IT'S not the best start to an interview. I'm 20 minutes late having been given the wrong phone number and Francis Rossi admits to feeling 'poached' having been on stage the night before.

But as soon as we start to talk about Status Quo, their new album and tour which will see them coming to Preston next month -- all is well.

"I remember the last time we played in Preston," says Rossi, the man who made the pony tail fashionable long before David Seaman.

"They put this huge barrier up in front of the stage and it acted as a bass trap and all this noise started coming back at us. It was murder."

It is perhaps no surprise that the way to get an interview with one Status Quo's twin pillars is to catch him on the road.

For 35 years the ultimate rock and roll band have toured the world -- it's estimated they've travelled some four million miles and spent 22 years away from home in that time.

"People are always quoting those kinds of figures about us," says Rossi, "but that's our job.

"It's like saying a truck driver has driven a lot of miles."

With a new album, Heavy Traffic and accompanying single All Stand Up, getting rave reviews it's clear that the Quo are back on form.

When I spoke to Rossi the band are in Germany at the start of a tour which will last until Christmas.

"When you go back on the road it kills you," he say.

But why do Rossi and long term partner Rick Parfitt put themselves through it. Surely 57 hit singles are enough for anyone?

"It's simple," he says, "we like it and we need the money.

"No matter how rich you are you want to maintain your standard of living. I think I'll go on till I'm 90.

"The thought of me playing when I'm 60 when we first started off would have been ridiculous but that's only six or seven years off now.

"I know it's a cliche but you're only as old as you feel.

"The worst thing to do is look in the mirror," he laughed.

So are the Quo going to grow old disgracefully?

"We've done the wild men of rock thing," he says.

"But you can't always be angry young men. I was asked recently why we didn't throw TV sets out of hotel windows and I just said, 'well if you did you'd have to pay for it'.

"There's a danger we're getting sensible."

Off stage they may have quietened down a little but on stage the Quo still rock and you sense that's where Rossi is still most at home.

"Anyone who has experienced that sensation you get from the crowd will know why we do it," he says.

"You can't beat it."

Status Quo play Preston Guild Hall on November 11.

Details from the box office on 01772 258858