Rollermania: Britain's Biggest Boy Band

SCREAMING AND CHEERING

1975.

The UK's biggest chart sensation are on the brink of superstardom.

Five lads from Edinburgh with a look and sound unlike any other

are about to become the biggest thing since the Beatles.

This is the tale of the world's first international boyband,

and how they turned the whole world tartan.

CHANTING: We want the Rollers! We want the Rollers!

They're the most beautiful human beings in the world!

Edinburgh, 1966.

Two brothers, Alan and Derek Longmuir,

form a band with their schoolmates.

Well, the line-up in the Saxons was myself, my brother...

I was on the drums and my brother was on bass guitar.

..and my cousin Neil.

And that really was the birth of the Saxons.

A guy called Nobby Clark, he was in Derek's class at school.

And then we had a guy called Dave Pettigrew,

who we used to call Dave the Rave.

We were playing Tamla Motown, we were playing Beatles stuff,

Rolling Stones stuff. You had to keep the people happy, you know?

The Saxons were soon filling church halls throughout Edinburgh

playing covers of up-tempo pop.

# Oh, hey

# I'm sick and tired of everybody just pushing us around... #

The Saxons just sounded a bit bland.

We kind of wanted an American-sounding name.

And there was a band called Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels,

so we said, "Something rolling,"

and that's where we got "Rollers" - great.

So we thought, let's look at the map of America

and see if there's any places that will give us some inspiration.

So we eventually just shut our eyes and stuck the pin in the map!

It went into Bay City, and we thought,

"Bay City Rollers, that's quite a good name."

That's how it happened. Easy as that, you know?

By the end of the '60s

the Rollers were building a loyal following in the Edinburgh area.

I used to remember as a kid coming through to Edinburgh,

you'd see the initials BCR

sprayed on walls in Edinburgh, and I just thought they were a gang.

I thought, to begin with, BCR was a gang.

We had a big following.

We used to get busloads following us up to Aberdeen and places like that.

It was just about being successful.

Our aim was to be like the Beatles, basically.

It wasn't long before they found their very own Brian Epstein -

local pop promoter and son of a potato salesman Tam Paton.

I went down to see them,

and I really fancy managing them, you know?

I think, I'd like to get involved, you know,

they're young and they're enthusiastic.

Tam was very controlling, you know,

everybody had to do what they were told, basically, and that was it.

And he was quite an intimidating character as well,

so you weren't going to go up against him, that's for sure!

Tam gave us work down at the Borders, likes of Kelso and Selkirk

and Coldstream and all those places.

So we were constantly playing gigs all the time.

By 1971, Tam had also landed the Bay City Rollers

a deal with Bell Records.

Keep On Dancing was the one that was going to happen.

# Shake it, shake it, baby... #

By the end of the year, Keep On Dancing had crept up the charts

to reach number nine.

It was brilliant, it was unbelievable.

We were just young guys - I was a plumber out of trade

and my brother was a joiner, Nobby was a joiner.

We used to rehearse in

what we called the "tattie shed" - potato shed.

But their two subsequent singles failed to chart.

Despite Tam making changes to the line-up and their look,

by the end of 1972, the Rollers

are starting to look like a one-hit wonder.

# Manana

# Mana-na-na-na-na-na-na... #

In London, Bell Records enlist a new writing and producing team

to work with the band.

# Manana, manana... #

I can remember meeting the Bay City Rollers,

and there was this unshakeable belief

amongst these kids, who were then 18, 19,

unshakeable belief that it was only a matter of time

before they were going to be stars.

Phil Coulter and Bill Martin had written and produced

Britain's first Eurovision win

in 1967 for Sandie Shaw.

# ..gladly be there

# Like a puppet on a string... #

I was always looking for a Scottish band.

And I thought they were quite special.

Quite different from any other pop group.

The first hurdle was when we got the Bay City Rollers into the studio

and I discovered they could

barely tune their guitars.

The reality was that in order for me to try and come up with hit records,

er, in a concentrated period of time,

I figured my only chance of doing this

is to use session players to lay the tracks.

And of course the Rollers didn't want that,

they wanted to play on it.

I mean, they'd be better blowing their nose.

Because it was... The weren't good musicians.

I couldn't say to Dick Leahy,

"It's going to take me six months to get something out of these guys."

I mean, you were getting a shot.

MUSIC: Remember (Sha La La) by the Bay City Rollers

Hiring session musicians to keep studio time to a minimum,

Phil and Bill get to work creating a new sound for the Rollers.

# ..Sha la la loo

# I used to sing to you

# Remember... #

It's easy to write a song.

Writing a hit song is difficult.

Getting people to remember it forever is the hardest thing.

# ..Then we said goodbye Made each other cry

# Remember... #

Remember. Sha La La, in brackets.

We weren't trying to do Bohemian Rhapsody and all this.

We knew it wasn't right.

It was pure unadulterated pop.

And the process for writing the song

was very much built around, er...

the sound of the track.

# Sha la la la la la loo... # That was it.

We were good at doo-bee-doo-bops, you know.

# The singer sang a song We used to sing along... #

But in 1973, with the new sound ready to go,

lead singer Nobby Clark quits,

forcing Tam to make further changes to the line-up of the band.

One night in 1973, Tam Paton said

that they need a singer for their band,

the Bay City Rollers.

I said, "Why's that?" He said, "Cos their other singer's left."

He had seen Les perform with another band.

He was quite keen to get him onto our band,

but Tam would always kind of manipulate things around

and change things around.

He said, "It's a professional outfit, they've got their own gear,

"they've got their own pay, they've got their own roadie.

"They've got loads of gigs."

"They're offering you £10 a week" -

you know, "How can you say no?"

So that's what made me decide to go with them.

And he was a great signing, actually.

He transformed the whole situation.

Joining the Longmuir brothers and guitarist Eric Faulkner

was another new face - 16-year-old Stuart Wood.

I was gobsmacked.

"What? Join the Rollers? What?"

Cos I'd only been playing guitar a year and a bit,

and, you know, probably knew about five, six chords.

GUITAR CHORD INTRO TO SHANG-A-LANG

With the classic line-up in place,

Les was brought in to learn the songs and re-record the vocals.

They would get me up to their house

and play it on the piano, find the right key for me, you know.

Get me through the songs.

Shang-A-Lang was my favourite.

De-dink-de-dink-de-dink Bud-da-dink-de-dink-de-dink...

And a dug, a dug and a cat,

a cat and a dug, a dug and a cat...

Just throbbing like that. Very powerful.

"Do you know what I mean, Les? It's a ba-dum-ba-dah..."

What's that in claps, you know?

We had two boards with handles on it,

and we used to use it as a clapper.

And it made a tremendous noise.

No-one had it.

# Hey, hey, rockin' to the music

# Hey, hey, rockin' to the music

# Rockin' every night and day

# Hey! #

My mother, if I swore, she would hit me.

We weren't allowed to swear.

And I'd go, "Oh, shang..." - used to always say "shang-a-lang".

And my mother said, "What's that?" "It's something I just say."

To stop me swearing.

And, er...

Phil said, "We should use that, that's good."

"We sang shang-a-lang and we ran with the gang,

"doin' doo wop be dooby do ay."

There was lots of gangs in Govan, Glasgow, you know, lots of gangs.

Razor gangs and what have you.

And then Blue Suede Shoes is in there.

I mean, that's pure. That's pure '50s.

It's all mixed in like a pop puree, or whatever it is.

# Well we sang shang-a-lang and we ran with the gang

# Doin' doo wop be dooby do ay

# We were all in the news with our blue suede shoes

# And our dancin' the night away... #

"I sang shang-a-lang when I ran with the gang" -

you know, they weren't running with their school rugby team,

they were running with a gang.

And the gang they were referring to

was the gangs of their neighbourhoods,

the gangs of industrial working-class Scotland,

and the gangs of the late '60s, early '70s.

It's actually quite a powerful song.

# Shang-a-lang Shang-a-lang... #

I mean, Shang-A-Lang by the Bay City Rollers

should be the national anthem of Scotland!

Better than that dirge Flower Of Scotland, that's a load of rubbish!

# And we sang shang-a-lang as we rang with the gang... #

Released in 1974, Shang-A-Lang reached number two in the charts.

It was phenomenal. They just took off like a rocket.

#...music like ours couldn't die. #

Determined to capitalise on their chart success,

Tam booked the Rollers on a major UK tour.

There were starting to play in places in England,

the band was building up this big following,

more and more and more and more.

It was so exciting to, you know, finally be up on stage.

All I had to do was remember a few chords and kind of go for it

and do my thing, and that's exactly what happened!

# With the juke box playing and everybody saying

# That music like ours couldn't die. #

The Rollers' present publicity was masterminded by Tam

from his parents' house in a small town just outside of Edinburgh.

'To every Roller fan, this is Mecca.

'The Prestonpans council house of Tam Paton's mum and dad

'is the headquarters of the Bay City Rollers' fan club.'

Well, when they started first, we didn't think anything about it,

because we didn't think anything was really going to come of it.

And then they started coming more and more

and I had to just dig in and get into it, and that's how it started.

I've done it ever since.

I liked the Rollers and started speaking to Mrs Paton

and she just asked if I'd like to help, so...

Oh, it's pandemonium.

But it's lovely pandemonium. HE LAUGHS

Then Tam decided to do this kind of mailing thing

where he would mail all the David Cassidy fans,

and the band just kind of grew from there -

and that's when it really took off, big-time.

As the British Isles suffered industrial decline

and was rocked by sectarian violence,

by 1974, the Bay City Rollers got bigger and bigger.

SHOUTING

From not having any people screaming at you

to having thousands screaming at you,

it was pretty quick, you know. The space of six months.

SCREAMING

I always remember Liverpool, there was a crowd outside the Empire,

and there was the mirrors on the wall,

and we were all changing and they must've seen up through the window

and those mirrors... We had nothing on and they're all screaming!

I never realised they were watching through the mirror.

SCREAMING

The noise was colossal. And that's what they created.

They were a sensation.

Why do you scream at these concerts?

Well, during the year we see pictures of them

and receive letters off them and it's all building up inside you

and when you see them on stage, you just scream.

SCREAMING

As you can tell...

I love you too!

By midsummer, even The Osmonds were being drowned out by Roller fans.

SCREAMING

-And here they are with Summer Love Sensation!

-Whoo!

SCREAMING

# Summer sun's sitting high in the sky

# And the love that's in everyone's eye

# Now the waiting, the anticipating is over, over, over, over. #

Record executives had believed comfortably for years beforehand

that kids buying records were like, 16, 17, 18, 19.

Then it dawned on them, finally, that the kids buying records

were seven, eight, nine and ten!

This was a whole new thing.

And that was the gap in the market.

The group that actually says, "Do you know what?

"Singles should be two and a half minutes.

"A single should have a hook and a chorus.

"You should be able to hum along to it.

"You should feel that you're tapping your feet."

All the things that the great pop music from the '60s told us.

And the Bay City Rollers delivered great pop songs.

# ..summer love sensation. #

At the end of 1974, their debut album, Rolling, was at number one.

But the Rollers were not happy.

There was a growing resentment, I suppose,

that they weren't more hands-on.

And we began to get a sense with that, that they...

they wanted to write their own hits.

They wanted to play their own tracks.

I think because we were not allowed to be doing our own,

some of our own songs and, you know, doing our own...

Playing on the records and stuff, it was just, you know,

that was really getting a bit too much.

I remember saying there was no way,

there was no way that the Bay City Rollers can sit in on the mixes.

There is no way that they can write their hits because, why?

Simple thing, they're not capable. It's not what they do.

And the Rollers came to me and said,

"Look, we're not going in the studio with these guys again.

"We want a different producer."

Stung by jibes that they hadn't played on the records,

the Rollers were keen to prove themselves in the studio.

I didn't want to stop momentum.

I didn't want to have a year in the courts trying to work out

who was doing what to who, you know,

while we had the opportunity to sell records.

Bill and Phil were paid off and new producer Phil Wainman

was given the job of keeping the hits coming.

My brief was that they've actually got to be playing

so they had to play and they had to sing and, I mean...

and that was quite a task.

MUSIC: The Disco Kid by Bay City Rollers

We spent three weeks, four weeks in the studio

and that was wonderful, you know,

because we were actually doing everything ourselves.

It was Tam who said, "What do you think of, you know, Bye Bye Baby?

"Let me play it for you." Well, I actually knew the song

but getting the Bay City Rollers to duplicate that was not easy,

and I said, "This is going to give us a real problem

"because we could spend a month just on the vocals."

MUSIC: Bye Bye Baby by Bay City Rollers

I remember being in the studio,

there's sort of four of us singing in a circle,

getting these harmonies,

and the producer's saying move back a bit, you're too loud

and you move in a wee bit to get the balance kind of right.

And it took us forever to get these harmonies.

# Bye-bye, baby

-# Baby, goodbye

-Bye, baby

# Baby, bye-bye... #

I was going for the throat, I was actually going for the record sales,

give the public what they want.

He was a brilliant producer because he saw the vibe

and the energy that we could produce,

that's what he focused on and he got that out of us and it worked.

# I wish it could be... #

'I think when you're recording it you kind of get an idea'

that, you know, this one really sounds good

where the other ones, they might be OK to do

but this sounds like it could be in the charts.

# Bye, bye, baby

-# Baby, goodbye

-Bye, baby... #

'When I mixed that and Give A Little Love back-to-back,

'I called the record company and said,'

"Not only do I think I've got you a number one,

"I actually think I've got you a follow-up number one

"so I think I've got two number ones back-to-back."

# Baby, bye, bye

# Bye, bye, baby

# Don't make me cry... #

Released in March 1975,

the Rollers' cover of Bye Bye Baby went to number one

where it stayed for six long weeks.

You know the figures that were coming in, 75,000 a day,

I mean, artists don't sell that...

you know, in a month.

I mean, you can have a hit with 20,000 records now.

A hit...

you know, and we were doing that in a day.

MUSIC: Give A Little Love by Bay City Rollers

Just as Phil predicted,

the follow-up, Give A Little Love, also went to the top of the charts.

I was invited to EMI's factory and they said,

"Do you see this wall of records?"

Now, this wall of records was probably about 50 metres long

and about...

maybe four metres high.

And he said, "There's a half a million albums here

"and they're all yours and they will all be shipped by Friday."

And my jaw was on the floor because you think,

"My word, that's an awful lot of albums to ship."

# Give a little love... #

With half the tracks penned by the band,

Once Upon A Star went platinum in the UK.

# And when the sun comes shining through... #

At the start of 1975,

the Rollers were the biggest selling act in the British Isles

with a look unlike any other.

Hold it there a minute.

Can we redo it again from the top?

MUSIC: Love Me Like I Love You by Bay City Rollers

The iconic look that I'm wearing at the moment didn't really happen

until album number three, Wouldn't You Like It.

A lot of people claim responsibility for this kind of look -

it actually was drawn by fans.

It was a girl from Liverpool, she sent a drawing up

with a bomber jacket and checks and Eric said that'd be great in tartan.

As fans copied the look of the band with home-made Roller gear...

throughout the summer of '75,

they could also tune into the Rollers' very own weekly TV show.

MUSIC: Shang-A-Lang by Bay City Rollers

It was great. We loved doing that. I couldn't believe it.

Few years prior to that, we were just hoping to be in the charts

and then now it was a year later, wasn't even a year...

and we've got our own TV show.

# With the jukebox playing and everybody saying that

# Music like ours couldn't die

# Yeah, we sang shang-a-lang... #

SCREAMING

When I joined the band, they were doing the Mecca circuit,

there was a lot of clubs like that.

That would've been 16, 17, 18-year-olds

that were following the band then and as we became more popular,

the age was getting younger and younger.

# Show me how you work

-# Now you're in motion

-Keep on dancin' and a-prancin'

# Do the locomotion... #

Rollermania was an official teen sensation.

Do you know that there's only ever been two manias

ever in the history of the music business?

There's Beatlemania and Rollermania.

Now, that's something.

I can't believe it, we've got a mania!

We've got a mania!

I don't think you could comprehend the dress sense

of the people under 14 in Birmingham, Grimsby, Aberdeen, Dundee

all walking about like little Rollers.

CHEERING AND SCREAMING

In 1975, the Rollers undertook their biggest UK tour to date.

CHEERING AND SCREAMING

God, that was a crazy tour. It was absolutely mental.

There was mass hysteria as well,

so it was a problem getting in and out of the venues as well.

When you first got started,

did you ever think that what is happening outside now

would be part of you?

Yeah, we did actually.

-This is what we wanted.

-Really?

-This is what we wanted, yeah.

We would go on and the police would just make us stop it

because they just couldn't control the crowd.

REPORTER: As soon as the Bay City Rollers appeared,

fans tried to rush the stage.

Policewomen had to be rescued from the crush

and the show was stopped twice so that fans could cool down.

I remember watching out when we were playing on stage

and there was a balcony that was actually going like this

and one girl jumped over the top and we had to stop the show.

And people were fainting everywhere,

the St John ambulances were full up.

MUSIC: All Of Me Loves All Of You by Bay City Rollers

We'd come off the stage, right in the van and away

before people had the chance to get out of the concert hall,

otherwise it'd just be bedlam.

The streets were covered in kids all fainting and crying.

It became a way of life, the whole thing.

That, for me, that was, "This is now my life. This is who I am."

Some places we were playing two times in one day -

and one time in Ireland, three times in one day

and from that point on, it was...

there was no time off, really.

We were kind of on the road for three years, almost.

I think my mum recalled I was home six times in that whole period.

The strain of nonstop touring was compounded

when Les was involved in a fatal traffic accident.

RADIO: The news that we promised you about the Bay City Rollers

which has just come in is that their concert in Colston Hall, Bristol,

tonight has had to be cancelled...

Oh, no!

Les McKeown has been involved in an accident.

I understand the accident took place just outside Edinburgh...

On a rare visit home, Les ran over and killed a 76-year-old woman.

Les McKeown has been involved in an accident. The accident...

GIRLS GASP AND SCREAM

Now, wait a minute.

The accident took place in Edinburgh

and Les is UNINJURED

but he's very, very shaken

and obviously can't take place in tonight's concert.

It was one of the rare occasions a Rollers gig was cancelled.

At the time I can remember...

..just being in complete shock

and I don't know how long it took me to come out of that shock.

In retrospect,

they should've dealt with the issue in a much more comprehensive way.

I wasn't afforded that privilege.

The day after the accident, Les rejoined the tour.

Whether it was the management that had that attitude...

but the show was definitely going on.

A couple of nights later, we had to do a gig.

MUSIC: La Belle Jeane by Bay City Rollers

So we were doing a gig

and Les had to leave the stage cos he was just breaking down.

It's a whole bunch of things. I mean, it's pent up...

some kind of anger and just lots of emotional stuff,

when you're that age it's difficult to even know what those things are.

By rights he should've never been up on that stage, he should've been...

Somebody should've given a shit, basically.

But the Rollers' management were already planning the next stage

of the band's career.

MUSIC: Let's Go by Bay City Rollers

You hadn't really made it unless you'd made it in America.

That was really what I wanted to do, was to take the acts

that we had in the UK and break them in the States.

# I know, you and I together make it so right... #

Legendary record company exec Clive Davis had just acquired

the Rollers for his brand-new label, Arista.

I was doing some consulting work for Arista Records.

The question I was asked is,

do you think there's anything you can do with them here?

And my resounding answer was, "Yeah! Yes, for sure."

The people at Arista were our friends,

we'd read the British press, we knew they were happening.

I put together a press junket

and invited Danny Fields who was the editor of 16 Magazine.

We invited ourselves, you know,

I had the most powerful teenage magazine in America.

We said to Arista, "We should go and see them, fly us over."

And our first stop was Glasgow.

MUSIC: Jenny Gotta Dance by Bay City Rollers

# Looks like an angel

# Dances like a devil

# Jenny... #

'It was just crazy, you know, police and girls and, you know,

'12-year-olds, 14-year-olds,'

all dressed up in Roller garb

with that look in their eye of, like, of love,

just like young love personified.

# Dressed in jeans and a too-tight T-shirt

# Jenny

# You better watch out, baby you might be hurt

# Jenny... #

'It wasn't a city, it was a martial zone.'

It was...

the streets were cleared for the Bay City Rollers.

# When she hears rock 'n' roll tearing her heart and soul

# Jenny, Jenny Jenny gotta dance... #

There was a triumphant return of the conquering heroes,

like a movie spectacle, like Ben-Hur,

except they were all girls wearing these ugly pants.

They were so young and so fresh-faced.

They were just those wonderful Scottish, fair complexions

with rosy cheeks.

They were wild-eyed and they can sure scream loud.

SCREAMING

At the performance, I don't remember where I sat,

if I sat, it was just about, like, the being there.

# I wish that I could get a chance

# But all she ever wants to do is dance

# Dance, dance... #

Danny knew right away.

I mean, he had been in the business

long enough to know that, instantly...

that they fit the profile

and that they were going to be big.

They were adorable, you know?

And, yeah,

five cute guys at once,

that's the story of rock and roll.

When you have a band,

each kid can pick her favourite.

Same as they do with One Direction or 'NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys.

The Bay City Rollers happened to roll along

at exactly the right time in terms of 16 land.

In the autumn of 1975,

the final touches were being put to the campaign

to launch the Rollers in America.

It was a bit scary.

The record company boss Clive Davis,

who is probably a recognised genius in picking songs,

of course, we didn't know that at the time,

but he had chosen a song called Saturday Night for our first single.

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night... #

Originally a Bill and Phil production,

Saturday Night had failed to chart back in 1973.

I felt it was an odd choice, perhaps,

to take a record that had been a failure to be the one

that he put his weight behind.

Why didn't they release Bye Bye Baby? It's number one, you know?

Clive just said, "You have to be joking,"

he says, "that's a classic, The Four Seasons, we're not releasing that."

That's how we picked Saturday Night.

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night... #

The way the music's structured in that song, it's pretty good.

You know, da-da-downg-downg-downg-downg.

# ..D-A-Y night... #

It's like cheerleaders going, "O-H-I-O, Ohio."

You know, the cheerleaders thing.

Well, this one went - S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night.

The off-beat kind of guitar riff.

It's got the Roller kind of drums in it.

It gets faster and faster.

# Keep on dancing to the rock 'n' roll

# Saturday night... #

On September 20, the Rollers performed

at London Weekend Television

and were beamed by satellite

into the homes of 30 million unsuspecting Americans.

I was at school in Millburn, New Jersey,

which is about 20 miles outside New York.

I only had a black-and-white TV

but, even so, I could tell that they were such an explosion

of youth and joy and exuberance.

And, the minute their song ended,

the phone rang and it was my friend Pat and she said to me, "Eric!"

And I said, "Woody!"

And...

And I was absolutely amazed.

I mean, this must have been what Donny Osmond fans had gone through,

but this was happening to me.

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night... #

Their performance in London ended with a stage invasion

that put Woody and Les in hospital.

Two of the Bay City Rollers left hospital today

and returned to Glasgow.

There have been accusations that this Saturday evening's riot

was deliberately put on for the sake of the huge American audience

watching the show from the other side of the Atlantic.

We were getting check-ups yesterday.

-No broken bones.

-You feel OK?

-Yeah.

-Jolly good.

-Right, we'd better get this plane, chaps.

-See ya.

-Ta-ra.

Ten days later, the Rollers were on their way to America.

# Saturday night

# Saturday night... #

When they came to New York, actually turned up in person,

obviously, I had to go.

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night... #

When the Rollers arrived,

their new fans were there to meet them.

We had arranged for them to be there

by leaking their flight information.

She said, "Oh, it's going to be flight whatever, TWA, September 30."

GIRLS SCREAMING

I went out there and witnessed this unbelievable happening

at, you know, JFK.

This was an era when rock bands didn't smile

because it would have meant that they weren't serious

but the Rollers were actually smiling

and you could tell they weren't American.

There was something smaller, scrawnier, paler about them.

Slightly kind of almost unhealthy looking, which I loved.

The crush was crazy

and there were so many Roller fans.

They pushed me onto one of those carousels, those luggage carousels,

and I...I had to be rescued,

I was like with my feet up in the air

going around on the carousel.

Watch your backs! Watch your backs!

It was like the Beatles all over again.

In fact, it might have even been bigger

because we walked to our limos and we drove straight out of that airport.

HORN BEEPS

That was brilliant.

I remember getting out of a big stretch Lincoln

and I was just seeing the tall, tall buildings, you know?

I'd never been there.

First time in America, you know, it was great. It was unbelievable.

# Be my, be my baby

# Be my baby now

# My one and only baby... #

That was great. I mean, that was like a dream come true.

I mean, you know, never having been to America,

to suddenly be driving through New York

with these big skyscrapers and stuff.

For us, that was just, you know -

never imagined in your wildest dreams you'd get to America, obviously.

All I could think about was, "I want to see the skyscrapers.

"I want to get a hot dog."

Hot dog!

"And just experience New York."

The biggest event on the promotional schedule?

Saturday night's the Howard Cosell show.

They put us in a big tartan box with a big ribbon on it

and he goes, "Ladies and gentlemen, from Scotland," you know,

"Scotland, England," or something like that,

"The Bay City Rollers."

And, of course, the ribbon was pulled to the side,

"S-A-T-U-R..." And that was it.

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night

# Gonna keep on dancing to the rock 'n' roll

# On Saturday night Saturday night... #

It was about them.

It was about these five young boys,

different, accessible, fresh

and coming to America.

# I-I-I-I got a date... #

I know we went to Rockefeller Center.

I took pictures of them in front of the skating rink

and then we went on top of the RC building

and got the whole panorama of New York City behind them.

# Do it all Have a ball

# Saturday night Saturday night... #

At the time, I made more money with the Rollers

than any other band I worked with.

If I would go to a magazine,

I would show them pictures I had taken

of all the bands I'd seen recently

and they might take one picture of Blondie,

maybe two or three pictures of the Rolling Stones

and 48 pictures of the Bay City Rollers.

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night... #

The typical 16 reader was the girl

who was too old to be sitting on daddy's knee

and really too young to be dating the boy next door.

So the Rollers, when they came over here,

they were not only on the cover

but on the banner, on the top banner.

Many, many, many issues.

There was room for a new phenomenon for teens.

A group for teens.

During the week that they spent in New York,

I spent a lot of time on the phone to Carol Strauss.

She was really happy to tell us exactly what they were going

to be doing and where to find them.

It was from one event to the next.

They would pop out of the cars,

or, in one case, the helicopter,

and, you know, run into the event

because there were a lot of screaming and kids outside,

the cops holding them back,

and so there was always chaos wherever we went.

I was having a really good look at them, up and down,

and I suddenly saw that Leslie, as he was called then,

wasn't wearing underwear and I thought, "Edgy!"

Oh, yeah, that's common.

I mean, we didn't know what underwear was until we were like 16.

I did get a really good picture of Woody.

He was wearing his top button, top trouser button, undone,

which was a Roller thing.

It was actually a Tam thing.

He insisted that they were their top buttons undone

because it was a little bit provocative

but, at the time, I just thought, "God," I mean, "Mind blown."

It was amazing.

Helicopters and planes and hotels.

Looking out the window and, every time you stuck your head

out a window, you'd have thousands of people going "Wahey!"

And then getting the phone call saying, "Could you stop?

"Pull your curtains, please."

You know, you'll get thrown out.

Imagine if you could do that in real life.

I mean, almost like scratching your ear and have people faint

because that was the sexiest thing they ever saw.

Nothing could go wrong. It was just...

Couldn't believe it.

And here we are, we've made it, in America.

# S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y... #

By January 1976,

Saturday Night had climbed to the top of the Billboard chart.

Saturday Night went to number one in America

and sold 12 million records.

We were thrilled. We were over the moon.

It was mission accomplished.

# It's just a Saturday night... #

The Rollers had even reached the depths

of New York's underground punk scene.

The Bay City Rollers were probably the least cool band in the world

at the time, when Saturday Night became a hit in America.

Therefore, they would be right high up on the list of the bands

the Ramones would think were very, very cool.

HE LAUGHS

We loved them. They had a number one hit.

Why didn't we get a number one hit?

What's their secret? What are they doing?

Come on, you know them, what do they do?

How'd they get number one?

There were two things that were very influential.

One was this idea of three-minute pop, and quick,

and everybody having kind of a uniform look,

and their fans copying what the band looked like.

And the other aspect of it was the football chant

at the beginning of Saturday Night.

# Hey, ho, let's go!

# Hey, ho, let's go!

# Hey, ho, let's go! #

I don't see how anybody's ever missed this -

the opening of Saturday Night

is virtually the same as Blitzkrieg Bop.

# The kids are losing their minds

# Blitzkrieg bop... #

Blitzkrieg Bop is,

if not note for note or word for...

It's not word for word, but in feeling and everything,

it's a direct homage.

# Hey, ho, let's go!

# Hey, ho, let's go! #

No-one was immune to their charm.

# Hey, ho, let's go! #

I mean, it doesn't get much better than that, and we were like,

"My God, this is really taking off now," you know?

I can only refer to it as like a white stallion,

and in fact, it's staying on that's the problem.

# Oh, you dream of a silver stallion

# Riding high on the stars above... #

The Rollers' desire for more artistic control

was about to see off another producer.

We were making a third album,

and the boys had written...

I don't know, it might have been four or five songs

for the new album.

And these songs weren't great.

Eric and Woody, yeah,

they were writing a lot of songs around that time as well.

We had the same problem over again.

The boys still wanted to write, and Phil Wainman didn't think either

that they should be writing their own material.

I mean, I still wonder if ANY track that we did

was going to go to number one,

because the band had become more popular

than probably the music that we were doing.

And I said, well, this is maybe wasting... You're wasting my time.

# Oh, Marlena... #

With the world at their feet,

the Rollers escaped the hot summer of '76 to cement their superstardom.

# Don't you know

# You're gonna dream your life away? #

Just remember finishing the acoustic guitar,

you know, at the end of the song - drrring!

"That was great, guys, eh?"

And everyone's going, "Shut up, shut up!"

You're meant to, drrring,

just let it... You know, quiet. Then speak.

So we had to do that track again.

-# Money

-Money

# Can't make you turn your head, now... #

Rallying crowds of tartan teenagers

in the United States, Canada and Japan,

in 1976 Rollermania took over the world.

Tam was very much responsible for a lot of their day-to-day lives,

and he told them when to get up

and when to go to bed.

And it was him who decided they were going to be squeaky-clean.

In the hotels, we always had to double up in the hotel

so nobody would get up to any shenanigans.

You weren't allowed to have any girlfriends

or anything like that, you know.

Or any kind of, you know, obvious girlfriends.

-Do you have a girlfriend?

-Not at the moment, no.

Woody, do you have a girlfriend?

Er, not at the moment. Still looking.

-Are you really looking?

-Yeah, because I mean, well, I'm 18.

I mean, aah...!

-Would you tell me if you had one?

-No.

If the band were seen to have girlfriends,

that would turn a lot of the fans off.

I think there's plenty of years ahead of us to get settled down

and get married and that, you know?

Apparently it was also his brilliant idea to put jugs of milk

on tables at press conferences and pretend that they only drank milk.

There was no alcohol around.

I remember one time in between something

I had a sip of something,

and from five feet away,

Tam Paton turned around and said, "Who's been drinking?"

I was like, "Oops."

Tam's monastic regime and rigorous touring

took the Eric and Woody track Money Honey to number nine in the US.

But back home, the media spotlight was falling

on how much money the band were making

and how well it was being managed.

It's upon me to see that they do survive.

I mean, no use in 10 years' time or 12 years' time or 15 years' time

to turn round and say, "Tam Paton was our manager.

"I'm working on a truck now. I'm driving a truck.

"I haven't got a penny to rub together."

We had been getting it in the earhole -

"You guys are all millionaires,

"you've got nothing to worry about for the rest of your life.

"I've got it all fixed out for you."

What he meant was, "I've got it all sorted out for me.

-"And you guys are all screwed."

-HE LAUGHS

How much did you earn last year?

Erm, I don't know. You'd probably have to ask Tam that one.

We came from a background with very little education.

Basically, we were pretty dumb, you know.

So all we knew was how to play the music and go on the road.

By early 1976, founder member Alan had had enough.

I think I left around about April, May.

It was just in your face all the time, you know?

I was getting depressed and things like that.

I just couldn't take it any more, and I just said, "I'm going."

THEY CHEER

Alan, you sad at all at leaving the Rollers?

Sometimes, yeah, cos I really enjoyed it

when I was with the group, but I think I've...

It took me a year to make the decision.

Ian, are you looking forward to all the money you're going to make?

Well, I'm not really in it just for the money.

I like to travel the world and things like that.

That's going to make life very different for you, isn't it?

Travelling around the world, after Belfast.

How does it feel having an Irishman amongst all of you?

-It's really great.

-It's different.

-It's different.

Nah, he's a not bad lad.

It's better than having all these Scottish guys, you know.

With new boy Ian Mitchell in, the Rollers were back across the pond

to promote new album, Rock n' Roll Love Letter.

I think when Alan left the band, that was the beginning of the end.

The constant touring and desire to outgrow their teen label

had taken its toll.

I'd wake up sometimes and not know what country I was in,

because we were sort of jet-setting about the place so often.

Theatres are theatres. Wherever you're playing, venues are venues.

The limos to the hotels, the aeroplanes -

it just became a big mush.

The incessant globetrotting left UK fans wondering

what had happened to the boys next door.

Don't you think to some extent this is letting down your fans?

There have been quite a lot of stories,

especially in the pop papers, Tam, haven't there,

that time is over now?

Oh, yeah. "It's time to go," you know.

"The Rollers have finished", and all this kind of thing.

Our fans aren't stupid,

and I don't think they will believe things that people put in papers.

And I hope they never will.

Things were probably starting to fall apart a little bit by then.

Ian Mitchell quit the Rollers after just six months.

His replacement, Pat McGlynn, lasted even less time,

while the band's involvement in an ill-fated American kids' TV show

did nothing to reassure British bands,

nor heal the growing rifts within the group.

# When we walk down the street

# See the people stop and stare and say

# Haven't I seen that face somewhere a long time ago? #

I was feeling restricted.

Tam Paton still had an iron grip type control on the other guys,

so they were in the camp, let's say, and I was halfway over the fence.

He kind of went off the rails a bit,

cos he was hanging out with all kinds of people that'd tell him

how wonderful he was and how great he was,

and unfortunately he just took that on board.

And then he kind of moved further and further away

from the rest of the band, thinking, you know,

that he was going to be the great big solo star.

Well, I was absolutely loving it,

being famous all over the world, and I just wanted to eat it up.

I was young and...

horny and all those sort of things,

and I just wanted to get out there and just, you know, eat things.

You know, everything. I wanted to just be a famous pop star.

# And I'll show you a song from the heart... #

CHEERING

Now, just back from the States, I've got here with me

the tartan terrors, the BCRs, or the Bay City Rollers.

In August '77, the Rollers unveiled their sixth studio album.

# I believe that love has gone

# I've no strength to carry on

# Thought my world was upside down

# Then... #

Enlisting David Bowie's producer, Harry Maslin,

It's A Game revealed a more mature sound,

and its eponymous single, peaking at number 16,

would give the band their last ever UK top 20 spot.

# You made me believe in magic

# You know that I can be true to your love... #

By about late 1977 they were declining in popularity quite a bit.

I mean, there's obviously a sell-by date for all boybands,

and the Rollers were reaching theirs.

They'd had a really good run from '74 to '77.

So the fans were growing up, and also the Rollers themselves,

they were obviously completely fed up with it.

In 1977, a new teen sensation took over the streets of Britain.

That was a Conservative pound.

That's the Labour pound after four years of Labour government.

As the pop world mourned the death of Marc Bolan,

the Rollers went back into the studio.

But despite Alan returning, the band was in turmoil.

# You made me believe in magic... #

I said, "Well, look, I want my own security

"cos I don't feel safe around you guys."

So I get my own security and they've got their own security,

and I want picked up in my limo, they get picked up in their limo.

So it got to one of those really childish...

This kind of thing.

But I couldn't escape from it.

By the time they arrived to play a concert in Osaka, Japan in 1978,

the band were unravelling.

I'd be on stage singing, and there would be no spotlight on me.

So where do I go for my spotlight?

Wherever the spotlights are, and that's where the problem started.

And here's buggerlugs decides to walk along and stand in front of me.

It wasn't that I stole someone's spotlight.

It was more, I didn't have a spotlight and I wanted one.

Just, you know, stealing the limelight.

# It's a game, a game, a game

# That we're playing... #

Les was actually going up front,

going up to Woody and pushing him all the time.

And Woody was getting annoyed and annoyed,

and I could see it happening,

but you're in front of maybe 20,000 people,

you can't do anything about it, you know?

Les, great performer - he was up the front of the stage,

used to kind of work that stage and get the audience, "Yeah!"

Join in, and all this.

He's at the front of the stage, and a bundle of people there,

and it was those sort of 10-foot high stages.

Boot. Just kicked him right off the stage.

I don't know what overcame me. I just couldn't resist it.

It was just the way he was bending down,

and I thought, "Right, ya wee..."

Boot. And off he went, flying into the audience.

I remember there were a couple of punches thrown as well,

and it was a bit kind of... This was a concert, for goodness' sake.

It was like, "Oh, God.

"You can't behave like that on stage," you know?

So it was just cos the frustrations

were getting the better of everybody.

HE LAUGHS

As you say, it's like Spinal Tap.

It was comedy, if it wasn't so painful.

But the writing was really on the wall

when Les left in the summer of 1978. It was kind of...

It was almost like the ravens leaving the Tower Of London,

or Robbie leaving Take That.

The classic Bay City Roller line-up was over.

With Les gone, the remaining Rollers hired a new singer,

and, in 1979, fired manager Tam Paton.

It would mark the start of a protracted and costly legal battle

between themselves and their label

in pursuit of the money they were owed.

And of course, Les fell out with everybody,

and then we fell out with him,

and then we fell out with Eric and everybody fell out with each other.

Eventually we lost the house and all this kind of stuff. It was terrible,

cos don't forget, I had asked my mum and dad to move

out of their council house and come and live in this house with me.

"Don't worry, I'm a millionaire. I'll look after you."

I think we were definitely ripped off, that's for sure,

but I think there was a big element of naivete as well.

People would come along and tell you, "You guys just concentrate on playing

"and we'll do all the business stuff," and you just accepted that.

Despite estimated global sales of over 300 million records,

the Rollers maintain they never saw their share.

I have no qualms about saying about Tam Paton that he was a disgrace.

He deserved to die a broken man,

because those wee boys should have had everything.

There'd be no point in majoring on...

on the disintegration of the Bay City Rollers.

That's painful for everybody.

It's painful for me, and it's certainly painful for them.

CHEERING AND SCREAMS

We're going to do a number called Shang-a-Lang.

CHEERING

The Rollers should be remembered for their glory days.

They were undoubtedly the biggest pop group

before One Direction or any of these things came along.

The invention of boy bands became an industry

thanks to the Bay City Rollers, I think.

# We were rippin' up We were rockin' up

# Roll it over and lay it down... #

It simply has everything.

The deals that go wrong, the ripping off of young, innocent people,

and of course at the heart of all of this is just great summer pop music.

# Hey, hey, rockin' to the music... #

The songs were genuinely happy, vibrant,

slightly punky songs.

When I hear them now, I still smile every time.

The band has actually made a stamp on history,

and I'm quite happy with that.

I think it just happened to fit the music industry at that time.

I think we brought a lot of fun,

a lot of great times for many, many people,

many thousands of people all over the world.

If I was to close my eyes and just sort of think and meditate,

or just be relaxed and just, you know...

"What does the '70s mean to you, Les?"

And I would just see a sea of smiling faces,

singing along with me, and that's all I would see.

# Headin' out of the city life

# A suitcase full of dreams

# Trying to find some kind of memories

# That didn't hold a distant scheme

# Something she said I can't remember

# But I answered her in turn all the same

# And what I saw in her style

# Well I've seen it before

# But somehow it looked quite different this time

# Goodbye to all the friends I never had

# Do you still remember me

# Takin' care of all your business

# You give it all away

# And I wonder

# With all your broken dreams and promises

# If you ever knew me at all

# For we are older now

# But somehow you still look the same

# Say a prayer for the one you need... #