Sleeve Notes

Coming soon: the complete low- down on Status Quo by Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, and all in their own words, too (or, at least, as told to Cindy Blake and Roger Kasper). Topics tackled in Just for the Record include the development of that crucial third chord and exactly what is entailed in being hugely famous ('Being asked for your autograph can take you differently on different days, depending on what mood you're in'). The Quo appear to have gone in for the rock'n'roll lifestyle with a surprising attention to detail for boys whose jeans are always so clean. At one point Rossi and Parfitt required regular access to two cash cards with pounds 500 limits, just to keep the cocaine coming in. Also exposed: the band's practice of issuing special tour passes to particularly persistent fans which are in fact a signal to the road crew to keep these people away at all costs. Rare Quo documents gathered into the appendices reveal one incredibly badly hand- written equipment list from 1968, which runs to a single, inky sheet of paper; and, for contrast, the 1992 Tour gear inventory (the contents of 50 flight cases are unpacked across 11 pages). And right at the end come the legal papers of a particularly smitten fan who, as recently as March 1991, was known as James Hall, but who then opted to lay down his name in the service of his band. 'I, Status Quo, of Gillingham in the County of Kent do solemnly and sincerely declare that I do hereby assume as from the date hereof the Christian name of Status in place of my present Christian name of James and the surname of Quo in place of my present surname of Hall.' As Mr Quo would doubtless argue, you've got to hand it to any band that can flog the same song not just twice but (according to the sales logged here in 'the Status Quo Factsheet') 100 million times.

'Just for the Record' is published by Bantam Press on 10 November.

At last - something to do with all that wasted capacity on Compact Discs: use it to plant invisible recordings and surprise and amuse your listeners. Here's the trick for rock pranksters: leave a long period of silence after the 'final' track on the album, long enough for the innocent home-listener to assume that the machine has come to rest - and then, BOOM], blast in with something entirely unexpected and absolutely unannounced on the sleeve. Latest jokers, the Lemonheads: three minutes after the last listed track on Come On Feel the Lemonheads, the album lifts off again into a bleary, spirited and above all loud additional number. World Party pulled the same stunt on Bang], which runs eventually into an alarming and unadvertised Beach Boys pastiche. Slightly missing the point, Nirvana have given a song to the Aids benefit album No Alternative (9 November) but are insisting that nothing is said about it on the packaging. They do a lot of work for charity, but apparently they don't like to talk about it.

(Photograph omitted)