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.

The Rollers Singles Collection

I've been using that new Chromebook this week across the week working on my Tumblr of which is just over six years old which was marked.

Something else that is an anniversary is it's nearly a year to the day Alan Longmuir of the Bay City Rollers died and as you know it was one of few occasions I made a post about music here because, frankly it mattered as part of my boyhood past.

This is something I had for Christmas in 1975 as did many boys and girls particularly in with a copy of that years Blue Peter book and the fact I still have my copy with my childhood penned contributions says a lot about what being a BCR fan meant to me and how connected to that past I am.

Last Friday, Cherry Red Records almost by co-incidence issued a three cd set by the Bay City Rollers that sets itself outside of a good number of compilations and the cd issues of the first four British albums in 2004.

Entitled The Singles Collection, it collects in chronological order every British bay city rollers single (aka '45) issued from 1971's Keep On Dancing right though 1981's Life On The Radio and Set The Fashion from the Ricochet album recorded as 'The Rollers'  and featured in the Burning Rubber movie of the same year.

One of the things I like about it is it has the b sides of all the singles following the a (or main) side so for instance after listening to "Bye Bye Baby" you hear  "It's For You" which was the UK b side before moving to "Give a Little Love" so it's like playing all the original vinyl 45's the we did as kids.

Some of the earliest singles like Manana were hard to find even in the mid 1970's as they had been deleted but they are all here.

That's one from my original childhood 45 collection which I still have and I will say as a Rollermanic the American edition has added strings on it as did many of the tracks on the US "Bay City Rollers" album.

The set does put in American singles that were not issued in the UK  such as the re-recorded Saturday Night, a US #1 from 1976 and Yesterday's Heroes featuring the screams of Toronto's youthful BCR fans gathered at a CHUM 1050 promoted concert placed in order of release too.
The set includes a booklet with a write up about each single related to events in the life of the band and photos of the records and many world-wide picture sleeves.

The sound quality is very good not sounding compressed or muddy.

Thus it is a complete set that appeals to all of us fans whither like me you still have your childhood singles and albums or just looking for a set of the records you loved to remember Alan and the band by. It's available either direct from Cherry Red's website or Amazon.

This is for all of us who remember the era.

Reflections on Alan Longmuir and the Bay City Rollers

There's a bit of an unwritten rule on this blog which is to say it's not themed by things such as sport, anime or for that matter music even if they were a part of my boyhood or feature in someway in my more adult little boy/adult schoolboy present.

Part of this is to avoid week after week on entries around just one topic so the blog reflects more the whole but allows them to shine within that.

There is no getting around the fact the Bay City Rollers were a part of my boyhood even if having the level of interest in them was very much atypical of any boy of that era being something that I shared more with girls from late juniors into the first few years at high school where I did introduce this when I was asked to give a short introduction to my First Form class upon joining.

That introduction smoothed my integration into their number gaining me a good number of female friends  and critically of my best buddy Andy to whom you know I miss so much who also liked them AND was a boy.

We'd talk about them, sharing the weekly glossy fan magazines, annuals and gather around our tape recorders singing along to Remember, Give a Little Love and Love Me Like I Love You. 

We also watched Shang-a-Lang, the tv show featured them, other upcoming artist and had features on hobbies and interests, one being cars that interested me.

We all had our favourites within the group, Woody being mine, and like most of group we had tartan everything.

On Monday July 2nd It was announced at 6 AM Alan Longmuir, the bass player who left in early 1976, who is pictured in the middle died after three weeks of being ill following a visit to Mexico.

He joined to form a four original member reunion concert at Edinburgh Castle for Hogmanay 1999 and was due to perform with Les McKweon later this year.

Alan and the band were a important part of my boyhood, the backdrop to much that happened so this entry is a tribute to him and what he meant to me and my friends back then.

The Bay City Rollers and I Pt.III

The last instalment of this series from January 2011, looked at four original albums that meant a lot to me at the time and how they were received. 

Some artists have a relatively simple recorded history that sees all their commercially released recordings being on regular albums and perhaps a "Best Of".

Like many British groups the Bay City Rollers had a number of singles not issued on album, unique singles mixes and exclusive 'B' sides because over here issuing singles from from albums fans have already bought is looked down upon.

This new entry looks at a couple of compilations.

This was the second attempt in Japan in 1977 to create a compilation and remains a most essential choice on vinyl because it takes all the UK singles in their original forms from the 1971 Jonathan King produced Keep On Dancing in the original mono to the string less  version of Give A Little Love of July 1975 compiling them in release order with the often non album b sides.

As the title suggests the emphasis is on their earlier recordings.

It also has Mary Anne, the B side of Money Honey which was included on the UK Dedication album and Mama Li, the B side of Love Me Like I Love You and two Japan singles.

The twenty six tracks are spread across two lps for the best sound quality while being more convenient than changing the original 45's by hand every three minutes rather than the auto changers we had with a few stacked up at a time.

It does sound very good.

Following a series of changes in the bands membership and after the issue of the It's A Game album and single, Arista in the US felt the need to issue a compilation even if the first US album "Bay City Rollers" was just that pulled from the UK Rollin' and Once Upon A Star albums.

Most issues followed the US version from the stingy five tracks per side and album art but a number of European countries had their own versions which were different.

This is the original West German version which is particularly useful for having both 1976 non album singles Love Me Like I Love You and the cover of Dusty Springfield's I Only Wanna Be With You, Money Honey outside of its appearance on the UK Dedication album coupled with the lovely decision to start each side with their most current singles from the It's A Game album.

This album featured the North American and continental Europe Yesterday's Hero and Rock & Roll Love Letter singles, the latter being a Power Pop gem.

Keep On Dancing on this album is the remake in stereo for the Once Upon A Star album.

Of the single lp best of editions this is the one that showcases the Rollers talents the best and compliments that Japan Early Collection double well. 

The Bay City Rollers and I Pt.II

Part one was more reflective looking at what being that Rollers fan was to me and some of those records we bought while this looks at the four core albums and their reception.

The first album had a good start with Saturday Night, the first single since September 1971 to actually go top 30 in late 1973 and Remember from early 1974 recorded with Nobby Clarke on lead vocals before Les joined the band.

The success of Shang-a-lang in the Spring made recording an album by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter easy and those first two songs were re-recorded together with Summerlove Sensation which meant by release in October it didn't just come out as the bans popularity was on the march, it had four hit singles.

The album sold extremely well.

Ain't It Strange is a favourite of mine from it.

All Of Me Loves All Of You, a non album single had done well in October and so they were the poster child of a new brand of hysteria in pop.

In March of 1975 Once Upon a Star, the second album had been released recorded with them playing most of the instruments following criticism of the use of session players which was very common place back then.

The packaging of this album was something special for it had five posters that form part of the front cover with pictures of each Roller.

This album had a high proportion of self composed songs too.

Timed for the Christmas market, Wouldn't You Like It was released December 1975 featuring Give A Little Love which had been a Number 1 single but interestingly missed out Money Honey their newest.

Again apart from being a gatefold, initial copies also had a tartan bag that contained pictures of the individuals .

As you would expect, it was highly promoted in the music press.

The following review shows just how much respect reviewers had for their maturing musical and lyrical talent, something the band has over the years been unfairly ridiculed for.

By September 1976 things were changing in the UK as North America experienced Rollermania and this lead to the fourth album being recorded in Toronto, Canada which captured their maturing sound and was the only album Ian Mitchell who had replaced Alan at the end of 1975 played on before he too left.

Interesting the UK edition did feature 1975's Money Honey but ignored both Love Me Like I Love You and the cover of I Only Wanna Be With You, the latter did make the Canadian and U.S. versions of this album.

To me this is easily their best album.

In many ways things would never be the same, the music scene was changing with popularity of funk based "disco" music and the Punk/New Wave scene as we, the fans got that bit older but we never forgot what the band and these four albums meant to us.

It is telling I still own my original vinyl editions.

The Bay City Rollers and I

Sometimes I talk about things that almost sum up an era for me and the period 1974 through 1977 has this one.

I had this craze for a pop group that was more than just a liking, it was a obsession at the time where I had to have, watch and generally speaking experience everything connected with them taking chunks of my time and dare I say it, my allowance.

It also had a certain social cache helping me make friends as we exchange gossip, played their records and worked on our scrapbooks together during the day and in the Dorm.

The Rollers at London Heathrow airport back in'75.

Talking about my love for their music was the ice breaker at my high school which was a boarding school

Now the thing is I've still got those records the very ones I had back then when I had my very first stereo phonograph that also had a built in AM radio to hear the pop shows featuring singles chart countdowns on Tuesdays and the new records played by the DJ's.

This is the massive selling cover of the Four Season's song Bye Bye Baby that was released on February 28 1975 and had a six week run at the #1 slot.

Although compared to my current stereo that phonograph was primitive and the record deck played the discs with a bit more playing force than you'd use today, those discs by the Bay City Rollers play extremely well which I suppose has something to do with the care I took of them back then.

I got today a new to me copy of original hit single from late 1973 called Saturday Night in a picture sleeve that was made in what was West Germany.

In North America a re-recorded version was issued in late 1975 and this became the no.1 hit  in the States in January 1976 this featured on later copies of the Dedication lp from 1976.

The version I got didn't have Leslie on Vocals which the version on the UK Rollin' and North American self titled album did but the original vocalist Nobby Clarke together with it's UK b side Hey! C.B.

Here's the cover:

Here's the 1976 and 1977 Annuals from the UK I had back then that needless to say got read from cover to cover hundreds of times including at school.

They had a TV show that started on Tuesday April 22nd 1975 called Shang-A-Lang that featured other artists and had a bit about looking after bikes and cars that I watched on our new colour telly straight after Junior school.

Another vivid recollection of that time was tuning in at 10 am on New Years Day 1976  to the The Bay City Rollers' 1976 New Year's Day Special which lasted for two hours.

Here Eric Faulkner, Les McKeown, Stuart 'Woody' Wood, Alan Longmuir, Derek Longmuir and their Manager, Tam Paton presented exclusively for Radio 1 their own show, including all their hits, their new LP Wouldn't You Like It which featured the 1975 summer smash Give A Little Love and their own choice of records, with David Hamilton in the chair.

I taped the show on cassette but that recording is no longer with me.

The April 1976 single that reach the #4 position, Love Me Like I Love You was a song we sang along to on the school bus on trips.