Latest news with #Rollermania
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Bay City Rollers musical announces cast ahead of theatre run
The Bay City Rollers musical 'Rollers Forever' will take the stage at Glasgow's Pavilion Theatre, celebrating fans' enduring love for the band. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Rollers Forever focuses the story of two lifelong Bay City Rollers fans who reconnect on a Saturday night and relive their teenage obsession with the Rollers. It opens at Glasgow's Pavilion Theatre from on August 19 and runs until August 30. It stars Chiara Sparkes and Dani Heron as friends Susan and Jenny, and Chiara said that there is excitement in the air ahead of the show commencing its run. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad She said: 'It's exciting to have a show that people are so excited about coming to see. And it's sold so well already, that's quite rare. Going into a show already knowing there are so many fans and people that want it to be good, I think that's exciting.' Dani added: 'My mum absolutely loves them, and my aunties too. You don't realise how many songs they have. You know Shang-a-lang but then you look into it and you go 'I know that song, and that song.' 'I said to my mum and before I had accepted it she had bought tickets!' Alongside Chiara and Dani, Liam Harkins plays Susan's brother Alec, bringing his compelling stage presence following his performance as Celtic legend Tommy Burns. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Rollermania will take over the Pavilion this August | Wattie Cheung Chiara and Dani play best friends connected by their love of the Rollers as it took over the world, something that writer Danny McCahon was keen to bring into focus on the stage. He explained: Well, there's only been two manias really in Britain, Beatlemania and Rollermania. I remember the 70s, not as if it was 50 years ago, but as if it was maybe a decade ago. And I remembered so many people in my life being massive Bay City Roller fans. In fact, my wife is a massive Bay City Rollers fan. 'One of the things she brought into our marriage was three Bay City Rollers albums. So I knew about them, but when I started examining what made a Rollers fan so close to the band, I started realising we were all the same. No matter what band you were into in the 70s, the band that you followed is how you found your people.' Danny said the play will shine a spotlight on those relationships formed through bands. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He continued: 'Whatever band you're associating yourself with is how you find your people. And this play has turned out to be a sort of spotlight on how that friendship is enduring. Friendship and love can endure when it's kicked off with a shared interest like that.' John McLaughlin had been a lifelong Rollers fan, before becoming a member of the band when they reunited in 2015. Now he is a producer of Rollers Forever. He explained: 'It's incredible. I've seen it first hand. I've been a Bay City Rollers fan since I was a wee boy aged seven or eight. They were the first real band I had seen on the telly, and I saw the colour, the screaming girls on Top of the Pops, and then I saw an interview with them. They talked like me. 'So it really made a huge impression on me. I thought, 'Oh, this looks amazing. And they talk like me. This is amazing'. And then years later, full circle, I was lucky enough to put the reunion together with Les, Alan and Woody, and we took it all the way to the Hydro.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And still flying the flag for the Rollers is Stuart 'Woody' Wood. The sole remaining member of the band from their 1970s heyday said that the musical is a chance for the Rollers fans to shine. He said: 'Back in 2015 and there were all these plans to do all this stuff, a movie and musical and reunion and it was great. The shows were sell outs. It was brilliant fun. John always wanted to do this musical, and we all stayed pals through the whole thing. We've written songs together, the title for the musical Rollers Forever is a song that we've written for it.' Bay City Rollers fans were known for their passion 'It's about the fans. It's not the story of the Bay City Rollers. It's just Bay City Rollers Music and the fans are telling their story.' The legacy of the Rollers has endured for more than five decades, Woody said that he feels lucky that their songs have stood the test of time. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He said: 'Those songs are still getting played someplace, whether it's their parents or their grandparents, the older radio stations, we had that top 20 last year, and just certain songs that just seem to stand the test of time. And we are lucky enough that a bunch of our songs are still doing that.' Tickets range from £25 - £39.50 and are available now here.
Scottish Sun
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Stars of new stage show had to learn about the music by seventies Scots superstars the Bay City Rollers
'I had no idea how big Rollermania had been. But when I told my mum I'd be working with Woody she nearly fainted' 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. 4 Stuart "Woody" Wood outside The Glasgow Pavilion where Rollers Forever will debut in August 2025. 4 Actor Joe Gill, Chiara Sparkes, Dani Heron and playwright Danny McCahon with Woody in the Pavilion. 4 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.
Glasgow Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
Bay City Rollers star talks about new Pavilion musical in Glasgow
'The theatre is just across the road from where Glasgow's most famous music venue, the Apollo, once stood,' says Woody, with a smile. 'We played the Apollo three times, and I have so many good memories of the place and the city.' The Bay City Rollers – tartan-clad, generation-defining teen idols - had nine top 10 hits between 1974 and 1976, have sold 300 million albums worldwide and (with a few line-up changes along the way) are still touring. Bay City Rollers fans outside the Apollo in Glasgow in 1973 (Image: Newsquest) During their heyday, Rollermania swept the nation, and the band's fans were well-known for their enthusiasm in greeting their heroes wherever they performed. Glasgow was no exception, says Woody, who has been part of the band since the 70s. 'We had to get shipped in, round the back of the Apollo, in this big white van with no windows,' he recalls, with a laugh. 'We never saw the fans outside, but we heard them. And on stage, seeing their faces, the sheer delight – it was quite something.' (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest) He adds: 'The nicest part of being in the Bay City Rollers is the fans. They are very loyal, very loud – some of them have been with us since the beginning and are in their 60s and 70s now. And what's really magical is they're bringing their kids and their grandkids, who have grown up listening to our music.' Joe Gill, Chiara Sparkes, Stuart 'Woody' Wood, Dani Heron and writer Danny McCahon (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest) Rollers Forever, which runs from August 19 to 30 at the Pavilion Theatre, stars Dani Heron and Chiara Sparkes as Jenny and Susan, two lifelong fans who reconnect one Saturday night and relive their teenage obsession with their favourite band. Written by award-winning playwright Danny McCahon and directed by acclaimed theatre-maker Liz Carruthers, the production marks the 50th anniversary of the Bay City Rollers' first number one hit, Bye Bye Baby, in 1975. Woody, who recently published his memoir, Mania, is the show's 'artistic consultant' and he says it has been a fantastic experience. 'It's great that the story is being seen through the eyes of the amazing BCR fans … it's their turn to shine,' he explains. 'I'm really chuffed to be involved – it's all about the songs, and these songs have stood the test of time. 'If you'd have told us 50 years ago that our songs would still be being played on the radio, and in theatres, and that we'd still be touring – well, we'd have been very surprised.' Cast members Joe Gill, Chiara Sparkes and Dani Heron with Stuart 'Woody' Wood (Image: Gordon Terris/Newsquest) He adds, smiling: 'It's a great feeling, to know that even when us lot are no longer here, something of us will still be going strong.' Despite growing up in Edinburgh – he now lives just outside the city with his wife Denise and their labradoodle Elvis - Woody has close links with Glasgow and the west of Scotland. His mum is from Clydebank, and he remembers childhood visits to the city at Christmas time. 'She'd take us to George Square to see the lights, it was lovely,' he recalls. He grew up 'surrounded by music', he says. 'My family had a piano in the house and my mum used to wake us up by singing opera,' he grins. 'Pals at school wanted to be in a band, so I thought, why not? I couldn't play guitar, I played trumpet and clarinet back then, I was a real jazz fiend. 'But at 15, I got into pop music and it all just happened from there. I just loved hanging about playing music with my friends. And that has never really changed.' It's the best reason for being in a band, Woody points out. 'If you're doing it for the fame or the money or because you want hits then you'll come a cropper,' he says. 'You've got to do it because you have a passion for it – and I still do.' He pauses. 'The day I no longer have that is the day I retire.'
The Herald Scotland
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Being a Bay City Roller gave me PTSD, says Stuart 'Woody' Wood
Anyone who grew up in the 1970s will remember the Bay City Rollers, the biggest boy band of the era, Edinburgh tartan teen sensations in trademark cropped trousers and platforms, screaming girls fainting at their feet. Now Stuart 'Woody' Wood, of the classic line-up of the Seventies, recalls the band's whirlwind rise to fame when he joined aged 17, the 'Rollermania' hysteria, fall-outs, reunions and bitter court cases, in his memoir Mania. Wood, 68, won't chart the well-documented abuse he and others suffered at the hands of their powerful and dominating manager, Tam Paton, a sexual predator and bully, who died in 2009. He says in the foreword, "all the disgusting things said about him are accurate", but he wants to draw a line under it. "I moved on a long time ago and don't want that beast to be any part of things concerning my life. I don't need therapy; I have coped in my own way and have no need to spill my emotion," he writes. The current Bay City Rollers line-up (Image: free) Today, he's still gigging in a different Rollers line-up, as the only original from the classic Seventies band, and seemingly remains a glass half-full type of person, despite setbacks including the missing millions, court battles, reunions and an arduous rift with lead singer Les McKeown, who died in 2021 after years of drug and alcohol abuse. "It's like you come away from school and many years later you only remember the good things," he says of those heydays which began in 1974, when the classic line-up included McKeown, Wood, guitarist Eric Faulkner, bassist Alan Longmuir and his brother Derek on drums. "It was like falling into a whirlpool for about four or five years, getting spun around and thrown out the other end. I remember quite vividly it was just madness - good memories, lots of energy. I just think of the audiences we used to play to, lots of smiley, happy faces, crying faces, mascara running." Yet the reality was that they were mobbed wherever they went, holed up in hotel rooms, often thrown into the boot of cars to escape the hoards of screaming girls, unable to really enjoy their newfound success because of the hysteria that surrounded them. That, coupled with a gruelling tour schedule instigated by Paton at home and abroad - they found fame worldwide - meant something would have to give. The classic line-up of the Bay City Rollers in the 1970s (Image: free) He recalls several times when the crowd behaviour was terrifying. "We were in a limo in Toronto, driving to do a radio interview, and they (the fans) were surrounding us and they were on the roof and the roof was caving in. We physically had to duck down for fear of getting squashed. And there were faces up against the window and lipstick smudges, the hysteria. "I was 17 or 18 at that point. At that age you're not so much scared as the adrenaline is in full flow. I'd be terrified if that were to happen now." The bodyguards had to pull the band, one by one, out of the side window and they ended up crowd-surfing on top of the security guys through to the hotel lobby, he recalls. They became prisoners in hotel rooms. They travelled the world, but there was no sightseeing. "I remember being in New York for the first time, looking out of the skyscraper, desperate to go out. We wanted to go to Central Park and order a hot dog, but that just wasn't going to happen." In an environment where drugs were readily available, Wood says: "I didn't do any of the bad stuff. I tried a couple of lines of coke and thought, no, this isn't for me. Smoking marijuana was about as bad as it got for me." Read more "The music kept me going," he continues. "The whole reason I got into doing this was that it was fun with my pals at school and it was great fun to get in a van and travel to venues and play my guitar and people are reacting to what you are doing." In the book he recalls that someone thought that Rollermania would have given him PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). "It probably did but you don't know these things until you're away from them," he says now. "It's like if you put your finger in cold water, then somebody pours in hot water and you don't realise how hot it's getting." By the time McKeown announced he was leaving the band in 1978 - "the rat departing the sinking ship", Wood describes it in the book - those mania days had peaked. He and McKeown always had a volatile relationship. "Everybody clashed with Les, he was just that type of character," he says now, although in the book he doesn't hold back on the vitriol of their acrimonious relationship, painting McKeown as an egocentric control freak. "He was a brilliant frontman, but behind the scenes, the band, especially myself, just never got on with the guy from day one. Stuart 'Woody' Wood (Image: free) "We tried reunions a few times but it always just went sour. The 2015 reunion was just a nightmare. He never really wanted the reunion. He thought he was the Bay City Rollers. It was all about him." Although another band member, Duncan Faure, was recruited after McKeown left, those mania days never returned. "We just wanted to keep playing. The Rollers never disbanded, it was just Duncan and myself went off to LA (where he remained for three years) and formed a three-piece." He later went to South Africa for seven years making music with a multicultural band, where he wasn't particularly famous. "Suddenly there was a breathing space, a quietness, away from the whole Roller thing entirely. You could walk about the place and not worry about people screaming your name or chasing after you. I had a freedom to do just what I wanted." "The fame has never interested me. If anything it was a burden," he continues. "You can have all the fame in the world and be absolutely skint, which we kind of were when I was living in LA and South Africa, where doing gigs was my worth. It didn't bother me because it was a great band and we were having great fun." He returned to Edinburgh and now lives in the countryside outside the city with his wife Denise and dog Elvis and tours with the Bay City Rollers, although it's a very different line-up these days. He doesn't think the hysteria of the 1970s would be revisited in today's pop world, because of social media and the access fans can get without physically following their music icons. Mania by Stuart Wood (Image: free) "Back then, you had a couple of magazines like Jackie and one music show on the telly once a week. There was no Facebook or TikTok so it made it harder to connect with your idols. "In the Seventies there were The Osmonds, David Cassidy and ourselves who had that screaming thing, as did The Beatles in the 1960s and Elvis. But I think that climaxed in the Seventies. "Now, fans can see them (their idols) every day. They can click on Google and it's right there." What advice would he give to wannabe boy bands who are just starting out? "Do it for the right reasons. If you really want to be in a band, make sure you enjoy playing music, writing music or being involved in that whole lifestyle." Mania: Tartan, Turmoil And My Life As A Bay City Roller by Stuart 'Woody' Wood with Peter Stoneman is published by Blink, priced £22. Available now.
