If You Can’t Stand The Heat album sleeve artwork, photo courtesy of Yvonne Hanvey

June 29, 2023

My Favourite Things by Yvonne Hanvey, head of the Status Quo fan club ‘FTMO…’

Head of the Status Quo fan club From The Makers Of…. since 2013, Yvonne Hanvey and husband Paul have been keeping the Quo flame alive by managing the fan club’s magazine, running conventions, and recently curating a successful exhibition at The Barbican Library in London. Here, Yvonne Hanvey shares her most treasured Quo memorabilia with MAG_BTM.

It was 1968 when Status Quo made their interview debut and, as they appeared more and more often on TV screens and in teen magazines, the increasing volume of mail the band started to receive soon convinced their management that some kind of fan club was needed.

The first fully fledged fan club, The Status Quo Official Supporters Club, was set up towards the end of 1978 and Quo fans were finally able to join a club in the true sense of the word, receiving a quarterly magazine, a membership card and a one-off membership pack in return of their loyal support to the band.

Just like the band at that time, the fan club too went through a number of changes during the early eighties. As Status Quo’s comeback was in full swing by the end of 1986, by early ’87 a new official fan club emerged called the Quo Army which ran until 1992 after which it temporarily ceased activity paving the way for the introduction of altogether new fan club. Launched in May 1993 it was named after Status Quo’s long-standing legend From the Makers of…

From the Makers of…. first appeared on the reverse of the Hello! album, along with the logo of the first two albums Dog of Two Head and Piledriver. The tradition carried on until Back to Back. I can only assume that this is why it was used as the fan club name. That would make sense as it was a was a familiar phrase to Quo Fans!
Yvonne Hanvey, head of FTMO…

My personal top five items from Status Quo by Yvonne Hanvey

The wooden money box
“This was a promo item. It shows all the albums that make up the collection: From The Makers Of… which is engraved into the wood.”

Status Quo FTMO wooden money box, photo courtesy of Yvonne Hanvey
“This isn’t everyones favourite I know! It seems to be the ‘Marmite’ of Quo collections. I am still on the hunt for the promo Rick Parfitt Toby Jug.”

The toby jugs and other Status Quo memorabilia, photo courtesy of Yvonne Hanvey
‘If You Can’t Stand The Heat’ – album sleeve artwork
“This was purchased at auction a few months ago. The collection shows how the album cover was produced by tearing photos of the main image and hand cutting the shapes out to complete the full layout as a collage.”

Photo courtesy of Yvonne Hanvey
Singles from the early days of the band
“Before the band were Status Quo they were know as The Spectres and Traffic Jam. Under these names they release four singles: ‘I (Who Have Nothing, Hurdy Gurdy Man and We (Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet) and Almost But Not Quite There. We finally got these four singles in the 1990s. When we first started looking for them via Record Collector magazine the singles were £35 each. This was far too much for us to pay. This was equivalent to a week’s food shop for us and we couldn’t justify the cost!”

photo courtesy of Yvonne Hanvey
Collection of early promo photos
“The first photo on the left shows the band when they were called The Paladins. They were never called The Scorpions – that is an urban myth! The second photo is the Spectres. The third photo shows the band at Minehead railway station and is fully signed on the reverse.”

Photo courtesy of Yvonne Hanvey

In terms of the future of Status Quo, there is no denying that the band remain hugely popular. The latest project by the fan club was curating the Seven Decades of Status Quo exhibition at London’s Barbican Music Library in conjunction with record collector Andy Campbell. The exhibition was hugely successful with over 23,000 people accessing the exhibition including current band members Rhino and Leon and former drummers Matt Letley and John Coghlan.”

Besides putting together a fan club magazine they also hold a bi-annual Status Quo convention held at Butlin’s in Minehead which is, by the way, where where Francis Rossi ,Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan met Rick Parfitt!

Connect with From The Makers Of… by visiting the Status Quo fan club official website, and on social media on Facebook and Twitter.

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