Rick Parfitt: Last News

ITV series Tiswas, its host Chris Tarrant has revealed. Rick and bandmate Francis Rossi were among a host of showbiz stars packed into a “celebrity cage”.Chris, 75, said: “All of a sudden, the unmistakable smell of marijuana came wafting into my nostrils from the direction of the cage.“Here’s me, the producer of a supposed children’s television programme, kids everywhere, parents everywhere, journalists everywhere, and one of my guests is smoking a joint.“I abandoned the sketch, much to Lenny Henry’s bewilderment, and rushed to the cage, completely drenching everyone in it with bucket after bucket of the Midland Water Board’s finest product.

“I remember once somebody said ‘I saw a child crying on their show’, well yeah go to a kids party, kids cry you know, they fall over and stuff.He added: “We had this famous incident where, I decided we would have a celebrity cage, instead of normal members of the public we pelted with rubbish, let’s get celebrities in there.“We had Status Quo, a rock band from America called Goldie and the Gingerbreads, Lemmy from Motorhead and the late splendid John Peel, the cage was rammed.“We pelted them with whatever and then I’m doing a sketch with Lenny and I suddenly thought that’s marijuana, I, a producer of a children’s show and somebody is smoking a spliff.”When asked “Did you find out who it was?”, Chris said: ”Yes, basically Lenny and I were doing the sketch, he was dressed up as a waiter and Lenny was like ‘where are you going’ and I said forget it and just pelted the cage with water and the offending item was put out.“I can’t tell you who it was… Rick Parfitt.”Tiswas, which stood for Today Is Saturday: Watch And Smile, ran between 1974 and 1982 with Chris at the helm for seven of those years.Featuring a stitch-together of competitions, film clips, pop promos and comedy sketches, the show left kids howling with laughter across eight series.Chris was joined by co-host Sally James as well as a young Sir Lenny Henry and occasional appearances from comedians such as Jim Davidson.Chris believes censors would pour cold water all over Tiswas today because of how some of the guests were treated.A popular segment on the show was “The Cage”, where, usually, a child in the audience who had applied, would be locked up and periodically doused in water.It became so popular that the 100th show featured several hundred fans lining the

songs on his Tunes and Chat Tour in 2023.The Rocking All Over The World and Down Down singer will perform acoustic versions of well-known hits alongside songs that fans have yet to hear live for the first time - making the upcoming tour an unmissable night of entertainment from one of rock's greatest musicians.That's not all, as Francis will also delight fans with stories from across his amazing career, which will thread together the songs throughout the evening.At each concert, VIP packages will also be available if fans want to meet Francis Rossi before the show too.The tour will see Francis appear at music venues across the country between March - November 23, opening at Wimborne Tivoli on March 24, 2023.Tunes and Chat spans nearly 100 dates across the UK, visiting towns and cities including Warrington, Poole, Ipswich, Wirral, Lincoln, Bristol, Stockport, Guildford, Basildon, Coventry, Aberystwyth, Aberdeen and Cheltenham.Francis Rossi, whose career spans over 50 years, rose to fame as part of Status Quo alongside musicians include the late Rick Parfitt.Following the release of their hit Pictures of Matchstick Men in 1968, the band scored their first number one record with Down Down in 1974, before releasing songs including Rocking All Over The World, which famously opened Live Aid in 1985.With over 85 singles and having sold 120million albums across the world, the group have broken numerous records during their career, including holding the Guinness World Record for the most hit singles on the UK chart by any band, totalling 66.Francis has since documented his life and music in the best selling autobiography I Talk Too Much, in which the star revealed the stories behind his incredible career.Along with the Tunes and

Status Quo legend Francis Rossi's tales of rock excess made audience members pass out at his one-man show.Rossi, 72, recounted "graphic" and "horrific" stories of sex, drugs and rock 'n' rock from over 50 years with the hell-raising band.When he went into detail about the death of former bandmate Rick Parfitt people fainted, the ghost writer of his autobiography has revealed.Rock author Mick Wall, who accompanied Rossi on his speaking tour, said: "Someone in the audience fainted during the story of Rick's death, early versions of which were extremely graphic, and I found myself appealing for ‘a doctor in the house’.When it happened again two weeks later, Francis agreed to make the story shorter and to leave out some of the grislier

Coronation Street too.Born on May 29, 1941, his mother was originally from Liverpool and in his autobiography, I Talk Too Much, Francis revealed this his father's side of the family were ice cream merchants who founded the ice cream parlour chain Rossi's.Francis began performing with the late bassist Alan Lancaster in the early sixties, with whom he would later form The Spectres alongside John Coghlan and Roy Lynes.During one concert at Butlins in Minehead in 1965, they crossed paths with Rick Parfitt and the band members became great friends, with Rick joining the band.Changing their name to The Traffic Jam, they eventually became known as Status Quo in 1967, and had their first hit single, Pictures of Matchstick Men in 1968, which has