STATUS QUO - Heavy Traffic In Our Hemisphere
By Martin Popoff

With three dates left in North America, UK boogie titans Status Quo cap of a tour (in honour of their new, all original album Heavy Traffic) that has taken the band, for the first time, to Brazil and Mexico. Word of advice: the band are one of the most exhilarating live acts I've ever seen. Catch them NOW on much smaller stages they are regularly used to playing (A recent Wembley Stadium gig was sold out). The dates are: March 5 at Club 279 in Toronto, March 7 at Cricket Club in Irvington NJ and March 8 at B.B. King's in New York City.

"I like the Mexican people and I like Mexican food but the pollution is something else," comments an always entertaining an accommodating Francis Rossi. "We literally had nose bleeds and difficulty with breathing. We played this place, Neza that is literally a city within a city. You know, I've seen shit before, but this was unbelievable. Oh, unbelievable. That was the only problem. It was really nice playing there. The first night there were about 10,000, the second night they were about 5000. But very, very strange."

And what kind of crowds were you getting in Brazil?

"Brazil were about 2500, 3000 (ed. two dates were logged). They were nice as well because we had never been there before, never expected it. There it's really grim too but the venues were fantastic, lovely venues, really together. Really enjoyed playing there. There's something about the Latino people, same as the Spanish. They react to the vibe of the music. They don't necessarily have to... although they respond to the hits, the ones they know, once they're off on the rhythm of the thing they're off on it and they really enjoy it. But again a great response. But we don't expect large crowds here. In the 1970s, we didn't have too good of a... maybe we had an anti-American or anti this side of the world thing and we didn't rate very well. And we were losing money and we made a decision that we could lose too much and lose it all. And I do wish we carried on, because I do like playing this side of the world. I like everything about it. I know America has a bad rap, but my wife's a Yank anyway, so I'm alright then."

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