Status Quo broke through commercially in the 1970s, but this was no overnight success story. Long before the denim and the heads down boogie, there was a band formed in 1962 by school friends Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster, learning their craft for many years before they became the Quo we know. There would be many ups, downs and sartorial as well as musical variations into which ‘The Early Years’ a new 5CD set from BMG, takes a deep dive, including material from pre-Quo acts The Spectres and Traffic Jam as well as the first two albums credited to Status Quo with plentiful bonus tracks including BBC sessions. The full press release and track listing follows: