WHAT’S THE STORY?

THE sudden death at the age of 65 of Les McKeown on Tuesday has reawakened many memories for men and women of a certain age.

The lead singer of the Bay City Rollers was once the biggest star in the biggest band in the world, an entirely Scottish phenomenon who not only embraced and revelled in their Scottishness but made tartan scarves and patches their fashion trademark.

With massive worldwide hits such as Bye Bye Baby, Shang-A-Lang and Give a Little Love, and LPs such as Once Upon a Star, the so-called classic line-up of Alan Longmuir, Derek Longmuir, Stuart “Woody” Wood, Eric Faulkner and McKeown are often called the UK’s first “manufactured” boy band, but in truth the band had been playing in one form or another for several years.

It was only after the arrival of the charismatic McKeown, however, in late 1973 as replacement for original vocalist Gordon “Nobby” Clark that the Bay City Rollers took off into superstardom.

TELL US ABOUT LES

JUST 18 when he joined the band, like the other members of the classic line-up, he was an Edinburgh lad. Leslie Richard McKeown was born in 1955 to Stephen, a former soldier who had retrained as a tailor and Florence who was a seamstress from Banbridge.

The McKeowns married and moved to Broomhouse, McKeown being the youngest of their four sons. Interested only in music, McKeown had little time for school and got himself deliberately expelled at 15, before joining a band called Threshold and touring Scotland at the age of 16.

Edinburgh bandleader, promoter and Rollers’ manager Tam Paton had earlier spotted McKeown’s talent and when Nobby Clark decided to leave, Paton immediately sent for McKeown.

It was a transformational moment as McKeown had the stage presence and personality that the band had lacked. Practically from the moment he joined, the Rollers exploded onto the music scene.

READ MORE: Bay City Rollers lead singer Les McKeown dies aged 65

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JUST HOW BIG WERE THE ROLLERS?

LOOKING back at 46 years ago, it’s difficult to explain just how big they became. After years as the Saxons, the Longmuir brothers wanted an American theme and decided to change their name to a city with the “Rollers” after it. A dart was thrown at a map of the USA and landed next to Bay City in Michigan.

The Bay City Rollers actually had a top ten hit two years before McKeown arrived, but had stagnated after Keep On Dancing reached No 9 in the UK charts.

With McKeown’s vitality, plus the cut off trousers and tartan flashings provided by his tailor dad, the Rollers had created a uniform that their growing following could embrace – especially teenage girls who screamed their adoration for their favourites. It should not be forgotten that the Rollers were talented and hard-working. They would spend days on their vocal harmonies, for instance.

Manager Paton got them gigs around the country and their record company shrewdly promoted their fresh-faced image on television with the result that the band was soon producing number one hits. Sold out concerts followed, and the media latched on to their popularity, dubbing the adulation as Rollermania – quite apposite as they were the biggest selling British band since the days of Beatlemania.

Like the Beatles, the Rollers also “cracked” America. For some reason they were a huge hit in Japan, and many countries around the world took to these five guys from Edinburgh in their tartan-trimmed gear. They were so big that it was reckoned they had helped Britain’s balance of payments.

They were once paid a fabulous compliment by George Martin, producer of The Beatles. In 1977 he wrote: “Nowadays it is difficult to appreciate the excitement of the Beatles breakthrough. My youngest daughter, Lucy, now nine, once asked me about them. ‘You used to record them didn’t you, Daddy? Were they as great as the Bay City Rollers?’”

IT ALL ENDED SADLY, DID IT NOT?

THE Bay City Rollers reached the highest heights of fame, but behind the scenes they were a very troubled bunch of guys.

It was revealed many years later that Paton had been a sexual predator who had encouraged their drinking and drug-taking and had also mishandled the huge amounts of cash they had generated.

There were big rows among the Rollers over their music, and McKeown was fired by the rest in 1978. He became a troubled soul for many years, haunted by a car accident in which an elderly Edinburgh woman was killed and for which the courts found him responsible. Drink and drug problems followed until he was “saved”, in his own words, by marrying his Japanese wife Peko who survives him, as does their son, Jubei.