Album review: STATUS QUO – Piledriver Deluxe Edition

Status Quo - Piledriver

Universal [Release date 24.03.14]

Status Quo are preparing for the second round of their ‘Frantic Four’ reincarnation and – hey – here comes an extended reissue of their 1972 album. ‘Piledriver’ is important because it continued their journey from the rock/blues of previous albums (for Pye) toward the denim-clad rock boogie with which they are most associated.

A further step away from the psychedelic pop modelling of their late-sixties incarnation, and the transitional ‘Dog Of Two Head’, the band produced this album themselves and ‘Don’t Waste My Time’ and ‘Paper Plane’ presage the band’s run of single hits from the mid-seventies. But ‘A Year’ and ‘Big Fat Mama’ are equally impressive, together with a rousing cover of The Doors’ ‘Roadhouse Blues’.

This Deluxe Edition includes contemporaneous BBC material from 1972-3 although the In Concert of March 1973 surfaced on the boxed set released in 2010 along with three of the tracks from the Peel session of November 1972. However, for completists, there are additional tracks from that session and also two from January 1973 previously unreleased. ***1/2

Review by David Randall

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