Бэй Сити Роллерз: История шотландской поп-рок группы

Scottish pop rock band
the self titled album

The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop rock band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity in the 1970s. They have been called the "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh" and are one of many acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles". The group's line up had many changes over the years, but the classic roster during its peak in popularity included guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood, singer Les McKeown, bassist Alan Longmuir and drummer Derek Longmuir. The current line up (since 2018) includes original guitarist Stuart "Woody" Wood, singer Ian Thomson, bassist Mikey Smith, keyboardist/singer John McLaughlin and drummer Jamie McGrory.

In 1964, a trio called the Ambassadors was formed in Edinburgh, 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 (Alan apprenticed as a plumber). 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. 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. Short term members from this period included bassist David Paton (from 1969 to 1970) and keyboardist Billy Lyall (1969–71), who went on to be founding members of another Edinburgh band Pilot. After signing with Bell Records, the band's first hit was "Keep on Dancing" (UK No. 9, 1971), a cover of a 1965 hit by the Gentrys. Upon this release's success, they made appearances on BBC One's Top of the Pops. Several non charting singles were released over the following two years. This period saw the addition of long term member guitarist Eric Faulkner. In mid 1973, they narrowly missed the UK Singles Chart with their fourth single, "Saturday Night". By the end of 1973, Clark had become disillusioned with the band's musical direction and decided to leave just when his recording of "Remember (Sha La La La)" climbed the charts to No. 6. He was replaced as lead singer by Les McKeown. A couple of months later, in early 1974, what became known as the classic line up 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. The Bay City Rollers (1975) album (North American release only) hit No. 1 in the same chart on 7 February. The North America/Japan release album Rock n' Roll Love Letter (1976) jumped from No. 25 to the top position in a single week in Canada. This deposed their own Bay City Rollers (1975) at No. 1 on the national chart, on 27 March 1976, However, it only managed to achieve the No. 31 spot on the U. S. Billboard chart. They were also extremely popular in Australia. One example of their popularity was put into the book about Countdown – the Australian TV music show which ran from 1974 to 1987. Their Countdown appearance in October 1976 coincided with a total eclipse of the sun. Director Ted Emery recalled:

(there) were thousands of kids done up in tartan pants that didn't reach the top of their shoes, constantly bashing on the plexiglas doors. They would do anything to get into that television studio. There's 200 kids bashing on the door and a total eclipse of the sun occurred. I'd never seen one. On this day we all stopped in the studio and the Rollers went up on the roof. We stood out there and watched the flowers close up and all the automatic street lighting come on. It was chilling, the most fantastic thing you'd ever see. Downstairs the kids never turned around, staring into the plexiglas waiting to see the Rollers come out of the studio, go down the corridor and into the canteen. (They) never noticed the total eclipse of the sun. Alan Longmuir had left the group by early 1976, due to both the pressures of the band's success and feeling discomfort at being a member of a teen band whilst in his late twenties. and "Dedication".

As the Rollers' popularity waned, the shuffling of personnel continued; Mitchell quit the band. He was replaced by guitarist Pat McGlynn. Further struggles involved the direction of their sound, as the members wished to pursue more sophisticated styles. They settled on David Bowie's producer, Harry Maslin, and in August 1977 released It's a Game as a four piece group, comprising McKeown, Wood, Faulkner and Derek Longmuir. The It's a Game tour was recorded in 1977 at Japan's Budokan Hall, and was later released in 2001 as Rollerworld: Live at the Budokan 1977. On the tour, they covered "It's a Game", an unsuccessful 1973 single by String Driven Thing, to give them their final UK Top 20 hit (No. 16 in May 1977). Oddly enough, this single provided them with their highest charting German hit, reaching No. 4 in the same year. The follow up "You Made Me Believe in Magic" made No. 34 in July in the UK and No. 10 in the U. S., and this single was their final major success.

During the 1980s and 1990s, there were a few short tours. Seven past members played Japan in 1982, and again in 1983. A reunion album, Breakout, was released in Japan and Australia in 1985, and added drummer George Spencer. Breakout was written primarily by McKeown and McGlynn with minor contributions from Faulkner, Wood, and Mitchell. In the late 1980s, a version of the band called the New Rollers was formed featuring Faulkner on lead vocals, Karen Prosser on vocals, Jason Medvec on guitar, Andy Boakes on bass, and Mark Roberts on drums. The band toured extensively throughout the US and Canada as well as tours of the UK and Australia. This group also released an independent four song EP titled Party Harty. In 1990, Wood and Alan Longmuir joined with Faulkner to tour under the Bay City Rollers name and issued several CDs of re recordings of the old Roller tunes. In 1996, the classic line up reunited and performed "Saturday Night" on a Japanese television show to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Rollermania. The classic line up (minus Derek Longmuir) performed a one off New Year's Eve millennium concert, the last official Bay City Rollers concert (1999–2000) in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. Interest was rekindled in the UK by various television documentaries about the group; and the television advertised compilation Very Best of the Bay City Rollers entered the UK Albums Chart on release in 2004 at No. 11. Eric Faulkner was unable to contribute because of health concerns, almost dying in February 2015 after contracting viral encephalitis. The band released one new single, "Boomerang", and discussed plans for a new album. The reunion continued into 2016 before Wood ended the reunited line up on 9 July 2016 because no shows were being booked for the so called reunion. After the 2015 Christmas shows Les was booking shows only for himself and his band during 2016 (except T In The Park) which caused the reunion to end. Plans for a new album and various tours that were hoped to take place in 2017 never materialised. Prior to the reunion and after the end of the tour, McKeown continued to tour as "Les McKeown's Bay City Rollers". On 27 February 2018, Wood announced that a "new generation" Bay City Rollers would be performing in Tokyo, Japan in June of the same year. The band comprises Wood on guitar, Ian Thomson on lead vocals and guitar, Marcus Cordock on bass (replaced by Mikey Smith in 2023), and Jamie McGrory on drums. Bassist Alan Longmuir died on 2 July 2018 after falling ill while on holiday with his wife in Mexico. His autobiography I Ran with the Gang: My Life in and Out of The Bay City Rollers was published posthumously in November 2018; the book was written with Martin Knight. In his book, Alan Longmuir mentioned his hope for McKeown and Wood to put aside their differences and reunite one more time. In 2019, after rumors related to Alan Longmuir's wishes, both McKeown and Wood denied any chance of another reunion and did not want to work with each other, though McKeown did mention his desire to work with Faulkner. On 1 September 2020, Ian Mitchell died at the age of 62 after suffering from throat cancer. On 20 April 2021, Les McKeown died aged 65. For the period between 9 March and 10 December 2023, however, a total of 11 concerts and appearances at festivals were planned again with the line up of Ian Thomson, Stuart Wood, Marcus Cordock and Jamie McGrory, nine of them in the UK and one each in Denmark and Germany. 5 concerts have been announced for 2024, all in the UK.

According to the BBC, the Bay City Rollers sold 120 million records. In March 2007, six former members of the group (Faure plus the "classic line up") announced a lawsuit against Arista Records in hopes of claiming what they described as "tens of millions of dollars" of unpaid royalties. Gordon "Nobby" Clark threatened to sue the other band members if their lawsuit was successful, stating that he was the creative force behind the band's success, even though he left the group in 1973, before the bulk of their fame and fortune began. In September 2010, Clark, Ian Mitchell and Pat McGlynn filed a complaint in the courts in the United States against the six members (Faure plus the "classic line up") over being excluded from the case against Arista records. Clark, Mitchell and McGlynn were seeking to have their rights determined and were seeking financial damages against the other Bay City Rollers for alleged breach of contract. In 2013, a judge in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the three due to the statute of frauds, which establishes that certain agreements must be in writing under certain conditions, and the appellate judge's ruling stated: "A claim for unjust enrichment must be based on the value of plaintiffs' contribution to the joint effort of the band at the time it made the relevant records, not on the income stream resulting from a revival over thirty years later." In March 2011, a New York judge determined that the Bay City Rollers could move forward with their four year old lawsuit against Arista Records. Arista denied responsibility for the majority of the royalties, citing a New York statute of limitations. The statute limits plaintiffs from recovering damages post six years in contract disputes, which therefore would negate the Rollers' claims for royalties incurred before 2001. However, because Arista had continued to promise the Bay City Rollers their royalties in writing, the judge ruled that the statute was not applicable. After almost a decade, the legal battle came to an end with an out of court settlement in 2016. Arista Records' parent company Sony Music is believed to have paid $3.5 million, with each band member receiving £70,000.

Members of the Bay City Rollers have accused former manager Tam Paton of sexual abuse. In 2003, McGlynn accused former Bay City Rollers manager Tam Paton of trying to rape him in a hotel room in 1977. However, the police decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Paton. Paton had previous arrests for sexual misconduct with underage boys. In 2009, McKeown accused Paton of raping him. In the 2023 documentary Secrets of the Bay City Rollers, potential band member Gert Magnus claimed that Paton offered him a place in the band in exchange for sex.