This poster means a lot to me, says Danny Clifford. I was young, maybe 18 when I was sitting in the office of the lovely Bob Nolan at Phonograpm Records in London. Bob was the label manager for many artists on Phonogram’s subsidiary, Vertigo. He looked after Status Quo, Thin Lizzy, Dire Straits, 10cc, Graham Parker & The Rumour and many others. So, there I was in his office, and he said, okay, you are on tour with Quo now. Can you get us a shot showing the band's excitement and drama when they perform live? I just said yes, of course. I went and produced what you can see here on this poster. I can't quite remember where I took the main shot on this poster, but I remember thinking I had something special. Back in those days of film, I used a lab in Covent Garden, Central London, to process the colour films. They were called NJ Pauolo, and some lovely Chinese guys ran it. The film I used was called Kodak Ektachrome, which took about two hours to process. So, I remember it was a cold winter day, and it was getting dark early. I took the underground to Covent Garden station. I exited the station, turned right, and walked past the fruit and vegetable market stalls down James Street. Almost at the end of the street, before you get to Floral Street, I arrived at the NJ Paolo lab; I turned right and went down the stairs and into the photo lab. For some reason, it made me think this is what it must be like in Hong Kong. I had not been to Hong Kong, but that dark evening with the market madness and the hustle and bustle of London contrasting with an extremely busy laboratory in the basement with bright yellow lights hanging everywhere just made me think how it might have been in the far east with all of the rushing and fast-paced craziness. But London was, and I guess still is like that. However, there are no more fruit and vegetable stalls in Covent Garden now. It’s all shoe shops and street artists.

I dropped the films there, and then, as usual, I had two hours to kill. I then wandered back up to the street and remembered seeing one of the market stalls selling Avocados. Believe it or not, this was quite a luxury and rare item. I walked past the stalls, back towards Covent Garden Station, where Sounds, the music magazine, had their office. Their door was right next to the station entrance. I sat with a few music journalists and had a coffee or two while the film was being processed. This was my normal excuse to be in Sounds offices. Every time I was in there, I picked up a few jobs to shoot. As a freelancer, I have always owned the copyright. The time soon arrived, and I left Sounds and returned to the lab. I collected my film and rushed to the lightbox, where we laid it to look at it. I grabbed the loupe (magnifying glass) and looked at the frames individually. I had shot about two or three rolls of film to get this particular shot. I was thrilled as it had all come together, and I had it. It's just what I wanted. I then rushed straight over to see Bob Nolan at Phonogram. He took one look and didn't say anything, but he just walked out of the office with the one transparency I had selected for him to look at. I just sat in his office and wondered where he had gone. He came rushing back in and said, “Danny, that is brilliant; it’s better than we could have imagined. He and the marketing team were thrilled. I left them the transparency and headed to meet up with the mighty Status Quo. A few weeks later, I was back at the record label, and Bob Nolan saw me speaking with Leon Campadelli, a wonderful guy who worked there. Leon put all of the compilation albums together at the label. Bob said quick, come into my office. I need to show you something. I went in, and I was thrilled to see this poster! The label had put this together, and it was about to be used worldwide to promote Quo and their albums, of which I have photographed quite a few. I was so excited to see this poster of one of my favourite bands being used worldwide. I managed to get my hands on about 10 of them.

Now, many decades on, I have just one left. Hundreds of Quo fans over the years have asked me if I had one I could sell, which I didn’t. I even saw one displayed at the amazing Status Quo exhibition that was put on recently by FTMO (Quo Fan Club), run by Yovne & Paul Hanvey, in London at The Barbican. I own the copyright, and I just thought it was something that music lovers and, of course, Quo fans may want to have on one of their walls. Maybe I am biased, but it epitomises Quo at their peak. If you look carefully, all four band members can be seen in it. So, as we own the rights to this poster, we have now decided to reprint it, and they are, therefore, brand new. I am extremely pleased that it’s finally available again!

I hope you all like this poster; to me, it’s a bit of genuine Quo history. I hope you all agree!

There are three sizes A3 (297 x 420 mm, 11.7 x 16.5 inches) A2 (420 x 594mm, 16.5 x 23.4 inches ) & A1 (594 x 841mm, 23.4 x 33.1 inches).

I will be signing each poster that is bought.