STATUS Quo review at Ipswich Regent on Monday night.THEY have been Rockin' All Over the World for an incredible four decades - and a high-octane show in Ipswich last night showed exactly why they have withstood the test of time.

STATUS Quo review at Ipswich Regent on Monday night.

THEY have been Rockin' All Over the World for an incredible four decades - and a high-octane show in Ipswich last night showed exactly why they have withstood the test of time.

Status Quo kept fans in a sell-out crowd (the second in two nights) on their feet for the entire 100-minute show - band and audience rocking and rolling together in a powerhouse journey down memory lane.

Quo, led so ably by grinning frontman Francis Rossi and partner-in-guitar Rick Parfitt, have taken their unique band of rock 'n' roll around the world - performing to 24 million people since the mid-sixties...a total that's twice the number of people who live in Holland!

It's been 14 years on the trot in Ipswich and the Suffolk crowd never seem to tire of the routine - so much so that around 100 in the audience had booked in for both nights.

It's not just the old rockers in their jeans who enjoy the likes of Caroline and Paper Plane - I took two metal-loving teenagers, son Josh and friend Dan, along...and they loved every minute.

Thirty years ago I saw my first Quo gig - at Sheffield City Hall. Then the seats gave way as fans clambered over them to get to the front.

There was no seat clambering last night - but fans got their dancin' and a prancin' nonetheless, with three superb encore numbers.

My favourite numbers were the evergreen Whatever You Want, Down Down and Roll Over Lay Down - but there wasn't a bad number on the night and all the five band members seemed to enjoy themselves enormously.

Notes in the superb programme told us that the band had wanted to change things around and this was somewhat of a different set - although many of the favourites were played.

The band's 33rd album, In Search of a Fourth Chord, has now rolled off the production line and the track The Beginning of the End, may be a pointer to the future but I doubt it somehow.

Bassist John ''Rhino'' Edwards, drummer Matt Letley and keyboard player Andrew Bown all played a full part in a great night.

My only question, as we rolled out into a frosty Ipswich night, was: who will last longer - the band or the audience. I wouldn't bet against the Quo!

Nigel Pickover