It's time to squeeze into those tartan flares once more, with news that the latest band to reunite in the name of pleasing the fans is the Bay City Rollers.
At a press conference in Glasgow, the band revealed they plan to bring Rollermania back with a comeback tour -including a "very special Christmas present to all the fans that have kept the faith with the band over the years", with a gig at Glasgow's Barrowland on 20 December. Further tour details are expected to follow in the next few weeks.
Frontman Les McKeown explained: “I think the three of us have made [fans’] dreams come true and the fans are the reason that we’re doing it – that and the money of course.”
Explaining the decision to reunite after nearly 40 years apart, Les McKeown elaborated: “I’m feeling great, I’m feeling fabulous. It’s been hard work on everyone’s part. Maybe I instigated it a couple of years ago when I mentioned on TV that I’d love to get back with the guys and that put a little seed in everyone’s head.
“Slowly but surely we started to gravitate towards each other again.”
Bay City Rollers Stuart Wood, Les McKeown and Alan Longmuir toast with milk as they make the announcement of their reunion at Central Hotel in Glasgow
The band were at their height in the mid-1970s, with hits including 'Bye Bye Baby' and 'Shang-a-Lang', 100 million records sold and sell-out tours making them among them the most screamed-at teenyboppers of the decade.
As Les said yesterday: “We were bigger than One Direction. They haven’t had a mania. It’s been a long process and I’m just glad that we’re all sitting here and we’ll just have to see where it goes, but we’re mega-excited with the gig coming up at the Barrowlands. Be there and bring your tartan."
Their dream went sour with legal wrangles over money, and the band going their separate ways in 1978, but not before Les McKeown and Stuart Wood even having a fight on stage at one low point.
The Bay City Rollers were the One Direction of their day
Of their acrimonious past, Les reflected: “Stuff happened but we’ve put it in the past and will leave it in the past, and we’ve had time to talk to each other as grown ups. There were important emotional scars but it’s not something that you can’t get over.
“We came up with the idea to add the fight as part of the show, everybody would expect to see it so I’ll be at the front and Woody will kick me off and that’ll be it.
“The curse has been lifted, we’re writing the last chapter.”
The original lineup also included Eric Faulkner and Derek Longmuir, with the band reporting yesterday that Faulkner may join them in the next few weeks.
Les McKeown explained: “We’re quite happy to get on with it and the door’s always open if Eric wants to come and join us, which could happen sooner rather than later.”
He added: “Derek is just not interested, he’s been a cardiology nurse for 28 years, he’s changed his career completely.”
Other bands enjoying the music second time around include S Club 7 and Steps, while rumours continue to circle the Spice Girls, all except Victoria who's made it clear she wishes to concentrate on her blossoming fashion empire.
