It’s November 13, 2012, the morning of the eighth annual Classic Rock Awards, and the Status Quo ‘Frantic Four’ – Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan – are gathered in a cafeteria inside London’s Roundhouse where the event is being held.Later in the evening they will accept an award for their 1977 concert release Status Quo Live!

As a band, Status Quo rocked hard and partied even harder throughout the 1960s and 70s. But by the start of the following decade, for various reasons, their empire had begun to crumble. Now the reunion that nobody considered possible is actually happening.

Just a few hours earlier, tickets had gone on sale for a tour the following March, these four musicians’ first dates together in 31 years, and already the guys know they are flying out the door. Quite understandably, all of the Frantic Four are giddy with nostalgia and excitement.

“It’s such a pleasure to be sitting here together. I’m feeling like the ‘new boy’ all over again,” says Rick Parfitt, who joined Quo after their first hit, 1968’s Pictures Of Matchstick Men. “It’s freaking me out, in a way.”

“I’m feeling disorientated, but I’m really enjoying it,” adds John Coghlan, who’s been out of the Quo line-up since 1981.

“If the reunion didn’t happen [now] then it probably never would,” says Francis Rossi. “I mean, look at us – we’re old men.”

“I’ve got this big mirror in my bedroom and I play air guitar,” admits a beaming Alan Lancaster, who was sacked by the band 27 years previously. “I’ve been practising jumping off the bed like I did from [drum risers] during the seventies.”

The most poignant comment of all comes from Parfitt: “Perhaps after all these years we’ll finally get to know one another for the first time.”

And for a short while that’s how things turned out, although sadly the Frantic Four’s wildly differing personas were doomed to return to type.

“The band was always my baby. I had recruited everyone, including the manager.”

Alan Lancaster

Alan Lancaster was incredibly proud of his family, and of the band that he co-founded as a schoolboy.Lancaster – or ‘Nuff’, as the group’s fans knew him – had a clear vision of what Status Quo should and shouldn’t be. And when others within the group began to blur those same lines, sparks would fly about the direction of a particular song or album, or the hiring of a new producer. So it’s hardly surprising that he was forced out of Status Quo following the decision to carry on after reuniting for Live Aid in July 1985.