroin etc. But we had a good time with them; we brought them to life a bit! I had a partner at the time, who was my financial man and we brought light to their gloom, because they were rather serious people as well as being quite nasty, and vicious with their attitude towards people, they werent a particular nice bunch of fellas. But we did have some good times, not as good as Quo and certainly not as good as Rod but with The Stranglers, because of Jean Jacques Burnel, the bass player, was a judo, karate expert and all that, he always thought that he could throw his weight about, and he did. But we had The Stranglers for eight years, which is not a bad run. Any other manager that took them on only lasted for just over a year/year and a half. So we did a pretty good job.

(Ticket to the Princes Trust gig.)

What would you consider as your highest point in your career?

[Gasped] I think, most probably when we did the Princes Trust at the NEC in Birmingham. Princess Diana was supposed to come but was pregnant at the time so couldnt, but Prince Charles was there! We played to eleven thousand kids on the night, in the arena, but we did three nights there so that was the first of the three. But we played to around thirty-three, thirty four thousand people over the three-day period. Prince Charles turned up, and I had to introduce him to everybody in the crew nearly one hundred people! Telling him what they do and what they did, which was a very proud moment, it was fantastic. It was a great achievement for him to be there, and for the kids to see him, it was all on live TV in the middle of the Falklands War, and we had to be on stage bang on 9:25pm and we had to come off bang on 10:20 or something like that. But due to it being right in the middle of the Falklands War we knew that any

minute now there would be some sort of news bulletin was going to come through, but we still had a fantastic time! I think it was the first rock live TV broadcast for something like fifteen years I think The Beatles were the last ones to do it. But it was amazing, it was just amazing. That was a real highlight but there were quite a few good highs and lows but I think that was definitely the one. But also Live Aid was good as well, Live Aid was fantastic, but that was fantastic for everybody. We came out really well from Live Aid but nothing compared to people like U2 and Queen, but it was still such a fun day. But I think the Prince of Wales Trust was a big point, because you know youve reached another level once youve reached those sorts of things and youve done it by yourself. If you go onto something like Live Aid, youve got fifty other bands around you, its obviously a big achievement for us all to be playing Wembley Stadium but on the other hand its because were all their together at such a wonderful event.

Oh, listen to this, this is fantastic! I dont see it so I dont think Id be able to have a relationship with any of that stuff. But I dont need to! I had a wonderful time, and I always look back and think Ive achieved some great things in those 35 years and I dont think I could ever really achieve that again, I mean I havent really got the time to do it. So, no, I dont think the opportunity will arise but if it ever did, I dont think Id be able to take it. Plus I really wouldnt like to start getting back up at 6:30 in the morning and rush to the airport, I dont think Id be able to repeat the same thing. I would want to have the same fun we had, but its not there anymore.

Would you ever consider going back into the music industry if the opportunity came about?
Nope, not at all. I did 35 years, I enjoyed the hell out of it, Ive got fantastic memories, but I want all the memories in the head. Most of my gold discs Id achieved over the years Ive sent off elsewhere but Ive always got my memories in my head. Im most probably too old now, and also I dont think Id understand! I dont understand some of the music anymore so when people are saying