Bay City Rollers
The Bay City Rollers were a Scottish pop rock band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity in the 1970s. One of many 1970s acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles", they were called the "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh", and sold between an estimated 120–300 million records worldwide, making them one of the best selling musical acts of all time globally. Their classic line-up during their peak popularity included guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood, singer Les McKeown, bassist Alan Longmuir and his younger brother Derek Longmuir on drums.
Their debut album, Rollin', debuted atop the UK Albums Charts and spent a combined total of fifty-eight weeks on the UK Albums Chart. Their follow-up studio album Once Upon a Star continued this success, again, debuting atop the UK Albums Chart. The album yielded the successful singles "Bye, Bye, Baby", which topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, and "Keep On Dancing". "Bye, Bye, Baby" was the best selling single in the United Kingdom in 1975. Their first album to be released in the United States and Canada, Bay City Rollers peaked at number twenty on the U.S Billboard 200 and number one in Canada.
Commercial success continued internationally with the release of Wouldn't You Like It?, Rock n' Roll Love Letter, Dedication and It's a Game. Their significance in international charts began to decline in 1978 upon the release of Strangers in the Wind, which failed to chart in the United Kingdom, but reached the top five in Japan. Further releases Elevator and Voxx made little impact on international charts. They returned to chart prominence in the 2000s and 2010s with the release of a series of compilation albums – The Very Best of, The Greatest Hits and Gold, all of which reached the top twenty in the United Kingdom, and the top ten on the national albums charts in their native Scotland.
Despite their international prominence during the 1970s and early 1980s, the Bay City Rollers never made the transition from boy band, as their members aged, and their career was marked by financial difficulties and mismanagement. Several members accused manager Tam Paton of sexual assault, but no charges were laid. The current line-up includes rhythm guitarist Stuart "Woody" Wood, the only member to appear on all of the band's studio albums, vocalist and lead guitarist Ian Thomson, bassist Mikey Smith, keyboardist John McLaughlin and drummer Jamie McGrory.
History
Early days and formation: 1964–1971
In 1964, a trio called the Ambassadors was formed in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, by 16-year-old Alan Longmuir on acoustic guitar, his younger brother Derek Longmuir on drums, and their older cousin Neil Porteous on acoustic guitar. The group never performed publicly under this name, just a family wedding where they covered "Wake Up Little Susie". They changed their name to the Saxons, and Derek invited a friend from school, Gordon "Nobby" Clark, to be the lead singer. Porteous moved from acoustic to electric guitar, and Alan Longmuir followed suit by changing to electric bass. The Saxons played occasional dance hall concerts while the band members completed their schooling or worked during the day. Porteous left the band in July 1965, with new guitarist Dave Pettigrew filling the spot after answering an advertisement placed by the band in an Edinburgh newspaper. Pettigrew was more advanced musically than the others, and pushed the band to improve. Their repertoire included American R&B/pop songs such as "Please Mr. Postman" and "Heat Wave". They played at least one gig at the Gonk Club as the Deadbeats, but they discovered a conflict: Another band was playing locally as Rock Bottom and the Deadbeats.While taking a technical class at Napier College, Alan met fellow plumbing student Gregory Ellison, who joined the Saxons on electric guitar, with Pettigrew shifting to keyboards. Gregory's older brother Mike joined as a second lead singer, allowing more complex harmonies, especially useful for the Motown songs they liked to perform. The band convinced Tam Paton, a former big band leader and influential local band and club manager, to audition them at the Longmuirs' house. Paton booked them for a Thursday night at his club, the Palais, then assigned them to open for the Hipple People at Top Storey. More gigs followed.
More successful now, the Saxons moved out of the Longmuirs' back room to practice in Hermiston at a church. They played a couple of contemporary Kinks numbers but favored American songs, including a new one: "C.C. Rider" by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Desiring a better name for the band, they settled on "Rollers", but needed a more powerful American-sounding term in front of that. Derek Longmuir threw a dart at a map of the United States, landing first on Arkansas. This did not meet anyone's approval, so a second dart was thrown. It landed near Bay City, Michigan. The band agreed on the name, the Bay City Rollers. Short-term members from this period included bassist David Paton and keyboardist Billy Lyall, who went on to be founding members of another Edinburgh band Pilot.
Breakthrough: 1971–1973
After signing with Bell Records, the band release the single "Keep on Dancing", a cover of a 1965 hit by the Gentrys. A commercial success in the United Kingdom where it reached number nine on the national singles charts, they made appearances on BBC One's Top of the Pops as a result to assist in the promotion of the single. During this period, the band was fronted by Gordon "Nobby" Clark, who quit the band in 1972 in a dispute over its musical direction. Clark recorded an additional two songs with the band which were released, ultimately becoming non-charting singles. Additionally, during this period, long-term member guitarist Eric Faulkner was added to the bands lineup. In mid-1973, they narrowly missed the UK Singles Chart with their fourth single, "Saturday Night".The band released the single "Remember " which was given a "perfunctory release" in the United Kingdom as a consequence of the decision by Dick Leahy, the manager of Bell Records, to drop the band from the label following its release. Bell Records showed no real enthusiasm for the song, leaving the bands manager Tam Paton to visit Leahy and "beg him" to give the band "one last chance", later claiming that he believed Leahy only agreed to do so because he "felt sorry" for him. Furthermore, by the end of 1972, Clark had become disillusioned with the band's musical direction and decided to leave the band. Despite the concerns from Bell Records over the future of the band and the decision by Clark to leave, "Remember " reached its peak of number six on the singles charts in the United Kingdom.
Given the success of the release, manager Tam Paton believed that Clark may change his decision about leaving the band, and "begged" him to appear with the band on Top of the Pops to perform the song. Whilst Clark agreed to do the performance on Top of the Pops, Paton believed this was a signal that he had changed his mind about leaving the band, and was hopeful this would be the case for an upcoming show scheduled in Perth, Scotland, however, Clark refused to perform at the concert and thereafter officially left the band. As previously arranged between manager Tam Paton and departing frontman Gordon Clark, Clark had flown to London to appear in the recording for the Top of the Pops broadcast, but was later advised that a "special arrangement" had been made and that the segment had already been recorded without the involvement of Clark.
Clark was eventually replaced as the lead singer of the band by Les McKeown, and a couple of months later, in early 1974, what became known as the classic line-up was completed, with guitarist John Devine being replaced by Stuart "Woody" Wood. Clark had originally recorded lead vocals on "Saturday Night", however, after leaving the band and being replaced by McKeown, his vocals were removed and rerecorded by McKeown instead. The version of "Saturday Night" with Clark on lead vocals struggled to come to any release fruition, however, in contrast, McKeown's version achieved considerable commercial success, reaching number one on the United States Billboard Hot 100. Clark disputed the success of the McKeown version, claiming that it was his recording of "Saturday Night" that performed well commercially and that he was "long overdue royalties" from its success.
In 1987, Les McKeown was a guest on Jonathan Ross's chat show where he told Ross that The Bay City Rollers did not perform on the first four singles.
Rise to prominence: 1974–1975
In late 1973, McKeown recorded lead vocals on "Remember ", marking the beginning of a period of commercial success for the band. It reached number six on the national singles charts in the United Kingdom, and peaked at number thirty-seven in Germany. In February 1974, 16-year-old Stuart Wood completed the "classic five" line-up, a week after the band had debuted the "Remember" single on Top of the Pops. The "classic five" line-up consisted of: Alan Longmuir, Derek Longmuir, Stuart "Woody" Wood, Eric Faulkner and Les McKeown. Following the release of "Remember " the bands popularity increased rapidly, releasing a series of commercially successful singles in the United Kingdom, including "Shang-a-Lang", "Summerlove Sensation", and "All of Me Loves All of You".In October 1974, they released their debut album Rollin' to commercial success. It reached number one on the albums charts in the United Kingdom, and became the 16th best selling album of the year in the United Kingdom. Additionally, it performed well in international territories including Australia where it reached number eight, Finland where it reached number eighteen, and Japan where it reached number thirty-seven. By early 1975, they were one of the biggest-selling acts in the United Kingdom. The successful 1975 UK tour prompted newspaper headlines about the rise of "Rollermania". The band were the subject of a 20-week UK television series, Shang-a-Lang, which aired between April and December 1975.
A cover of the Four Seasons' "Bye, Bye, Baby" stayed at No. 1 in the UK for six weeks in March and April 1975, selling nearly a million copies and becoming the biggest seller of the year. The subsequent single, "Give a Little Love" topped the chart in July 1975, achieving their second No. 1 hit. Two albums were produced during this period: Once Upon a Star and Wouldn't You Like It?. Faulkner and Wood undertook the majority of the songwriting duties. By this time, Bay City Rollers fans had a completely distinctive style of dress, featuring calf-length tartan trousers and tartan scarves.
English singer-songwriter Nick Lowe wrote a "jaundiced" paean to the band titled "Bay City Rollers We Love You". The track was "carefully sculpted" to be poor enough to get Lowe out of a recording contract with United Artists. The strategy backfired. UA issued the record as by the Tartan Horde, which was the name given to Rollers fans in England, and it became a substantial hit in Japan. Lowe was obliged to record a follow-up song called "Rollers Show", which did not meet with the same commercial success. This follow-up song was included on the U.S. release of Lowe's first album Pure Pop for Now People.