Still Rolling after all these years…

In among their nine Top Ten hits were two chart toppers and one of them, Bye Bye Baby, was the UK’s biggest selling single of 1975.

The quartet featured on just about every teenage girls’ wall and even America fell under the spell of brothers Alan and Derek Longmuir, Stuart ‘Woody’ Wood, Eric Faulkner and singer Les McKeown.

After their first hit, Keep On Dancin’ in 1971, the band seemed destined to be a one-hit wonder, but just before his 18th birthday, McKeown joined the band and the explosion happened.

Shang a Lang, I Only Wanna Be With You, Money Honey and Bye Bye Baby were four of their biggest hits as ‘Rollermania’ swept the country, and their first two albums topped the charts, spending 99 weeks on the listings.

It couldn’t last and in 1978 McKeown left the band to go solo, having great success in Japan.

In the nineties, he formed Les McKeown’s Legendary Bay City Rollers and began to tour the UK, Europe, Japan, America and the Antipodes.

It’s been a while since he toured Britain, but that is being rectified as Les is undertaking a tour of the UK which recently included a show at the Rotherham Civic.

Relaxing at home, Les tells me that in the last couple of years, he’s been “touring the world, getting bigger and better; and also (laughing) seeing how big my pumpkins can get”.

Looking back to the heady days of  ‘Rollermania’, he is mystified as to what triggered the insanity.

“I’ve no idea,” he admits. “They were austere times with all the strikes and people losing their jobs.

“It might be that people were looking for an escape and we just clicked — we were a happy-go-lucky scruffy band from Scotland with some catchy tunes.

“Also, we were lots of girls’ first crush, which is always quite meaningful.”

In the end though, it was the clash of personalities in the band that led to the break-up.

“You’ve got to understand that we were being treated like demi-gods,” says Les, now 57.

“We were all too entrenched in our own little bubbles and I regret not trying harder to understand that we all had something to give.

“Also, we were too young and inexperienced to deal with it all.”

But overall, his memories of being a ‘Roller’ are good. “I had a great time, up until it all went tits up, and that was the time to start growing up.

“It was a battle of egos; it’s unfortunate, but it happens.”

The question he is always being asked it whether the original band could ever reform and he is realistic about it. “There’s talk of a reunion,” he says. “But there’s a court case in America and Eric wants to wait until that's over. Woody’s quite keen and Alan seems up for it.

“However, I’m not so sure about Derek — he hasn’t played drums for over 20 years, but we could always get him involved somehow.”

In the meantime, he has his current band backing him. “It’s much more than a backing band,” he says.

“Si Mulvey has been with me on bass for 15 years, and Scott McGowan on keyboards and guitar has been with me for a decade. Along with Alex on drums and Phil on guitar we have a great time.

“In fact, we get on so well, it’s much like the original Bay City Rollers. They are brilliant and always give 100 per cent.”

For the tour, the music featured does not include any of the music Les has recorded solo.

“We may do that next year, but this time around it’s just BCR stuff — all the hits and more.”