Though it seems I didn’t, I thought I had mentioned in Friday on my Mind 29 that I actually bought Status Quo’s first hit Pictures of Matchstick Men, though they were The Status Quo then.

This follow-up – remarkably similar to that first hit and which appeared on the ludicrously titled first LP, Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo – has a title that is all too appropriate, but has a bass line reminiscent of Hendrix.

The Status Quo: Black Veils of Melancholy

Richard John (Rick) Parfitt: 12/10/1948 – 24/12/2016. So it goes.

I leave here for five minutes (well, two days, but I had good reasons; the 24^th is my birthday and yesterday was Christmas) and two more rock stars have departed this world.

I had barely begun to think about what song I would mark Rick Parfitt‘s passing with when the news came of George Michael‘s death.

Parfitt was more my era but, unlike some, Status Quo had staying power: as did George Michael.

It’s been some year.

And it’s not over yet.