Pop fan's dream night

As a youngster at Doncaster School for the deaf, Katie Mallen (now 43) refused point blank to use traditional hearing aids, a situation which saw her early development lagging behind that of her schoolmates.

But when she was fitted with a set of special headphones that allowed her to hear for the first time, at the age of 11, her life changed—and it was to be a life dominated by the band.

Katie’s mum Joyce (79), of Broadway East, East Dene, said: “When we put the headphones on the first sound she heard was the Rollers.

“Her face lit up. She could feel the rhythm and the beat. After that we couldn’t get the headphones off her—she was hooked.

“Katie’s hearing was still very poor but getting her to use the headphones was a real breakthrough.

“She eventually learned to talk and get her education through  them, but there was still only one thing she really loved listening to.”

Katie, of Goldsmith Drive, Herringthorpe, was featured in the Advertiser when news of the discovery of her hearing ability—nine per cent in her left ear—thanks to the Bay City Rollers, emerged in the late 1970s.

And after Joyce wrote to the band the young Rollers fan even received her own signed merchandise from the tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh.

But it took until this week for Katie’s dream of seeing the band in the flesh to become reality.

The mum of three was bought tickets to the Bay City Rollers concert at Rotherham Civic Theatre on Tuesday by her daughter, Michelle (26) of Dalton.

And the icing on the cake was a face-to-face meeting with front man Les McKeown who, remarkably, was able to communicate with his number one fan through sign language.

Michelle said: “When they met, Les gave her a hug and I couldn’t believe it when he started talking to her through sign language. It turned out that his dad was deaf too. It was amazing really.”

“All the way home she was talking about what had happened.”