“Even my dental hygienist sent me something the other day to say they were all singing it at some wedding reception”: How a British boogie-rock band turned a minor John Fogerty hit into an all-time classic that kicked off the biggest gig in history

Status Quo posing for a photograph in the 1970s.

On Saturday 13 July, 1985, Status Quo opened the biggest concert in history with a cover version they had made their own almost a decade before. Standing on stage in front of 80,000 people packed into London’s Wembley Stadium for the British leg of the monumental Live Aid concert, these boogie-rock linchpins kicked off with Rockin’ All Over The World – a song that seemed to sum up the grand reach of this unprecedented event.

“Nobody wanted to go on first, so we went: ‘Fuck it, we’ll do it – get the fuck on, get the fuck off,’” says Quo singer and guitarist Francis Rossi. “But when we started playing that song, there was a total sense of euphoria. Everything slotted in. The sense of love from the audience was something else.”