Bay City Rollers

Not Touring, no rating The Bay City Rollers were a Scottish pop/rock band of the 1970s. Their youthful, clean-cut image, distinctive styling featuring tartan-trimmed outfits, and cheery, sing-along pop hits helped the group become among the most popular musical acts of their time. For a relatively brief but fervent period (nicknamed “Rollermania”), they were worldwide teen idols. The group’s line-up featured numerous changes over the years, but the classic line-up during its heyday included guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood, singer Les McKeown, bassist Alan Longmuir, and drummer Derek Longmuir. Since the band’s quick rise to, and subsequent fall from fame, the members have endured numerous and varied struggles regarding royalty payments, substance abuse, and personal legal problems. During the 1980s and 1990s, there were various short-lived revivals featuring some of the original members. The classic quintet played Japan in 1982, and again in ’83 with guest spots from both Mitchell and McGlynn. A slapdash reunion album of sorts, Breakout, came out in Japan in 1985, performed primarily by McKeown and McGlynn with minor contributions from Faulkner, Wood, and Mitchell. In 1990 Stuart Wood and Alan Longmuir joined with Faulkner to tour under the BCR name, and issued several CDs of re-recordings of the old Roller tunes. These recordings still turn up frequently on iTunes and in CD bins. The classic lineup (minus Derek) performed a one-off show at a New Year’s Eve 1999 concert in Scotland. In the 2000s, interest was rekindled in Britain by various television documentaries about the group and a new TV-advertised compilation of greatest hits, Very Best of the Bay City Rollers, which entered the UK charts on release in 2004 at #11. Currently, Mitchell, Faulkner and McKeown each regularly tour playing Rollers hits. Due to legal issues over which performers may use the band name, McKeown’s group uses the name: Les McKeown’s Legendary Bay City Rollers. At present there is no official Bay City Rollers. A recent Channel 4 documentary, Who Got The Rollers’ Millions?, explored the speculation about what happened to the supposed financial fortune the group generated in their career, with accusations that it was defrauded from the group by their management and record company. There are claims that the group sold 100-300 million records and generated the equivalent of five billion pounds in revenue, with the band members themselves earning very little. According to BBC they sold 70 million records. However, even this figure has been disputed by several sources, not least their former record company. 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 describe as “tens of millions of dollars” of unpaid royalties. Nobby Clark has threatened to sue the other band members if their lawsuit is successful, stating that he was the creative force behind the band’s success, despite the fact that he left the group in 1973 before the bulk of their fame and fortune began. Source and more information: Wikipedia