by A.E.McGrath

Created on: July 06, 2008

Who were the Bay City Rollers? Forgive my ignorance music lovers, but I thought the group was an American ensemble from Michigan! Perhaps, I was not the only music historian to believe the theory. After all, the name threw me off. I knew they were pretty exciting in the 1970's, as I watched their performances on Saturday morning TV when a young girl. Before the popularity reached that elusive superstardom pinnacle of teenybopper idol worship, the Rollers disbanded. From beginning to end, the story of Bay City Rollers had its own list of major characters for a unique three act musical.

First to begin the story of the Bay City Rollers were the Brothers Longmuir, Alan and Derek. The two founded the group in Edinburgh with vocalist Gordon Clark, a schoolmate, around 1967. The Saxons, their original name, sounded too English. To discover another name, the boys used a dart and U.S. map for inspiration. The first spot, Arkansas, did not mesh with Roller. Also, there were problems with pronounciation. The second toss landed in the Michigan community, Bay City. After finding the perfect name, enter manager Tam Paton, former big band leader and rigid disciplinarian. Through his leadership, the band went through several short-term members (David Paton, Billy Lydon) and eventually losing Clark as lead vocalist by the early 1970's. Tam's work eventually paid off for the Bay City Rollers. The band landed a contract with Dick Leahy's Bell Records and earned a top ten hit, a remake of "Keep on Dancin'," appeared on BBC's Top of the Pops, and won a song contest for "Manana", a modest hit in Europe and Israel. By 1973, with the additions of Eric Faulkner, vocalist Leslie McKeown, and Stuart Wood, the "classic" lineup inaugurated the era that was known to the international audience as "Rollermania!"

1975 was an important year for the Rollers, as the classic Bay City Rollers lineup invaded the hearts of London. The hits poured on European charts ("Remember," "Bye Bye Baby," "Give a Little Love"). Behind the scene was the manager, further cultivating the clean-cut image machine for the press, such as the boys preferred milk to alcohol. The group became the highest selling act in Britain, stars of a new television show ("Shang-a-Lang," named after their top 5 hit), and a rather unique fan uniformtartan pants and scarves. Arista Records America, the larger subsidiary of Bell Records, groomed the boys a year later for success beyond their wildest expectations. By re-releasing the single

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>