Francis Rossi

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Francis Rossi, 2013

Francis Dominic Nicholas Michael Rossi OBE (born May 29, 1949 in London ) is a British composer, singer and guitarist of the rock group Status Quo . In the early 1970s he temporarily used his middle name Michael , so that he was occasionally listed on publications of Status Quo as "Mike Rossi".

Life

Rossi was born in south London to an Italian ice cream seller and an Irish mother . He is the only remaining founding member of the pop group The Specters , which, when Rick Parfitt joined them, formed the band Status Quo . As an author and composer, he is responsible for many status quo titles. He also composed the first hit, Pictures of Matchstick Men , which brought Status Quo to a wider audience in 1968. Later he worked as a composer for this band mainly with Bob Young or Bernard Frost .

Francis Rossi (2005)

Together with Frost, Rossi started a solo project in the 1980s, which resulted in single releases and an unreleased album, relatively unsuccessfully. In 1996 his first regular solo album, King Of The Doghouse , was released, which earned him a respectable success in Europe.

In addition to his work with Status Quo, Francis Rossi has also made a name for himself as a producer and writer for various artists. He produced singles and albums by Demis Roussos , Graham Bonnet , John Du Cann and Mickey Jupp . In addition to the guitars, his voice gives Status Quo the typical “Quo sound”. Both Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt mainly play Fender Telecaster .

On December 31, 2009, Francis Rossi was awarded the Order of the British Empire as an Officer (OBE). In May 2010 his second solo album, One Step at a Time was released . On this occasion he went on a solo tour for the first time in his more than 40-year career, with his son Nicholas accompanying him on stage. A tour of Germany announced for February 2011 was canceled due to scheduling reasons. The album Live at St. Luke's, London with 18 tracks was released on March 14, 2011 on CD, DVD and BluRay. The release, which was made during the solo tour, contains pieces from the previous solo album as well as songs that were originally released by Status Quo.

Rossi, also known as GOMORR (The Grand Old Man Of Rock And Roll), lives with eight children and his second wife Eileen in the London borough of Croydon . Outside of his musical work he is more privately oriented.

Equipment / technical equipment

Francis' No. 1 guitar, which has been consistently played for decades, is the green Fender Telecaster , model 1957. He bought it for £ 70 in 1968. Over the years the guitar has been modified, using G&L components to improve sustain and tone. Today the instrument has three pickups in the configuration of a Fender Stratocaster . Strings of strength .09.11.16.26w 34w 46w are stretched. A Marshall amplifier JCM 800 Lead Series is currently used, sometimes a JCM 900, connected to two Marshall 4 × 12 ″ 8 ohm loudspeakers. Rossi uses the Roland GP8 as an effect, which boosts the guitar signal to the amplifier. Five different overrides are programmed here as well as another program with a slight signal doubling and some echo. "Palmer Speaker Simulators" are installed between the amplifier output and the loudspeaker inputs, the outputs of which in turn deliver the sound result mixed with the sound of the Marshall speakers and a Vox AC30 . The AC30 is a newer model manufactured by Marshall. The legendary combo amplifier, first manufactured by Vox in the sixties, is not visible on the stage, it is behind the marshals. Francis Rossi uses Samson products to transmit signals from the guitar and for in-ear monitoring.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
King of the Doghouse
  UK 95 09/28/1996 (1 week)
One step at a time
  CH 87 05/23/2010 (1 week)
  UK 84 05/15/2010 (1 week)
We Talk Too Much (with Hannah Rickard)
  DE 66 March 22, 2019 (1 week)
  AT 63 March 29, 2019 (1 week)
  CH 15th March 24, 2019 (2 weeks)
  UK 65 March 28, 2019 (1 week)
Singles
Modern Romance (with Bernard Frost)
  UK 54 05/11/1985 (4 weeks)
Jealousy (with Bernard Frost)
  UK 98 11/02/1985 (2 weeks)
Give Myself to Love
  UK 42 08/03/1996 (2 weeks)

Albums

  • 1996: King of the Doghouse
  • 2010: One Step at a Time
  • 2019: We Talk Too Much (with Hannah Rickard)

Fonts

  • Rick Parfitt, Francis Rossi, and Mick Wall: The Status Quo Autobiography . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2011, ISBN 978-3-85445-365-9 (Original edition: XS All Areas: The Status Quo Autobiograhpy ).
  • Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt : Just For The Record . Bantam Press, 1994, ISBN 0-593-03546-1 .
  • Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, Mick Wall: Status Quo. XS All Areas . Sidgwick & Jackson, 2004, ISBN 0-283-07375-6 (Paperback: Macmillan Publishers Ltd, 2005, ISBN 0-330-41962-5 ).
  • Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, Bob Young : "Status Quo": The Official 40th Anniversary Edition . Cassell Illustrated, 2006, ISBN 978-1-84403-562-5 .

swell

  1. The London Gazette, Supplement No. 59282, page 11, December 31, 2009
  2. http://www.francisrossi.com/
  3. a b c biography at statusquo.co.uk
  4. a b Chart sources: DE AT CH UK

Web links