by Sherrill Fulghum

Created on: July 03, 2008

A little over a decade after the original British music invasion by four mop top lads the second wave of the invasion occured with a satellite broadcast from London on premiere episode of "Saturday Night with Howard Cosell". A group of five lads from Edinburgh, Scotland known as the Bay City Rollers played before a crowd of screaming and hysterical teen aged girls. The invasion was complete when the Bay City Rollers landed in the following week the Bay City Rollers landed in New York City at Kennedy Airport to a media frenzy and screaming teens. The group appeared for a second time on the Howard Cosell show this time performing live. The song "Saturday Night" was a number one hit by the next week.

It all began in 1967 with the Longmuir brothers Derek and Alan. Joined by Nobby Clarke and John Devine joined the brothers and took the name of Saxon. According to the story one of the band members stood in front of a map of the United States, closed his eyes, and stuck a pin into the map. The pin stuck in Bay City, Michigan. The boys added Rollers which was a slang for soft rock.

Like many of their early hits the first hit single from the Bay City Rollers was a cover tune titled "Keep on Dancing". The single reached number nine on the singles charts in the United Kingdom..

In 1972 Clarke and Devine left the band and were replaced by Stuart "Woody" Woods,Eric Faulkner, and Leslie McKeown.

After releasing a few less than successful singles the Bay City Rollers finally had a hit with the cover song "Remember". Besides their catchy pop tunes that had fans dancing and singing along the Bay City Rollers depended on their roguish good looks to bring fans in. Known for their tartan knickers fans soon adapted the tartan designs putting them on the bottoms of pants, on scarves, and any manner of clothing to show their devotion to the band.

In 1976 members of the Bay City Rollers began to change with various comings and goings; but by this time the band had seen the last of the hit singles and albums.

By the time it was all over in the late seventies the Bay City Rollers had collected five gold and two platinum from the British music industry along with five gold album in the united States. The five gold awards from the United States came in a row for each of the five albums that were released "Bay City Rollers", "Rock 'n' Roll Love Letter", "Dedication", "It's a Game", and their "Greatest Hits" album.

Learn more about this author, Sherrill Fulghum.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.