Bay City Rollers

The Bay City Rollers
The Bay City Rollers in wooden shoes ( Schiphol 1976)
General information
Genre (s)	Rock , pop
founding	1968
Current occupation
Vocals , keyboard	Les McKeown
bass	Stuart "Woody" Wood
guitar	Eric Faulkner
Drums	Derek Longmuir
Temporary band members
	Alan Longmuir († 2018)
	Ian Mitchell
	Pat McGlynn
	Duncan Faure

The Bay City Rollers (short form: BCR) were a British musical group with roots in Edinburgh, Scotland .

development

founding

The brothers Alan and Derek Longmuir founded the band "Ambassador" in 1965, took on various other band members and from 1967 on they called themselves "Saxons". They made their first appearance at the Cairns Memorial Youth Club in Edinburgh. In 1968 there was another renaming, now it appeared as "Bay City Rollers". The name of the band is said to have originated from the random throw of a dart on a map of the USA, which pointed to the city of Bay City , Michigan , USA . They achieved their breakthrough in 1971 with the song Keep on Dancing . In 1972 Eric Faulkner joined the band, in 1973 Leslie McKeown and finally in 1974 Stuart Wood, which gave the band the composition with which the greatest successes were associated. In 1972 the group took first place with the title Mañana at the Grand Prix RTL International . Several tours followed, which also took the group to the USA, Japan and Germany.

Rollermania

In Great Britain, the Bay City Rollers were often compared with the then well-known The Osmonds in terms of sympathies , but musically they were also put on a par with The Sweet . The band achieved cult status above all with female fans, which is why the press spoke of the "Rollermania" at the time. Concerts and TV appearances were often characterized by mass hysteria occurring among the fans. The often repeated confessions of the Rollers, as the band members were now called, that they basically did not wear underpants caused astonished incomprehension among the parents of the fans. In addition, they almost always wore their open jackets on bare skin.

A rivalry raged for several years between the mainly female fans of the Rollers and The Sweet, fueled by teen magazines like Bravo . It was taken for granted to only commit to one of the two bands and by no means to both.

Identifying features of the Rollers fans

Both the band members and the fans could be recognized by a matching fashion. Typical were parallel-cut four-fifths trousers, the seams of which were covered with strips of tartan fabric , as well as tartan scarves, which were usually attached to the belt or wrist as accessories. Polo shirts, jackets and even kimonos were decorated with tartan stripes.

The band also made a voluminous blow-dryer hairstyle called "tufty" ( English tufty "tufted") in fashion. When styling a tufted bangs, the bangs and the top hair are blow-dried so that the hair has as much stand as possible at the base and slopes outwards in a gentle curve towards the tips. A good basis for a tufty is a fully stepped cut of approx. 10-15 cm in length. Eric Faulkner, who also had the idea for this hairstyle, wore the most distinctive tufty.

Image and Reality

Outwardly, unlike The Sweet , the Rollers appeared spared from scandals. That the real world of the Rollers was different was shown by a suicide attempt by Alan Longmuir, who then left the band. Eric Faulkner also made negative headlines when he allegedly almost died of an overdose of sleeping pills in the band manager's house.

Quarrels, breakups, and multiple formations

The band's cult status faded when singer Les McKeown left the band in the fall of 1978 and began a solo career. Although the band is not considered to be dissolved to this day, it was never able to build on the success before 1978.

In the further course, numerous renaming took place, such as 1979 in "The Rollers" as a sign of a new beginning with the new, South African singer Duncan Faure, who had celebrated great success with the band Rabbitt in his home country . In May 1982 the band appeared again in the formation of their greatest successes with Eric Faulkner, Leslie McKeown, Stuart Wood, Derek Longmuir and Alan Longmuir, 1983 also joined Ian Mitchell and Pat McGlynn, who had been part of the band for a while in the 1970s , before Derek left the team in 1984 and then Eric in 1985. Eric Faulkner then founded his own band called "The New Rollers", so that sometimes two Bay City Rollers formations existed at the same time.

In 2000, the band gave the original line-up (with the exception of drummer Derek Longmuir) in their hometown of Edinburgh for a last twenty-minute concert. In the spring of 2000 a live CD was released, the tapes of which guitarist Eric Faulkner found while cleaning up the garage. The fact that the band dispersed in all directions immediately after the Millennium concert and the live CD was only sold just under 500 times (before the licenses were distributed to other record labels) and Eric Faulkner disappeared from the scene left everyone Hopes for a successful reunification dry up. Singer Les McKeown released his memoirs in book form in 2003. He leaves nothing out of this book to poke at his former bandmates.

Again and again there were individual concerts and smaller tours with different line-ups, but the successful line-up of Faulkner, McKeown, Wood, Derek and Alan Longmuir as a whole is considered quarreling and at least one musician is not present at the performances.

On September 22nd, 2015, Leslie McKeown, Stuart “Woody” Wood and Alan Longmuir announced their reunion with concerts starting in December. At the same time, a Christmas CD was released on December 18, entitled "A Christmas Shang-A-Lang", which mainly contained new pieces, but also interpretations of well-known Christmas carols. On July 9th 2016 the group played at the "T in The Park Festival" at Strathallan Castle in Scotland.

Royalties litigation

In spring 2005, the German musician magazine reported that the record company Arista, which belongs to the BMG group, had been refusing to pay out outstanding royalties to the band members for over 25 years. This was justified by the fact that the payment could not be made due to the dispute between the former band members and therefore the royalties would be held in an escrow account until clarification. BMG declared the contracts to which the band relies to be invalid, as they had not been concluded with the group, and another contract from 1981 had not been signed by all band members at the time. A royalty check issued in 2005 for 456,330.67 US dollars only affected record sales for the years 1997 to 2003, according to the record company. For the period before that, the band only received a payment of 254,392 US dollars in September 1997. The lawsuit filed in New York City in March 2007 has not yet been decided; in 2011 a court ruled that the usual limitation period did not apply. The original lawsuit is being pursued by former members Eric Faulkner, Duncan Faure, Alan Longmuir, Derek Longmuir, Leslie McKeown and Stuart Wood, while other members Gordon Clark, Ian Mitchell and Pat McGlynn failed to enforce 2013 as further plaintiffs in the proceedings to be admitted.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1974	Rollin '	-	-	-	UK1 platinum (62 weeks)UK	-	First published: October 1, 1974
1975	Once Upon a Star	-	-	-	UK1 platinum (37 weeks)UK	-	First published: April 11, 1975
	Wouldn't you like it	DE30 (12 weeks) DE	-	-	UK3 silver (12 weeks)UK	-	First published: December 1, 1975
1976	Rock n 'Roll Love Letter	-	-	-	-	US31 gold (16 weeks)US
	Dedication	DE5 (42 weeks) DE	AT21 (12 weeks) AT	-	UK4th silver (12 weeks)UK	US26th gold (25 weeks)US	First published: September 3, 1976
1977	It's a game	DE4 (14 weeks) DE	AT6 (12 weeks) AT	-	UK18 (4 weeks) UK	US23 gold (11 weeks)US
1978	Strangers in the Wind	-	-	-	-	US129 (4 weeks) US

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

• 1979: Elevator (as The Rollers)
• 1980: Voxx (as The Rollers)
• 1981: Ricochet (as The Rollers)
• 1985: Breakout '85
• 2001: Rollerworld (live album)
• 2015: A Christmas Shang-A-Lang

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1976	Bay City Rollers	-	-	-	-	US20th gold (35 weeks)US	First published: 1975
1978	Greatest hits	DE39 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	UK12 (4 weeks) UK	US77 gold (11 weeks)US	First published: 1977
2004	The very best of	-	-	-	UK11 gold (13 weeks)UK	-	First published: April 5, 2004
2019	gold	-	-	-	UK20 (4 weeks) UK	-	First published: October 25, 2019

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More compilations

• 1975: Souvenirs of Youth
• 1976: Rollers Collection
• 1976: Saturday Night
• 1976: Joepie Presents 12 Original Hits
• 1978: Greatest Hits Volume Two
• 1978: Bravo presents Bay City Rollers
• 1978: Early Collection
• 1979: Greatest Story
• 1980: The Bay City Rollers Story
• 1988: strong times
• 1994: Keep On Dancing
• 1995: Absolute Rollers - The Very Best of ... (UK:silver)
• 1997: The Magic Collection
• 1998: Shang-a-lang
• 1999: The Best of Les McKeown's Bay City Rollers
• 2000: The Definitive Collection
• 2004: Only the Best - The BCR's Biggest Hits
• 2009: Rock 'n' Rollers: The Best Of (2 CDs)
• 2010: Rollermania - The Anthology
• 2012: This Is Bay City Rollers - The Greatest Hits
• 2013: Best of Bay City Rollers - Bye Bye Baby
• 2013: Original Album Classics (box with 5 CDs)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1971	Keep on dancing	-	-	-	UK9 (13 weeks) UK	-
1972	Mañana	DE25 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
1974	Remember (Sha-La-La-La) Rollin '	DE37 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	UK6th silver (12 weeks)UK	-	First published: December 28, 1973
	Shang-a-lang Rollin '	DE41 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	UK2 silver (10 weeks)UK	-	First published: April 19, 1974
	Summerlove Sensation Rollin '	-	-	-	UK3 silver (10 weeks)UK	-	First published: July 19, 1974
	All of Me Loves All of You	-	-	-	UK4th silver (10 weeks)UK	-	First published: October 4, 1974
1975	Bye Bye Baby Once Upon a Star	DE10 (26 weeks) DE	AT13 (4 weeks) AT	-	UK1 gold (16 weeks)UK	-
	Give a Little Love Wouldn't You Like It?	DE11 (15 weeks) DE	-	-	UK1 gold (9 weeks)UK	-	First published: July 1, 1975
	Saturday Night (Version '75) Rollin '	DE10 (15 weeks) DE	-	-	-	US1 gold (17 weeks)US
	Money Honey Rock n 'Roll Love Letter	DE16 (14 weeks) DE	-	-	UK3 silver (9 weeks)UK	US9 (15 weeks) US	First published: November 14, 1976
1976	Love Me Like I Love You	DE15 (10 weeks) DE	-	CH8 (9 weeks) CH	UK4 (9 weeks) UK	-
	Rock and Roll Love Letter Rock and Roll Love Letter	DE13 (14 weeks) DE	-	-	-	US28 (9 weeks) US
	I only wanna be with you	DE9 (19 weeks) DE	AT17 (8 weeks) AT	-	UK4th silver (9 weeks)UK	US12 (16 weeks) US	First published: August 27, 1976
	Yesterdays Hero Dedication	DE13 (20 weeks) DE	AT15 (12 weeks) AT	-	-	US54 (7 weeks) US
1977	Dedication Dedication	-	-	-	-	US60 (7 weeks) US
	It's a game, it's a game	DE4 (23 weeks) DE	AT9 (20 weeks) AT	CH6 (14 weeks) CH	UK16 (6 weeks) UK	-
	You Made Me Believe in Magic It's a Game	DE25 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK34 (3 weeks) UK	US10 (17 weeks) US
	The Way I Feel Tonight It's a Game	-	-	-	-	US24 (17 weeks) US
	Don't Stop the Music Wouldn't You Like It?	DE32 (8 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-
1978	Where Will I Be Now Strangers in the Wind	DE48 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More singles

• 1972: We Can Make Music
• 1973: Saturday Night
• 1976: My Teenage Heart
• 1976: Maybe I'm a Fool to Love You
• 1976: Don't Worry Baby
• 1977: Don't Let the Music Die
• 1977: Sweet Virginia
• 1978: All of the World Is Falling in Love
• 1979: Turn On the Radio (as The Rollers)
• 1983: Piece of the Action
• 1985: Love in the World
• 1985: When You Find Out
• 1991: Flowers of Scotland

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Canada 1976: for the single Saturday Night (version '75) 1976: for the single Money Honey 1976: for the single Don't Stop the Music

Platinum record  Canada 1976: for the album Bay City Rollers 1976: for the album Rock n 'Roll Love Letter

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Canada (MC)	-	3 × gold3	2 × platinum2	425,000	musiccanada.com
United States (RIAA)	-	6 × gold6th	-	3,500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	9 × silver9	3 × gold3	2 × platinum2	3,380,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	9 × silver9	12 × gold12	4 × platinum4th

Artist awards

• Bravo Otto
  • Gold : 1975 , 1976
  • Silver : 1977

literature

• Brigitte Tast, Hans-Jürgen Tast: How far is it? A concert, a party and news from all over the world . Kulleraugen - Visual Communication No. 48, Schellerten 2016, ISBN 978-3-88842-048-1 .

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b} Do you want money, honey? In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . May 19, 2010, accessed May 5, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Bay City Rollers Sue Over Unpaid Royalties. In: billboard.com. March 21, 2007, accessed May 5, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Faulkner et al. Arista Records LLC. In: justia.com. Retrieved May 5, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Kurt Orzeck: 2nd Circ. Won't Revive Bay City Rollers' Royalties Suit. In: law360.com. August 29, 2013, accessed May 5, 2015 . 
5. ^ Eriq Gardner: Three Ex-Members of Bay City Rollers Denied in Royalty Collection Attempt. In: The Hollywood Reporter . August 29, 2013, accessed May 5, 2015 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US
7. ↑ ^{a b} The Billboard album by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .

Web links

• Bay City Rollers: Official website
• Bay City Rollers at Allmusic (English)
• Bay City Rollers at Discogs (English)
• Bay City Rollers at laut.de
• Discography at austriancharts.at