YEAH, we've all heard it a thousand times. Status Quo: the three-chord wonders who just keep churning out the same song again and again and again. (Nov 6)

In fact, set the end of that last sentence to music and... A cut of the royalties will do nicely, thanks lads!

But somehow, despite all the disparaging remarks, The Quo not only survive, they thrive.

Nearly 40 years after they met at a holiday camp, the twin leaders of this extraordinary band, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, are still going strong.

They survived the artifice of pop, the near fatal excesses of heavy rock to become household names.

But still they keep rocking, albeit with a little more time off between their brain- and body-shattering tour schedules.

As they headed for the British leg of their ongoing world tour, including a show at the BIC on Saturday, November 6, I caught up with Rossi in a Berlin hotel.

He was looking forward to a two-week break between the European shows and the start the UK tour.

"Frankly, we need the time off," he told me.

"There was a time when we'd just play night after night for weeks on end but we're not as young as we used to be and anyway our gigs are hard physical work.

"It's not like being in Oasis and wandering about the stage with our hands in our pockets. We really build up a sweat."

Anyone reading Rossi and Parfitt's latest autobiography, X-S All Areas, would be forgiven for wondering if their knackered state isn't the result of the massively debauched lifestyle they used to enjoy.

It makes eye-watering reading:

Rossi would routinely get through a couple of bottles of tequila and three grams of cocaine a day, along with "hundreds of cigarettes and joints".

Meanwhile, Parfitt was so out of it that he'd wake up and ask his wife why the dining room furniture was at the bottom of the swimming pool. Wearily, she'd tell him that he threw it in there the night before.

It was a death-defying existence, one that turned their lives into a Spinal Tap-style parody.

Against all odds they both cleaned up their act. Today, Rossi laughs when I tell him I'm not surprised that he's tired. He argues (somewhat unconvincingly) that they weren't really that different from anyone else.

"Every Friday night people come home from work and then hit the town.

"They get drunk and they get stoned. The only difference is that they don't carry on doing it seven nights a week.

"We did - for 10 years - and that's really not a very good idea."

The clean-living 21st-century version of Quo arrive in Bournemouth on November 6.

Rossi and Parfitt will be at Borders bookstore in The Square to sign copies of X-S All Areas before their concert at the BIC that evening.

Win Quo tickets!

THE Daily Echo has three pairs of tickets for the show.

For a chance of winning a pair, simply answer the following question: What is the current line-up of Status Quo?

Put your answer, on a postcard with name, address and daytime phone number, to Status Quo Competition c/o Jeremy Miles, Entertainments Editor, Daily Echo, Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, Dorset BH2 6HH to reach us by first post on Tuesday, November 2.

Usual Echo competition rules.