Status Quo reunites after 30 years for UK tour

London: One of Britain`s most successful rock groups Status Quo are going back on tour for the first time in three decades later this week.

Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt will be joined by the other two original members for a series of reunion concerts, Sky News reported. Drummer John Coghlan left in 1981 and bass player Alan Lancaster departed the band four years later, sparking a bitter and lengthy legal battle over the Status Quo name. Rossi and Parfitt recruited replacements and have been touring ever since. But they`ve finally patched up their differences with their former band mates, nearly 50 years after they first began playing together. "I think the really positive thing is that if we hadn`t split up we couldn`t have got back together again. It`s very nice to see everybody again, to get to know everybody again, because there`s a lot of water gone under the bridge," Parfitt said. They`ve been hard at work in a rehearsal studio in Shepperton, trying to re-create the sound of a critically-acclaimed live album from 1977. Despite having more chart singles than any other British band, they only plan to play a couple of hits during this tour - concentrating on heavier album tracks favoured by diehard fans. After the tour is complete, Lancaster and Coghlan will return to retirement, while Rossi and Parfitt will resume working with the other Quo members they`ve recruited in recent years. Their nine-date reunion tour begins this Wednesday, March 6, in Manchester, and finishes at Wembley Arena on March 17. ANI