Bay City Rollers

Bay City Rollers
Bay City Rollers in the Netherlands in 1976
Background information
Also known as	The Saxons, The Rollers, The New Rollers
Origin	Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Genres	Pop[1] glam rock[2] pop rock[3]
Years active	1964–1981, 1982–1987, 1990, 1996, 1999–2000, 2015–2016, 2018–present
Labels	Bell, Arista, Epic
Members	Stuart "Woody" Wood Ian Thomson Mikey Smith Jamie McGrory John McLaughlin
Past members	Alan Longmuir Derek Longmuir Neil Porteous Gordon Clark Clive Goodhall Dave Pettigrew Gregory Ellison Mike Ellison Keith Norman David Paton Alan Dunn Billy Lyall Eric Manclark Neil Henderson Archie Marr John Devine Eric Faulkner Les McKeown Ian Mitchell Pat McGlynn Duncan Faure Ray Weston George Spencer Marcus Cordock
Website	Bay City Rollers

The Bay City Rollers are a Scottish pop rock group known for their worldwide teen idol popularity as a boy band in the 1970s. One of many 70s acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles",^[4] they were called the "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh", and sold 5 million albums. Their classic roster during their peak popularity included guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood, singer Les McKeown, bassist Alan Longmuir and his younger brother Derek Longmuir as drummer.

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.^[5] Their follow up studio album Once Upon a Star (1975) continued this success, again, debuting atop the UK Albums Chart.^[6] The album yielded the successful singles "Bye, Bye, Baby", which topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia,^[7][8][9] and "Keep On Dancing". "Bye, Bye, Baby" was the best selling single in the United Kingdom in 1975.^[10] 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.^[11][12]

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 Tom Paton of sexual assault, but no charges were laid.

The current line-up (since 2018) includes original guitarist Stuart "Woody" Wood, singer Ian Thomson, bassist Mikey Smith, keyboardist/singer John McLaughlin and drummer Jamie McGrory.^[13]