Bay City Rollers History

History

1965-67 Alan Longmuir, Derek Longmuir and cousin Neil Porteous formed a band called the Ambassadors. Neil leaves.

1967 Nobby Clark joins as lead vocalist and the Saxons are born.Dave Pettigrew, Mike and Greg Ellison join. Mainly a Top 20 and Beatles cover band. Alan approaches Tam Paton to manage the band. Tam got the group on Radio Scotland Clan Ball in Berwick. A later appearance on the same show in Rosewell has two keyboard players in the band. The name is changed to The Bay City Rollers when a pin is stuck in a map and land on Bay City. Over the next several years the band has a revolving door of members.

Mike Ellison leaves, Keith Norman joins, then Dave Pettigrew leaves. Greg Ellison leaves.

1969 They begin a 12 month residency at the Top Story Club. The band is voted by a magazine as the Most Professional Scottish Group. They manage to acquire a van to move equipment to the shows. To keep costs down though the band spends many nights sleeping in the van. Dave Paton joins. When Keith Norman leaves Billy Lyall joins. Dave and Billy later will become Pilot.

1970. Eric Manclark joined as guitarist. Dave Paton leaves in October stating he originally joined as a favor and had no intention on staying for a long time. Neil Henderson joins the band. Tony Calder a well known music publisher travels from London to see a Rollers gig in the Caves Club in Edinburgh. Along with Dick Leahy Bell Records managing director they arrange for a demo session in London at Olympic Studios. The band performs for the first time outside of Scotland in Egremont.

1971 the band signs with Bell records. Producer Jonathan King arranges the Alan Longmuir, Derek Longmuir, Nobby Clark, Billy Lyall and Neil Henderson.band to do another demo session with 6 songs. One is thier first single Keep on Dancing orginally done by The Gentrys in 1965 which hit #4. . By the time the single is released Billy Lyall has left the band and Archie Marr has joined. In September the song hits number 9.More changes in the band occur with Eric Manclark,Neil Henderson and Archie Marr leave the band. Eric Faulkner and John Devine join the band. They make thier first television appearance on Top of the Pops.

1972 We Can Make Music thier followup single fails to chart, but all is not lost as Manana is entered in Luxembourg Grand Prix Song Contest. Travelling to Luxembourg the band performs thier song which is televised across Europe. They end up winning the contest. The song is released as a single and charts in Holland, Germany and Finland. The song also goes to Number one in Israel. The first #1 hit by the Bay City Rollers. But alas the song does not do well in the UK.

1973 The band tours Northern Ireland, the first signs of Rollermania hysteria occur long before they happen in the UK. The band releases Saturday Night which is a flop. Ironically, later this song becomes thier biggest selling single ever. Due several failures to chart in the UK the band is informed thier next release will be thier last if it does not do well. In a move that upsets the band session musicians are brought in without the bands knowledge to dub over on Remember. Nobby decides enough is enough and leaves. His timing could not have been worse. The single starts to climb the charts. Les McKeown becomes the new lead vocalist, and the single is quickly dubbed with Les's voice.

1974 The band is scheduled to appear on Crackerjack a children's variety program. When the arrive at the BBC they are informed the show is cancelled due to technical difficulties. Before they leave though the are informed that the next day they will appear on Top of the Pops for a second time. John Devine decides that the music business is not for him and leaves. A 16 year old Stuart Wood is his replacement. Remember tops off at #6. Now the band has a stable lineup. Several hits are released. Shang a Lang, Summer Love Sensation, All of Me Loves All of You and Rollin thier first album is released. The band goes on tour and has 26 sell out dates..

1975 Bye Bye Baby an old Four Season's song, becomes thier next #1 single this time in the UK. The song stays there for 6 weeks.The Rollers get their own TV Series Shang A Lang. In time they have guests such as Slade, Sparks and Lulu. Once Upon A Star thier second album debuts at #1. An appearance at the BBC's Radio 1 Fun Day at Mallory Park has 40 young girls needing rescuing as they attempt to swim out to meet the Rollers who were being ferried from an island in the middle of race track to the event site. $ were taken to hospital. The band never performed and left by helicopter. Again they tour and have 28 sell out dates. Give A Little Love hits #1. Stays there for 3 weeks. In August they fly to Australia to unleash Rollermania there. The Bay City Rollers fly back to London and with a live satellite link-up and are introduced to North America on Howard Cosell's Saturday Night Variety Show singing none other then the earlier flop Saturday Night. Money Honey hits #3 in the UK. They travel to Australia again. In the middle of the tour Stuart collapses from exhaustion. The band continues without him and he rejoins near the end of the tour. First North American album Bay City Rollers is certified gold.

1976 Saturday Night becomes number one in Canada and the US. They sign a deal to have thier faces appear on a cereal box. The group goes to the US in January. Rock and Roll Love Letter thier second North American album is released. The lineup changes again as Alan Longmuir is forced out by management being told he is too old. During a break Ian Mitchell a 17 year old Irishman is brought in to replace him. Ian had been a member of Young City Stars who quite often opened for the Rollers. Stuart moves to bass. Eric Faulkner comes close to death after a drug overdose. Years later it becomes clearer thet Tam was more concerned with the press coverage than Eric's health as he called the papers before an ambulance. They tour Europe followed by North America. The band records the album Dedication in Toronto and appear at Nathan Phillips Square in front of 50,000 fans. The band then tours the UK, Australia and Japan. All the demands of touring and appearances take thier toll on Ian and he leaves the band and rejoins Young City Stars which is renamed to Rosetta Stone. Pat McGlynn replaces Ian. The band tours Japan and Australia.

1977 The band goes to Sweden to record It's A Game.One day before releasing the single It's A Game. Pat is fired. The tartan image of the band is slowly phased away. The band tours North America and Japan. Returning to the US for appearances on The Midnight Special, American Bandstand, Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and others. This was the first time the Bay City Rollers did not perform in the UK. Rock and Roll Love Letter, Dedication, It's A Game and Greatest Hits albums all go gold.

1978 The band does a quick 7 country tour in Europe but once again none in the UK. They head off to Switzerland to record Strangers in the Wind. During this time they ask Alan to come and help with the album. It was during this session that Alan was asked to rejoin the band. During the recording Marty Krofft approaches them to spend 3 months in LA and record a 13 week TV series. The Krofft Superstar Hour was born. Three live concerts were performed and then edited into smaller segments. The show was geared towards a young child audience with characters like Witchee Poo, and HR Puffinstuff. Many production problems occurred with delays caused by late appearances and no shows. The show did not get the audience as expected and was shortened to a half hour show simply entitled The Bay City Roller Show. The band went on to tour Japan which was thier last.Les leaves the band. The remaining members decide to look for a new fifth. Well in Dublin working on material for the next album, they fly in from Los Angeles Duncan Faure who had sent in some demo tapes. Duncan previously was a member of South Africa's Rabbitt. Duncan. The Bay City Rollers are so impressed with his talents he is asked to join and becaome the new lead vocalist.They hold a news conference in Germany and then travell to the US to introduce the new member.

1979 The band changes thier name to The Rollers.The Bay City Rollers are no more. Although one last reference to the name Bay City Rollers occurred in Japan with the single Turn on the Radio as the picture sleeve listed both bands names on it.

1982 Eric ran into Les and the two got talking they decided to reform the Bay City Rollers with Stuart,Alan and Derek and tour Japan. The tour was very successful.

1983 Plans were made to do a complete reunion with all they past members. Ian and Pat are brought back. An attempt to bring Duncan is unattainable due to restrictions against South Africans. The band tours Japan and releases Live in Japan.

1984-1985 The band records the album Breakout and Breakout 85 in Australia. George Spencer becomes the new drummer. While touring Japan a briefcase full of money is stolen. Alan and Derek have left the band. George Spencer is the new drummer and is covered over on the Japanese album of Breakout, though on the Australia release he is fully shown. The band runs into further problems and by the time the tour winds down the last show consists of Staurt, Ian and George with session musicians.

1986 Les calls Ian and Stuart in South Africa and asks if they would like to join him and Pat for another tour of Japan.

1990 With Stuart and Alan joining Eric's New Rollers they once more became the Bay City Rollers. The band now consisted of Eric, Stuart, Alan , Phil Watts and Kass(Eric's girlfriend). Eric had trademarked the name. This lead to a court case with Les who also had a Bay City Roller band with Ian. Since Eric had the legal rights to use the name Les evetually agreed to use the name 70's Bay City Rollers. This battle with all the legal people had lead to a deepening of the rift between various Rollers and Roller fans. The community was split those loyal to Les, those loyal to Eric and those who just wanted everyone to get along. The only winners were the lawyers.

1991 Saw the next Bay City Roller release in the form of Greatest Hits a rerecording of Bay City Rollers songs with Eric on lead vocals for most songs. Alan sang lead on Keep on Dancing with Stuart providing lead on Give A Little Love and You Made Me Believe in Magic. The second release Bye Bye Baby contained 6 new songs with Eric, Staurt and Kass providing lead vocals. A live concert was also recorded to cassette and was released through the fan club. This cassette was called M62. The band also released a double A Side single Flower of Scotland which was also recorded as a video and Bye Bye Baby. This was the last vinyl release of the Bay City Rollers. Eric films a commercial for Skol which he states ' Buy me one and we'll cancel the comeback.'

1992 They toured the US, Japan and UK. While on tour David Gates is convicted of stealing guitar's from the group's van. His defense was he wanted to save the world from the sounds of the Bay City Rollers.

1993 More tours of US,UK and Japan.

1994 Tour of UKand release of a fan club cassette Rough Ruffs. Several songs had been included on the US tour. One song not included was Slack Alice which has yet to be released.

1995 Alan suffered a heart attack. Demos 1 is released by Eric which has one song with Stuart, Alan and Kass. New Recordings is released with 3 new songs. Best Things, Retro Jive and When Sunday Comes. It was mentioned in the fan club newsletter that Eric had enough material to release 4 more tapes. They have never seen the light of day. Portions of these songs can be heard in the Live and Unreleased cassettes available from the fan club which had the band talking and partying it up and then playing a sample sample of a song.

1996 Appeared in Rye New York in an open air concert.

1997 Alan suffers a stroke.

1999 Les, Eric, Stuart, Alan and Derek come together in peace. The long standing disagreements are put behind. Derek does not rejoin but appears with them on a few photo sessions. The rest start work on recording new material. They inform the fans that a live album and new material would be forth coming.

2000 Several concerts are scheduled and then cancelled due to Alan's health. Finally the band performs together again. The release of new material is to now be a live album with 3 new songs. The date keeps being put back and finally the 3 new songs are dropped.

2001 The live album is finally released with the name Rollerworld. A live concert from 1977 in Japan with Les, Eric, Stuart and Derek.