Rollermania II - Updates

 

The last time I posted about the Bay City Rollers on this blog was way back in the early days which is a long time which is why this post is being made the way I did back then and  a fair bit has happened in that time.

The first thing to update this blog on is that we had the deaths of two long term members of the group and another who was only a member for a relatively brief period which means in practical terms the likelihood of any kind of meaningful Rollers act on tour have gone with Eric Faulkner ill and Derek Longmuir and Stuart "Woody" Wood otherwise preoccupied.

One July 2nd at 6 am 2018 it was announced that Alan Longmuir, the bass player who left in early 1976 feeling at the ripe old age of 26 he was too old to be in the band had died.

Ian Mitchell who was from Northern Ireland stepped into Alan's shoes in 1976 playing on the Love Me Like I Love You single from April that year and the Dedication album that was recorded in Canada, died in early September of 2020 aged 62 and who outside of the BCR was a important part of the group Rosetta Stone.

Last Thursday, April 23rd, it was announced Les McKeown who joined the band in early 1974 remaining with them until 1978's Strangers In The Wind album not being happy about the group moving in a more new wave direction and launching a solo career.

He had stepped in as lead singer replacing Nobby Clark and two early singles were re-recorded for the Rollin' album of 1974 with his vocals.

As the old century moved in to the new, he performed with a version of the rollers with some success and kept in contact with former band mates not least in trying to resolve the scandal of grossly underpaid record royalties that hand left many members with little to show for their fame and the consequences of being ripped off by Tom Paton, their manager for good measure.

If some of us were fans of other members of the band at the time, we'd all acknowledge Les was the big heart throb of the group, universally popular, happy to meet fans.

The Bay City Rollers played a part in breaking the barrier for Scottish popular music to be successful all over the world, selling some 120 million records worldwide. 

To get the appeal at the time as we experienced it  you have to remember this.

You would deck yourself from head to foot with Tartan attire often hand sown with scarves wrapped tightly around your wrists, you'd scream and hug your television on each and every time they were on.

If you were lucky you'd go roller-spotting hoping to catch a glance of any band member, whilst out and try desperately to get hold of one.

You bought each and every record they issued the minute it was, buying the magazines featuring them, the annuals and as much of the merchandise they issued. 

You collected newspaper cuttings too.

Back in 1975 much of the slick multimedia promotion of today simply didn't exist nor did the technology such as cellphones and the internet so we didn't have ringtones and screens to download.

They were your all embracing passion and for most of us romantic interest rolled in one. I was obsessed with Stuart 'Woody' Wood!

The music of our older siblings was progressive rock that had songs that could last for a whole album side arranged in suites often lasting for more then seven minutes with lyrics that required older more poetic reading skills with cryptic metaphors than those of us aged between 7 and 14 had.

It was too long for us.

We liked guitar based songs that lasted three minutes that were about things in our world not sword and sorcery that made us feel good and that we could huddle in corners singing while having fashions we'd copy.  

It was our music, not our siblings or parents.

That music was and is tied to our childhood which resonates strong in some of us.

If that was the backdrop and soundtrack of our formative childhood years you well get how with Les's death it seems as if a page in past is over.

The band may in effect be no more as thing we can see but we have the music and memories that were a part of lives then and will remember it they way we know they would of wanted us to. With gladness.