STATUS Quo are living up to the meaning of their name.

Guitarist Rick Parfitt's death on Christmas Eve 2016 could possibly have seen the end of the band, but not so, as frontman and last-remaining founder member Francis Rossi affirms. “To be honest, I didn’t think this year would happen, but it is, so we just keep going,” he says, ahead of Quo's Aquostic Live gig at York Barbican on Wednesday.

“Everything’s all right at the moment in the camp. I’m even recording an album with Hannah Rickard, one of the singers on the Aquostic albums, which has a country feel and it’s going quite well.”

However, the death of Rossi's long-standing partner-in-rock, who joined the band in 1967, must have been a shock. “Yes, well it took a long time to sink in – probably still hasn’t really,” he says.

Rossi remembers the day clearly. "We arrived home from the UK tour at about nine in the morning on Christmas Eve and I got a call from Simon [Porter, the band’s manager] between ten and 10.30 saying that Rick was very ill and within two hours he was gone.

“To be honest, it was something we were expecting, but I’m not quite sure I’m used to it and it reminds us of our own mortality. It had been weird playing a gig when he wasn’t there, but we’ve been dealing with it.”

Parfitt had retired from Quo in 2016 after suffering his third heart attack last summer, but he had played on the second Status Quo acoustic album, Aquostic II, and had been recording a solo album as well as writing his biography. “I have no idea whether any of this will be finished," says Rossi. "They played one of his solo tracks at the funeral.”

At some shows last summer, Parfitt's place was taken by Freddie Edwards, son of Quo bassist John "Rhino" Edwards, and for Quo's December tour Richie Malone took over.

"Richie's now a fully-fledged member of the band," confirms Rossi. "Freddie was a great stand-in but he has his own career. Richie is extremely good and can commit to the band. He has been watching us from when he was very young and knows what we’re about.”

In fact, the introduction of the Irish guitarist could be a bonus. “Yeah, bringing in some new young blood has given us a kick in the a**e as we may have been becoming a bit complacent. There’s a new edge to it all now,” suggests Rossi.

As indicated by the tour title, The Last Night Of The Electrics, Rossi had been hoping Status Quo would be hanging up the electric guitars after last December's travels, but this isn’t proving to be the case, as well over half of the shows in the diary are still electric.

“Richie being in the electric band has made a change," says Rossi, acknowledging that demand for the electric Quo is still high. "We've managed to keep our crew on. They all have families and mortgages, so being able to keep them on makes me feel good, as they rely on us to keep them employed."

Wednesday's gig will be one of Quo's acoustic rather than electric nights, and Rossi admits he is still acclimatising to playing the likes of Down Down, Caroline, Rockin’ All Over The World and Roll Over Lay Down acoustically.

“That’s right, I’m frightened ****less most nights,” he says. “I was a bit unsure at first when we started the Aquostic stuff, but as time went on we got a bit ‘precious’ about it and we’re very pleased at how the songs sound.”

When not working in Status Quo, Rossi works on other projects and keeps fit. “Yeah, I have a trainer that keeps coming round and hurting me," he says, with laughter in his voice.

"I do have a solo album in the can but as I started to work with Hannah on her album it got put on a back-burner as the album with Hannah is more interesting.”

There is the small matter of Status Quo's 50th anniversary this year, but Rossi appears to be uninterested. "I know Simon [Quo manager Simon Porter] would like to do something, but I don’t really get it, I would rather not do anniversaries,” he says.

"The main problem being is ‘what anniversary is it exactly?’. We celebrated the 20th anniversary in 1982, as the band was originally formed in 1962, but a lot of people tend to go from when Rick joined in 1967 and we changed the name to Status Quo. But you never know.”

Status Quo: Aquostic Live, York Barbican, Wednesday, 8pm. Box office: 0844 854 2757 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk

by Martin Hutchinson