THEY are the music fans who will not be swayed by the vagaries of the top 40, nor swallow the hype of the next big thing.
Deaf to the opinions of the music critics, ignorant of the views of the cognoscenti, they know what they like and follow it through good times and bad.
Hundreds of thousands of Britons are ignoring the cries of the smart set and snapping up ticket
s to see bands that many of us might have though retired years ago.
Figures just released by the Performing Right Society (PRS) show that despite the best efforts of the style-setters, sixties nostalgia, old-fashioned singalongs and seventies rock are still hugely popular with the British public.
According to the PRS, Status Quo, Gerry and the Pacemakers and Chas & Dave are all among the most popular bands in Britain in terms of the number of gigs they play.
Status Quo played 35 UK performances to more than 300,000 fans last year, narrowly beating Take That, who played 34 major gigs as part of the band's Beautiful World comeback tour.
Quo frontman Francis Rossi, who turns 60 in May, said: "Playing to our fans is still and has always been the most important thing for the band. Nothing beats playing live and this is as relevant today as it always has been."
On the small concert-hall circuit, 1960s stalwarts Gerry and the Pacemakers were the biggest draw while Abba imitators Bjorn Again were the most successful tribute band.
The Kaiser Chiefs, Sugababes and the newly reformed Spice Girls were also on the list of the bands who played the most big-stadium gigs in 2008. Packing them in at the smaller venues were David Essex, Chas & Dave, Journey South and Jamie Squire.
Originally in the first wave of British psychedelic bands, Status Quo formed in 1962 as The Scorpions. The band are most strongly associated with the 1970s when they forged their distinctive three-chord style and denim-clad image.
Never a band to take themselves too seriously, Status Quo named their record label Fourth Chord. They made a guest appearance on Coronation Street in 2005 and were the first band to play for royalty at a concert for Prince Charles in 1982.
In 1985, they were chosen to open the Live Aid concert and their anthem Rockin' All Over the World was heard by millions worldwide.
The album went on to sell seven million copies – but street credibility eluded them.
The Scotsman rock critic Fiona Shepherd said: "You would be hard-pressed to find a music critic who would have anything nice to say about them.
"Their music is robotic and uninspiring and appeals to a particularly kind of conservative music fan. It is basically old-school R&B boogie played in a plodding, conservative way.
"I never liked it and I'm not going to start liking it. But I imagine the reason they are still together is that they are still enjoying themselves. They certainly seem to enjoy what they do."
Gerry and the Pacemakers were the second band signed by Brian Epstein after The Beatles. The group split up in 1966 but reformed to play the sixties nostalgia circuit.
Chas & Dave have been plying their own brand of cockney sing-along music since the 1980s.
They became popular with a new audience after being sampled by Eminem and have also been cited as an influence by Babyshambles and Pete Doherty. In recent years, Chas & Dave have also been a big hit with the crowds at Glastonbury.
Whisper it – I'm a big fan. And here's the secret of their rock 'n' roll success WHEN you think of Status Quo, several images immediately spring to mind: pub rockers head-banging to the same limited chords, denim, ponytails and a band that seems to have been around since time immemorial.
It's easy to knock Status Quo but they keep coming back for more. And so do their fans, in droves. But why? Not for them the constant reinvention of U2 or Prince. Instead, theirs is a course steady and true of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" variety.
And yet they weren't always 12-bar boogie metronomes. Those with long memories will recall them as freakbeaters The Spectres, who then morphed into the acid-laden psychedelic rockers Traffic Jam. So how is it that these rock behemoths are still with us and still packing out auditoriums worldwide?
The answer is simple. They love what they do and their fans, who worship the ground they rock on, love what they do – in 2005 the band were voted Best Festival Feel Good Act by the UK Festival Awards.
Sure, they're not bothering the top 40 any more, but why should they care when they've had more than 60 hit singles in the UK alone?
They've lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle to excess and back, and we love them because they're survivors who have lived to tell the tale. Don't we all have at least one favourite Status Quo track? For the record, mine is Down Down.
• Paul Johnston is co-founder of music site jocknroll.co.uk
TOP FIVE
MOST arena performances: 1. Status Quo
2. Take That
3. Kaiser Chiefs
4. Sugababes
5. Spice Girls
TOP FIVE
AT smaller venues: 1. Gerry and the Pacemakers
2. David Essex
3. Chas 'n' Dave
4. Journey South
5. Jamie Squire
TOP FIVE
MOST performances by a tribute act: 1. Bjorn Again (ABBA)
2. Whole Lotta Led (Led Zeppelin)
3. T-Rextasy (T Rex)
4. Mudz (Mud)
5. Talon (The Eagles)
IN NUMBERS63 UK chart hits recorded by Status Quo.
22UK top-ten hits.
1962The year Francis Rossi founded The Scorpions, which became The Status Quo in 1967.
2008The year Quo released their first Christmas single.
5,000The average size of a Status Quo audience.
106Record number of appearances on Top of the Pops.
