Quo plead for Live8 slot

Status Quo today pleaded with Bob Geldof to let them perform at Live 8.

Frontman Francis Rossi told GMTV: "We're going to be there if they want us to. We want to make it clear - we are desperate for this gig!"

Rossi said the band had been offered a possible slot at 6pm but need to play earlier in the day because they are on stage in Ireland in the evening.

"We have to be out of there by two or three o'clock. I think we have been offered the six o'clock slot which we just cannot do because we are on stage in Ireland," he said.

Status Quo famously opened the original Live Aid concert in 1985 with their hit Rockin' All Over The World.

Rossi said: "I've never felt a gig quite like that. The audience were totally euphoric, they were part of something rather than just seeing a gig. It was the most unique feeling we have had at a gig."

TV and radio presenter Johnny Vaughan is campaigning for the band to play.

The host of the Capital FM breakfast show said: "The Quo would rock the park, the world, the universe. I just don't see why they're being victimised, it's ridiculous."

But Live 8 promoter Harvey Goldsmith said he had no room for any more acts.
Goldsmith told ITV News last night: "Artists like Status Quo, who I'd love to have been on, came too late," he said. "Lots of artists - Peter Kay, Tony Christie, Meatloaf, Motley Crew - we don't have room for them."