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
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 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 band known for their worldwide teen idol popularity in the 1970s. They have been called the "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh" and are one of many acts heralded as the "biggest group since the Beatles".^[4] The group's line-up had many changes over the years, but the classic roster during its peak in popularity included guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood, singer Les McKeown, bassist Alan Longmuir and his younger brother Derek Longmuir as drummer. 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.^[5]

Their debut album, Rollin' (1974) debuted atop the UK Albums Charts and spent a combined total of fifty-eight weeks on the UK Albums Chart.^[6] Their follow album studio album Once Upon a Star (1975) continued this success, again, debuting atop the UK Albums Chart.^[7] The album yielded the successful singles "Bye, Bye, Baby", which topped the charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia,^[8][9][10] and "Keep On Dancing". "Bye, Bye, Baby" was the best selling single in the United Kingdom in 1975.^[11] 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.^[12][13]

Their international dominance 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 dominance during the 1970s and early 1980s, the Bay City Rollers' career was marked by financial difficulties and mismanagement. According to the BBC, the Bay City Rollers sold 120 million records.^[14]