Francis Rossi ~ An Evening of Francis Rossi Songs
From The Status Quo Songbook & More... -
Memorial Hall, Sheffield, Wednesday 5th November, 2025
Set 1:
Pictures Of Matchstick Men/In My Chair/Spinning Wheel Blues/Wild Side Of Life/Gerdundula/ Claudie/Don't Waste My Time/Rock 'n' Roll/Burning Bridges.
Set 2:
What You're Proposing/And It's Better Now/Someone Show Me Home/Twenty Wild Horses/Tongue Tied/Roll Over Lay Down/Rockin' All Over The World/Down Down/Caroline.
We got more bangs for the buck on this night in Steel City – yes it was Bonfire night with booms, cracks and sparks all over the area but the people in here were not bothered about that, we were here to witness Rock Royalty chat away and play a good few tunes for our listening pleasure or displeasure if we didn't like that one – lol.
Like the tour before, 'Tunes & Chat', it's split into two halves and Francis is accompanied by his Guitar Tech, Andy Brook who has that tough job of dare I say it, being the acoustic Rick Parfitt – not easy shoes to fill but he knows the material inside and out, with nothing appearing to give him any problem. The two of them were sat in matching red chairs side by side with a large LCD a screen behind them showing either the single being played or the album that the song was originally featured on.
I forgot to add that this is the first time the show has ever hit Sheffield – the point before being Chesterfield, that funnily enough, myself and hardcore Quo fan, Steve Cooper were also present at. This one was very similar in format but there was some different banter and humour in-between the songs.
Francis began by talking about that famous shuffle style that Status Quo are famous for and it's various origins such as in Italy, Ireland, England and a brief history of how he got playing, warming it up gradually, having us hum and sing to various well-known, Pre-Quo numbers that you wouldn't necessarily associate with the humble beginnings of their sound and groove before cranking into an acoustic 'Pictures Of Matchstick Men'.
The poor guy was suffering with a bad throat and chest and joked about having to take regular sprays from some medication that smelt nasty that may even be picked up by the front row – oh well – those are the breaks for being up-close I guess? Like a trooper, he got through it and kept his voice in tact, with Andy helping him out or should I say, joining him for the harmonies and high notes that Mr. P often used to take care of.
The guitars were sounding strikingly beautiful, 3 of them being USA made and the other being Mexican. He even quipped that the Mexican one kept in tune better – so take that Mr. Trump – hahaha. There was plenty of quips and remarks regarding topics like this pathetic cancel culture, jokes about Catholic priests who ran his school and that he identified as a 50 year old man – hey that's younger than me!!
At times he was getting a bit of feed back and noise intrusions that we personally could not hear, with him asking if there was an underground nearby that he was picking up – well there are a few taxi ranks dotted about and the Liverpool Philharmonic was playing next door in the main room, so maybe he was hearing something from that. It could have even been aliens under the stage who were ready to shoot off at any given moment!
It was hilarious to find out about his pet Great Dane called Louise whose orifice shot out a lot of gas which he had the opportunity to witness while behind her walking up the stairs – she was featured a lot during the event as though the show was an unofficial tribute to her – bless!
Or what about pulling off Tommy Quickly? You had to be there.... - no it wasn't like that... that was your filthy mind working overtime.... I wouldn't have minded having a smoke with Steve Marriott as well as he told us about – another one of my heroes!
As shown, the sets were a healthy mix of Quo numbers, played in an alternate acoustic form that would fit the flow of the set with faves like 'Don't Waste My Time' (that always makes me think of when they performed at Live Aid in 1985), 'In My Chair' or that famous cover of 'Wild Side Of Life'.
We were also treated to lesser heard tunes like 'Rock 'n' Roll & 'Claudie' not to mention obscure album cuts that he loves in the form of beautiful ballads like 'Someone Show Me Home' , 'Tongue Tied' and even 'Twenty Wild Horses'. Be sure to look up the albums they are taken from. He laughed about the fact that some songs folk love and others they hate but these were some of his personal favourites, so not necessarily the famous ones.
Mr. Rossi make sure to please what I refer to the Greatest Hits fans being cranking out renditions of 'Burning Bridges' which he has us singing that famous Irish Jig melody that many seem to love as well as 'What You're Proposing', 'Roll Over Lay Down' and an extended 'Down Down' – everyone lapped it all up like Louise the dog without the farting!
What often makes the show is the audience who bantered once or twice, with one guy making weird noises or talking while Rossi was, which distracted him but made light fun out of it and had everyone laughing – he was about 2 rows back from us as well – even heard a phone going early on too! Arghhhh!! The main man had us clapping along to some of the songs too which we thoroughly enjoyed - ouch my hands after!
The guitar-work was absolute precision and it's incredible how Francis can stretch the fingers on his left hand for the wide span needed to hit many of the notes in many of the songs with the likes of 'Twenty Wild Horses' being a major example – not an easy task at all especially more so when you have no safety net in bass and drums to work with for timing. Rossi is even now a vastly under-rated guitarist who should really accoladed way more for his contributions to popular music and beyond.
It really was a fun-packed, song-crammed night of solid entertainment where Francis even got up to play and sing 'Caroline' as the last number in the set which is cool and unique since it usually starts a Quo concert. This really was exceptional to say the least.
With a brand new album coming 30th January, 2026 entitled, 'The Accidental', this 12-bar shuffle playing legend is showing no signs of hanging up his guitars in a hurry just yet...
Review by Glenn Milligan
Live Venue Photograph by Lyane Ngan
Promotional Photographs come courtesy of Chris Hewlett