The Rollers
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The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop rock band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity, as a band in the 1970s. One of many 70s acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles", they were called the "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh", and sold 5 million albums. Their classic line-up during their peak popularity, included guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood, singer Les McKeown, bassist Alan Longmuir and his younger brother Derek Longmuir on drums.
The Bay City Rollers' first album, Rollin' (1974) debuted atop the UK Albums Charts and spent a combined total of fifty-eight weeks on the UK Albums Chart. Their follow up studio album Once Upon a Star (1975) 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 (1975) peaked at number twenty on the U.S Billboard 200 and number one in Canada.
Their international sales continued with the release of Wouldn't You Like It? (1975), Rock n' Roll Love Letter (1976), Dedication (1976) and It's a Game (1977). 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 (1979) and Voxx (1980) made little impact on international charts.
Despite their international prominence during the 1970s and early 1980s, the Bay City Rollers never made the transition from boy band, as their members aged, and their career was marked by financial difficulties and mismanagement. Several members accused manager Tam Paton of sexual assault, but no charges were laid.
The current line-up (since 2018) includes rhythm guitarist Stuart "Woody" Wood, the only member to appear on all of the band’s studio albums, vocalist and lead guitarist Ian Thomson, bassist Mikey Smith, keyboardist John McLaughlin and drummer Jamie McGrory.
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