Stars of new stage show had to learn about the music by seventies Scots superstars the Bay City Rollers
ROLLERMANIA Stars of new stage show had to learn about the music by seventies Scots superstars the Bay City Rollers
BAY City Rollers legend Stuart 'Woody' Wood launched a musical about the seventies chart-toppers- with stage stars who had never heard of the seventies supergroup until they were cast in the show.
The former pin-up joined actresses Chiara Sparkes, 28, and Dani Heron, 37, who will appear in Rollers Forever as die-hard fans of the tartan supergroup when it debuts at Glasgow's Pavilion Theatre next month.
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Stuart "Woody" Wood outside The Glasgow Pavilion where Rollers Forever will debut in August 2025.
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Actor Joe Gill, Chiara Sparkes, Dani Heron and playwright Danny McCahon with Woody in the Pavilion.
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The classic Bay City Rollers from the 70s with Woody second from the right.
But the pals admit the group's classic songs including Bye, Bye Baby, Saturday Night, and Shang-a-Lang that they'll perform on stage, were all new to them.
Chiara from Glasgow, said: 'I had never heard of the Bay City Rollers, but it was funny because when I started singing the songs, I kind of knew them - I just didn't realise they had been by the Rollers.'
Dani, from Paisley adds: 'I had no idea how big Rollermania had been. But when I told my mum I'd be working with Woody she nearly fainted.'
Woody, 68, said: 'It's great that the story is being told through the eyes of the Bay City Rollers fans. It will be full of pure nostalgia, great songs and great fun and hopefully transport the fans back to the most incredible times.'
One of those incredible times happened 50 years ago at a Radio One Roadshow at Mallory Park Race Circuit in Leicestershire descended into utter chaos when the Tartan boy band performed on an island only to see hundreds of their devotees try to swim across a lake to meet them.
With local police losing control of the situation, quick thinking DJ Tony Blackburn leapt into a speedboat with someone dressed the Wombles character Uncle Bulgaria to pluck the stricken youngsters from the water.
But Stuart insists the infamous day is even madder than that as Bay City Rollers frontman Les McKeown - who went on to have a battle with booze and drugs - had actually flown the chart-toppers to the event by private aircraft with his newly acquired pilot's licence.
Stuart says: 'At the time it was just another day in the life of being a Roller. Every day was pandemonium.
'But what makes it stick in the memory is because Les was flying us that day.
'Les had just gained his pilot's licence and he flew us up to Mallory Park from a gig we'd been doing in Southampton.
Original lead singer of The Bay City Rollers returns 50 years after fall out
'It was a small plane, one of these six seater jobs and we landed near the roadshow. Who knows how we got insurance for that - a rookie pilot in his early 20s flying the No1 group in the country.
'We then got the helicopter into Mallory Park and onto a boat to the island to be interviewed before we did the gig.
'I was only 18 at the time so it was all a laugh, although I certainly wouldn't have got into a plane with Les flying in his latter days - we'd have been the first band on the moon.'
He added: 'We had our security guards with us as we got on this boat, but then the fans spotted us at the otherside of the water and you could see them running down the hills towards us.
'It was like something out of Braveheart because they were all charging at us while wearing tartan.
'They then leapt into the water and were scrambling towards our boat, which was tipping over.
'The police and security were really struggling and it was quite scary because so many girls were in the water.
'I wasn't worried about us, but the girls could have easily been tangled in the weeds and have come to harm. So I was concerned for them.'
Rollers Forever, featuring the songs of the legendary Bay City Rollers - opened at the Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow from August 19–30.
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