“Alan told us that he didn’t know how he’d face his family again. If he’d said, ‘I won’t accept my royalties for that,’ I’d have admired the courage of his convictions”: The controversial 1983 hit that split one of Britain‘s most beloved rock bands

Status Quo’s Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt posing for a photograph in 1983.

Perhaps more so than with any other band, Status Quo’s repertoire includes a handful of songs that became enormous chart hits yet were reviled by many of the band’s staunchest fans. In Quo’s case examples of this include Living On An Island, In The Army Now, The Anniversary Waltz and Burning Bridges.

But Marguerita Time, a jaunty yet seemingly inoffensive 1983 single that Quo singer and guitarist Francis Rossi and collaborative partner Bernie Frost wrote about an alcoholic cocktail, was despised so much by one member of the group that it caused him to quit. It may even have been a catalyst in Quo’s decision to call it a day in 1984 (temporarily, as it turned out).