Bay City Rollers super fans unveil memorial benches in Edinburgh
Memorial benches honouring two former members of the Bay City Rollers have been unveiled in Edinburgh.Online fan group Still Rollin raised more than £12,000 for the tributes in the city's Princes Street Gardens.They recognise founding member Alan Longmuir, who died in 2018, and former lead singer Les McKeown, who died in 2021.The Scottish pop rock band became tartan-clad sensations in the UK and US in the 1970s and had hits with songs like Shang-a-lang and Bye Bye Baby.
The community, which has more than 1,500 members around the world, raised the funds by auctioning off clothes that belonged to McKeown.The items were donated by his widow PekoKeiko Tsukioka.Current band member Eric Faulkner also provided a tape containing some early demos and previously unheard Bay City Rollers' music to be sold for a limited time.Excess funds will be donated to charity.
Fellow band founder Derek Longmuir, brother of Alan, also attended the unveiling.The group got together in the early 70s and found their name by throwing a dart at a map which landed on Bay City, near Michigan.Their first single was Keep On Dancing in 1971 and they had two number one hits in 1975 with Bye Bye Baby and Give A Little Love.The band enjoyed chart-topping album success with Rollin' (1974) and Once Upon A Star (1975) and went on to sell 120 million records.But they finally imploded when McKeown left in 1978 and bitter battles over the money they should have been paid dragged on for years.The benches are situated in Princes Street Gardens, close to the Ross Bandstand where Alan and founding member brother Derek performed in public for the first time as schoolboys.
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