A HAPPY ACCIDENT

STATUS QUO'S FRANCIS ROSSI TALKS ABOUT HIS UNPLANNED NEW ALBUM, WORKING WITH FOYLE'S WAR STAR MICHAEL KITCHEN AND REVISITING THE BAND'S CLASSIC LIVE! ALBUM

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AFTER 60 years in the business, Francis Rossi, the grand old man of rock, still has the power to surprise fans - and himself.

His third solo album, The Accidental, feels like the Status Quo frontman at his most loud and experimental. But, as the title suggests, the return to studio was far from planned.

"So initially the thing was an accident," Francis, 76, says with a smile. "I wasn't going to make a record, and then I got more and more involved in a record."

But after a spontaneous studio session, he realised he was having too much fun. And after telling his wife Eileen, mother of three of his eight children, that he really "enjoyed that sort of creative process", she gave him some strict instructions.

"She normally doesn't pass comment," Francis says. "But she said, 'well, do some more', and I thought, 'well, maybe I will do some more."

Francis' creative process has been going on a while. The seeds of Status Quo formed in 1962, when Francis founded the band The Scorpions while still at school.

Early hits included Pictures of Matchstick Men and Ice in the Sun, and 1970's Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon album would see his renamed group move into infectious groove-led hard rock.