And Finally Beef Of The Week

CMU Beef Of The Week #22: Status Quo v Brighton & Hove City Council

By | Published on Saturday 12 June 2010

Some residents of Brighton and Hove were recently horrified to learn recently that their local council had spent £10,000 on a website designed to attract candidates for four £125,000 a year Strategic Director jobs. But that’s nothing compared to attracting the wrath of Status Quo.

The band are upset that, in an effort to draw applications from more ‘radical thinkers’, Brighton & Hove City Council has located the website at SayNoToStatusQuo.co.uk and emblazoned it with the legend, “Status Quo Fans Need Not Apply”. Although it does permit “a love of classic rock”, if any applicants should harbour such a thing.

The Quo responded by announcing that they would hang a banner on front of the Brighton Centre when they perform there in December, reading: “Councillors for Brighton and Hove need not attend”.

And as if that wasn’t showing the council men what’s what enough, the band’s manager Simon Porter told The Telegraph this week: “This is a direct insult to the capabilities of millions of Quo fans, many of whom are probably totally overqualified for these jobs”.

A bold retort, although the uncertainty of that “probably” in there does let him down somewhat. But, whatever, it worked, because the Council’s Chief Exec John Barradell buckled under the pressure and wrote an open letter apologising to the band and their fans.

Barradell wrote: “I’m sorry if any offence has been caused by our advert slogan ‘Status Quo fans need not apply’ – none was intended. What we mean by this play on words is that we want people who will come to the council with brilliant and original ideas about how to make residents’ lives better. We don’t want people who will accept things the way they are”.

He added: “I accept that it was a little insensitive. My wife did say when she saw it that ‘it might upset Quo fans’. I hoped it would make us stand out from the crowd and would get people interested. Clearly she was right”.

Completely wimping out of the whole thing, he concluded: “Of course, I don’t need to say how well loved and supported the Quo are here in Brighton & Hove”.

However, the Council have the last laugh, as the offending website remains online (albeit with a link to Barradell’s letter added at the bottom). No word if Status Quo’s banner is still in production.

This Beef Of The Week comes from this edition of the CMU Weekly. Subscribe to the CMU Weekly here.



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