The history of The Bay City Rollers is long and varied.  Way, way before the BCR we know now there were countless members and line ups growing from a band first known as The Saxons. 

Here you will find information about the band and how it grew to be what we know it as today.

On the right here is an early picture from 1969, you would never think that to be the Bay City Rollers would you?

The members here from left to right are Derek Longmuir, Billy Lyall, Alan Longmuir, David Paton and Nobby Clark.

A world away from the BCR we know now.

They played dancehalls around Edinburgh and soon became very popular locally.
As they saw that they were gaining quite a reputation they decided that it may be in their interests to get themselves a manager.  Tam Paton was sought out and given the job.  Tam managed a few bands in Edinburgh and so had the connections to book the band to play at dancehalls and other venues around the area.

The band by this time had decided that The Saxons may not be the right name for them.  Many of the successful bands of the day had American sounding names and so they decided that this was the way forward for them too.  They decided to throw a dart at a map of America and wherever it landed, this would give them their new name.  Sadly, it's first landing would have meant that their name would be something to do with Arkansas and that just wasn't right at all.  One more try gave them Bay City, Michigan.  That day, The Bay City Rollers were born!

Soon after seeing the band in action, Tam knew that there was something there with this band, they could be booked at dance hall evenings which were quiet and slow and gradually these night picked up as the band played, girls were attending and they were screaming!  Whatever these boys were doing, they were doing right because the girls wouldn't leave them alone.  Tam picked up on this. 

The gigs were more and more popular and the word was spreading.  The Bay City Rollers were the band to see.  Tam knew that publicity was the key to getting this band where they wanted to be.  If they were having such an effect locally, surely nationwide this thing could be big.

Soon, graffiti was appearing around Edinburgh.  The letters BCR were appearing spraypainted on walls around the city.  This got people talking, no more so than when they were arrested and charged for it but never the less, people were talking about them, people knew who they were.

Tam had an idea from a magazine called Swap Shop where pop fans addresses were published, he had all of the names and addresses collected and then mailed out info about the band, slowly, the BCR ripple effect was spreading wider and wider.

Over the next few years there were many members in and out of the band, the line up was constantly changing.  Other members included Keith Norman, Eric Manclark, Neil Henderson, Archie Marr and John Devine. 

Tam clamped a strict ban on girlfriends on the band.  He claimed that this was one of the main reasons that the band could not maintain a constant line up.  Every time someone was settled into the band and they had a routine going, one of them would get a new girlfriend and then end up leaving the band to be with the girl.  As he saw it, the easiest way to stop this happening was to ban girlfriends and have the lads concentrate on the band.

Their popularity continued to grow and in 1971, Dick Leahy, a prominent record executive from Bell Records saw the guys play.  He saw what was happening around them when they played and knew that they had the potential to go far, he signed them up to Bell Records and soon had their first single recorded.  The song was Keep On Dancing on the suggestion of Jonathan King who also sung backing vocals on the track.  This first attempt reached no.9 in the UK Charts.

1972 saw the arrival of Eric Faulkner.  He was a good looking young musician who had played with other local bands.  With the new lineup they got on with the job in hand and made music.

A few other singles were released on the back of Keep On Dancing but all sadly flopped.  Dick Leahy wasn't willing to carry on releasing records which were not going to go anywhere and so upon giving the Rollers a last stab at success he partnered them up with songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter.  In late 1973, they just missed the charts with Saturday Night.

This period of their history sees Stuart Wood, later known affectionately by fans as Woody, join the group.  They were getting closer to appearing as the classic BCR lineup.

Towards the end of 1973, Nobby had grown disillusioned at where the band were going and decided that it was no longer for him and quit.  This was at a time when they were due to appear on Top Of The Pops amongst other things.  This meant that Tam had to find someone to replace him and quickly.

Tam and Eric travelled to Dunbar to meet a confident, cocky, lad with a proven track record within the band scene, with  experience and who was not afraid to take on the challenge of fronting The Rollers.  Les McKeown was added to the line up and the Rollers as we know them were born.

Les has since stated that he had his reservations about joining as he knew that Tam had a reputation for the way that he managed his bands.  He had heard that he was some sort of a svengali but he thought it more the way of a dictator.  From the number of band members in and out of The Rollers before him, he had worked out that something wasn't right in paradise somewhere along the line.

Early in 1974 Les recorded the vocals to the new single Remember (Shalala), this turned into a sizeable hit and started a string of hit singles.  Remember reached no.6, Shang-a-lang no.2, Summerlove Sensation no.3, and All Of Me Loves All Of You, no.4.

By the end of 1975 they were one of the biggest selling acts of the year.
The band had by this time come up with their distinctive style of dress which made each and every fan instantly recognisable as it was easily copied and worn the world over and still to this day when you see a Rollers fan, you know them at a distance.
The original idea for The Rollers' look came from a drawing that was sent to Eric from a fan.  There was a basic suit of three quarter length pants and a bomber jacket with checks sewn onto parts of the clothing.  The checks were changed for tartan and before they knew it full on Rollermania was in full swing.

Once the fans had something to hold onto to use as a bond between themselves and the band, the outfits, the chants that they came up with, there was no stopping them, the hysteria was compared to that of Beatlemania.

1975 also brought The Rollers a highly successful tour and their very own 20 week    TV Series, Shang-A-Lang!
Muriel Young worked with Tam to present the clean cut, innocent looking boys next door in the quite tacky but successful programme.  The content consisted of Rollers singing their own songs, musical guests of the day, a roll back section looking at musical history, dancers called Him And Us and musical talent from Big Jim Sullivan.

The audiences at the show's tapings were wall to wall teenage girls screaming for all their lives were worth, there were security guards around the set as it was dangerous for one of the boys to wander too near the audience, once grabbed by the mob they would have been hard pushed to pull themselves out again uninjured.

It may not have been the most critically acclaimed tv show ever but the kids loved it, it was a massive hit, as was anything else containing The Rollers at that time, they could do no wrong.

There were rumours at this time that a fierce rivalry was growing between Les McKeown and Eric Faulkner.  Both played a major part in the group and both enjoyed the attention and fought viciously for their share.  Tam Paton also stated that at this time he had trouble with Les as when he was directing Shang-A-Lang with Muriel Young, he directed the camera men to focus a lot of the time on members of the group such as Derek at the back of the set rather than Les at the front as he felt that he received enough focus with being the band's frontman.  Les didn't take to this too well and there was tension growing within the band.

The single Bye Bye Baby, a cover of a Four Seasons track, reached no.1 for six weeks and sold almost a million copies, it was the biggest selling single of that year.  Give A Little Love, the next single was no.1 that Summer and saw no slow down in the reaction of the fans, wherever they went, they followed!

During the madness in the midst of this hysteria catastrophe was waiting around the corner for Les.  1975 was the year that Les knocked over and killed 75 year old Mrs. Euphemia Clunie whilst driving his new Ford Mustang.  He was charged with causing death by dangerous driving.  He was found guilty of driving dangerously and wrecklessly and charged £300.00 and disqualified from driving for one year.

This took it's toll on Les, he was still only young, a major thing to go through for anyone.  Les was never given any time off from work, having to carry on performing and carrying out the contractual duties, all whilst carrying the weight of guilt, shock, and every other imaginable emotion.  The other guys in the band at the time have since said that they didn't know how to help him.  They didn't know whether to speak to him about it and felt at their own tender ages, simply didn't have the knowhow or experience to be able to counsel someone who had just been through such a terrible ordeal.  Les attempted to carry on but the trauma took it's toll and sometimes whilst on stage performing he simply couldn't take it any longer and had to walk off before he broke down.  He still says that the whole experience still haunts him today.

The next scandal to grab hold of the group was the fact being made public that they hadn't played the instruments on a lot of their own records.  This frustrated The Rollers as it wasn't that they couldn't play their own instruments, the simple fact was that Martin and Coulter wanted things done speedily.  They hired in session musicians to enable the recordings to be finished quickly leaving The Rollers in an odd position.
They wanted to be playing on their own hits and for the second album recording which they were working on with Phil Wainman they insisted that they were allowed to record themselves.  they were inexperienced as far as working at a speed and accuracy required for recording but laboured on and got the tracks laid down.  They were released and loved by the public as they were huge hits as the numbers sold have shown, they were right to be insistent on that point.

1975 also saw the release of a single not by The Rollers but about them!  Nick Lowe and The Tartan Horde released "Bay City Rollers We Love You".  There are different reports as to how this song came about and why.  A major one was that Nick Lowe wanted to record something that was bad enough to get him released from his record contract but the whole thing backfired when it was a massive hit and taken to the hearts of Roller fans everywhere and his record company actually kept him on for longer.  Links to as many versions of this story as I can find will be placed in the media section of the site.

1976 saw the worldwide takeover of The Rollers.  This was when Arista Records bought out Bell and therefore took over BCR. 

Clive Davis, Head of Arista wasn't sure about launching The Rollers in America until a live show broadcast to America gave the USA their first glimpse of Rollermania.  It began to filter through that if the boys were so ridiculously popular here, why wouldn't it all be as big or bigger in America?  Teenage girls are the same the world over aren't they?

To be sure, the editor of 16 Magazine and The Ramones' manager Danny Fields travelled to Glasgow to see one of The Rollers' gigs.  He was blown away.  The way that he saw the crowd react to the band made him certain that these lads could and would make it in America  . . . Big time!

The first time BCR stepped off of a plane onto American soil they were greeted with the same screaming adoration that they received at home.  They didn't understand how but it had seemed to follow them across the Atlantic and was waiting to welcome them to the USA.  The band seemed to think that Clive Davis didn't really care for the band but simply saw the potential of them as a money making machine, especially when Saturday Night, a flop here in the UK was a major success and reached no.1 in the American Charts.

The creative juices were flowing and Eric and Woody were writing new material and wanting to record and release their creations.  there were doubts about this but once done, they proved their song writing worth when Money Honey became their second US Hit reaching no.9.  Les claims that he too was writing material at this time but hitting brick walls when trying to get his material listened to.  He claims that he was told that he could not write for The Rollers as he was the vocalist, it was Eric and Woody who were the writing team within the band.  this caused friction, upset and bitterness within their unit.

The band were constantly working, they had no private lives, were told what to do and what to wear at every turn and they were becoming tired, irritable and very shaky within their own world.  They were being given drugs to keep them awake and help them perform, drugs to make them sleep, drugs for many reasons, just so that they could carry on and perform their everyday functions, this is not a healthy way to live especially for extended periods of time.  Life as A Bay City Roller was taking its toll.

Early in 1976 Alan decided that the constant strain of living life as a Roller was dragging him down and he had had enough, he quit the band.  He was older than the other lads, the strain and stress within the band was more than he could deal with every day. He was a mature guy in a teeny bop band on the brink of implosion so he said his goodbyes and left Ian Mitchell to take his place.

Ian Mitchell was 17 years old, fresh faced and joined the band on 1st April.  He stayed for 7 short months and left again on November 10th of that same year.  Ian was the first member of the band not to be born in Edinburgh, he was born in Downpatrick, County Down, Northern Ireland.

During the time that Ian was with the band they released the album Dedication and a cover of the Dusty Springfield classic, I Only Want To Be With You.  Other releases at this time included Yesterday's Hero and Dedication.

Ian was replaced upon leaving by Pat McGlynn.  He laughs when recalling how quickly it all happened.  He was visited to be asked about joining the band, given some clothes to try to try on to see how he looked in The Roller getup, told he was in, flown to London and the next thing he recalls was standing around signing autographs whilst still attempting to learn the songs he would have to play as a member of the band.

Pat also recalled how strangely they were treated by Tam in the way that there just weren't enough hours in a day to do everything that needed doing, never mind resting to ensure they were healthy enough to keep up with it all.  He agrees that pills were given for everything to keep that band going from  day to day.  As well as the uppers and downers and sleeping pills, Pat was also considered a little chunky upon joining the group and so was given pills to help him lose weight as well as the concoction that was being fed to the other lads.

It's A Game was recorded in the period that Pat was with the band but soon after he too was gone.  After losing Pat they remaining members decided not to replace him but to continue to work as a foursome.

The Rollers commercial success began to slowly decline towards the end of the 70s.  In 1977 It's A Game was their final Top 20 Hit, it reached no.16.  You Made Me Believe In Magic only just made it to no.34.  It only just cracked the Top 10 in America, it was their last major success there too.

The band continued to tour as a quartet and band morale was at an all time low.  they went to work in Japan and relations within the band were practically non existent.  Les didn't really get on well with any of the other members, he was using separate dressing rooms, resentment within the band was turning to hatred and arguments and fights within the group were commonplace.

In 1978 Alan returned to the band and the band were offered a TV show in America originally called The Krofft Superstar Hour.  This was eventually renamed The Bay City Rollers Show.  The show didn't turn out to be all the band had been promised and certainly did them as a credible band no favours whatsoever.

The band were talked into doing the show with promises of mega stardom and the freedom to do whatever they wished in America once the show was finished as the show would make them so popular, they would be able to take their pick of the work they would be inundated with.

The show in reality did quite the opposite.  The show was a kids show aimed at pre teens, they were working with characters such as HR Puffenstuff and Witchipoo, not very hip or very credible.  They were Americanised and choreographed beyond all recognition, they were not The Rollers that had left the UK to first go and work in America, all aspects of their personalities and rough charm had been wiped away to make them seem slick and professional.  They were not The Rollers everyone had come to know and love.  they were not happy.

Les threatened to leave and has since said that he was held up against a wall with a gun at one point and told that if he dared to leave the show that he would be killed.  he agreed to stay and then quickly left to get on the first flight to LA and then home, never to return.

Les decided that as he had made the break that it should be a clean break and left the band, he pursued a solo career.  his decision was helped along by an onstage fight in Japan with Eric.  The Rollers were not what they had been, it wasn't fun any more and so there seemed no point continuing.  This was also when Woody and Alan phoned up Tam Paton and fired him from his manager's position.  Tam claims that Derek phoned him up the following day and said that everyone had had too much to drink the night before and wanted to apologise, to ask him back, but he said no.

During this period, Duncan Faure was brought in as lead vocalist to replace Les.  With Duncan onboard, to emphasise the changes which had recently occurred within the band they shortened their name officially from The Bay City Rollers to simply, The Rollers.

Three further albums were released under this new name.  These included Voxx in 1980 and Ricochet in 1981 and then sadly the group disbanded.

There were various attempts at reforming the band over the following years, both the 80s and 90s saw different variations of line ups touring under one name or another.  there were vicious court battles between members over usage of the Bay City Rollers name but the biggest shock of all came to each and every member of the band once the dust had cleared from the fallout.

It is estimated that over the course of their lifespan as a band that The Rollers sod anywhere between 70 and 120 million records.  This should have been building up a beautiful little nest egg for them all to retire on when the time came.  It turned out that when the dust was well and truly settled that not one of the members of the band had any money to show for all of their years worth of hard work.

They questioned everyone, Tam, the record companies, no one would admit that they knew where The Rollers money had gone.  The lads had trusted Tam when he told them to get on with the work and he would take care of all of the financial business.  Tam stated later that he knew how to successfully manage a band through the day to day bits and pieces but knew nothing about financial business, this is his way of saying that someone above him must have been responsible for the missing money as he knew nothing about that side of things.

The record companies deny having any involvement in the financial affairs of the Rollers.  It has been proven that offshore accounts were set up and that lots of dubious moves were made around the financial area of their affairs but nothing so far yet to this day has been successful in tracking down who is responsible and where their years worth of unpaid royalties went to.

2007 saw various members of BCR coming together to sue Arista Records for their share of unpaid royalties but there has been no outcome yet.  It has been said that Nobby Clarke will, if the rest of the lads are successful in their claim, make claims against individual members for a stake in their awards as he claims he was the creative force behind the band in the early days leading it to a position where it became a success.

It is a shame that it all ended the way it did for The Bay City Rollers.  They brought such happiness to so many people, and still do, and for their days in the band to end the way they did is an absolute tragedy, I find it a very sad story and wish that things could have turned out very differently for them all.

Each Roller is still doing their own thing, I wish them all the luck in the world and thank each and every one for being a Roller and bringing what they did to my world.  I know they still have one of the most loyal and fanatical fanbases a band could ever have all these many years later.  I know you would join me in hoping that the lads one day get everything they are entitled to and that they all live long and happy lives in whichever direction fate takes them.