My mum is notoriously difficult to buy presents for. Get's harder every year. So for this year, her 55th, we decided to throw a surprise party, with a bit of a difference.

She absolutely loves Status Quo, and has been to seen them loads of times. So I thought I would attempt to put a tribute band together, for a one off show. After phoning round lots of ex band mates, and being let down a lot, with two weeks to go I finally got a band assembled. Not as many as I'd have liked, but by that time, I was running out of options.

The line up was.. me, drums, Hazel (my wife), on bass, Charlie and Andy from my old band Stalefish on vocals and guitar. I called us.... "Status Who?"

Hazel and I spent the week before the gig playing along to the CD, to familiarise ourselves, and also synchronise a bit, as we hadn't played together for a couple of years. I sent a CD up to Charlie and Andy to listen to.

We did not get a chance to practice all together before the gig, so this is it, unrehearsed, one time only in all our glory! I think the only reason we managed to do this was as Charlie, Andy and I have done hundreds of gigs together, and know exactly how each other plays.

I should also add that the singer and guitarist were also a little bit drunk, as this was the day of the last England match of the World Cup. And that Charlie completely forgot to listen to "Rockin all over the World", so thats a bit of an errrrmmm... cock up... but still vaguely recognisable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nPhyxI-DdQ (Down Down)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NuZLDoLBvE (The Wanderer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFewJSLwylc (Whatever You Want)

I think, given more time to rehearse (any time would have been nice), and a couple more members (rhythm guitar and keyboard) it would have been AWESOME, but I think we did fairly well with what we had.

Oh, and the best bit, when we had finished, we presented her with a birthday card from, and signed by Status Quo themselves! ( which I contacted the fanclub for).

Hi
we're making a new BBC One show called Lenny Henry.TV, where we feature some of the best clips from the internet.

We love your Status Who videos and would very much like to feature one,of them in the show if possible, and we can offer a fee as well.

If you could get in touch with me as soon as possible to discuss this, that would be great.

thanks very much
David Marsh

Assistant Producer
Tiger Aspect Productions