WEST Somerset master baker Ron Phillips has more reason than most to celebrate Status Quo’s final concert in Taunton this Friday (August 23).

For the retired businessman, of Kingsland, Watchet, was drafted in to craft a special 25th anniversary cake for the band at Butlin’s, Minehead, in 1990 - the last time they performed in West Somerset.

The remarkable creation featured in photo headlines with the group, alongside radio DJ Alan Freeman and TV personality Chris Tarrant, as they marked the occasion to remember their first season as Status Quo in Minehead in the 1960s.

Mr Phillips, a national award-winning baker and confectioner, owned and ran Watchet’s Bon Bakery and was contacted by Butlin’s to create a suitable guitar-shaped cake for the unique event.

“It was, without a doubt, the most important cake I ever made,” he said this week.

Watchet baker Ron Phillips
Watchet baker Ron Phillips (Watchet baker Ron Phillips)

“Status Quo were international stars at the time after opening Live Aid a few years before, so I decided on a full size Fender guitar cake, with a picture of Rossi, Parfitt, and the other band members in fondant discs. That and a cake for Chris Tarrant’s 30th birthday. They were generous enough to give me two free tickets for the show as a thank you!

“I’ve been to see them live since as well. They are a great band, and there is a real symmetry about them coming back to Somerset to finish where they started all those years ago.”

The band, with only Rossi of the original line-up remaining, are performing at Vivary Park on Friday night - which is expected to be their last concert, nearly 60 years after forming at Butlins in 1965.

Bon Bakery, which closed in 1991, was the national supplier for Butlins, and the special cake still features in the Status Quo video of the 25th anniversary celebrations.

The band famously travelled down to Minehead on the West Somerset Railway in 1990, just as The Beatles had done for Hard Day’s Night 25 years before.

The famous British rock band is due to headline this year's Live in Somerset event on August 23 alongside other artists such as Busted, JLS and Ministry of Sounds Classical.