About Bay City Rollers
The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop rock band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity in the 1970s. They have been called the "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh" and are one of many acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles". The group's line-up had many changes over the years, but the classic roster during its peak in popularity included guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood, singer Les McKeown, bassist Alan Longmuir and drummer Derek Longmuir. The current line-up includes original guitarist Stuart "Woody" Wood, singer Ian Thomson, bassist Mikey Smith, keyboardist/singer John McLaughlin and drummer Jamie McGrory.
Their debut album, Rollin' debuted atop the UK Albums Charts and spent a combined total of fifty-eight weeks on the UK Albums Chart. Their follow album studio album Once Upon a Star continued this success, again, debuting atop the UK Albums Chart. The album yielded the successful singles "Bye, Bye, Baby", which topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, and "Keep On Dancing". "Bye, Bye, Baby" was the best selling single in the United Kingdom in 1975. Their first album to be released in the United States and Canada, Bay City Rollers peaked at number twenty on the U.S Billboard 200 and number one in Canada.
Their international dominance continued with the release of Wouldn't You Like It? , Rock n' Roll Love Letter , Dedication and It's a Game . Their significance in international charts began to decline in 1978 upon the release of Strangers in the Wind, which failed to chart in the United Kingdom, but reached the top five in Japan. Further releases Elevator and Voxx made little impact on international charts.
Despite their international dominance during the 1970s and early 1980s, the Bay City Rollers career was marked by financial difficulties and mismanagement. According to the BBC, the Bay City Rollers sold 120 million records.
In 1964, a trio called the Ambassadors was formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, by 16-year-old Alan Longmuir on acoustic guitar, his younger brother Derek Longmuir on drums, and their older cousin Neil Porteous on acoustic guitar. The group never performed publicly under this name, just a family wedding where they covered "Wake Up Little Susie". They changed their name to the Saxons, and Derek invited a friend from school, Gordon "Nobby" Clark, to be the lead singer. Porteous moved from acoustic to electric guitar, and Alan Longmuir followed suit by changing to electric bass. The Saxons played occasional dance hall concerts while the band members completed their schooling or worked during the day . Porteous left the band in July 1965, with new guitarist Dave Pettigrew filling the spot after answering an advertisement placed by the band in an Edinburgh newspaper. Pettigrew was more advanced musically than the others, and pushed the band to improve. Their repertoire included American R&B/pop songs such as "Please Mr. Postman" and "Heat Wave". They played at least one gig at the Gonk Club as the Deadbeats, but they discovered a conflict: Another band was playing locally as Rock Bottom and the Deadbeats.
While taking a technical class at Napier College, Alan met fellow plumbing student Gregory Ellison, who joined the Saxons on electric guitar, with Pettigrew shifting to keyboards. Gregory's older brother Mike joined as a second lead singer, allowing more complex harmonies, especially useful for the Motown songs they liked to perform. The band convinced Tam Paton, a former big band leader and influential local band and club manager, to audition them at the Longmuirs' house. Paton booked them for a Thursday night at his club, the Palais, then assigned them to open for the Hipple People at Top Storey. More gigs followed.
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