Latest news with #Shang-a-lang
Scotsman
24-07-2025
- 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.
BBC News
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
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 fan group Still Rollin raised more than £12,000 for the tributes in the city's Princes Street recognise founding member Alan Longmuir, who died in 2018, and former lead singer Les McKeown, who died in 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 items were donated by his widow PekoKeiko 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 funds will be donated to charity. Fellow band founder Derek Longmuir, brother of Alan, also attended 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 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 band enjoyed chart-topping album success with Rollin' (1974) and Once Upon A Star (1975) and went on to sell 120 million they finally imploded when McKeown left in 1978 and bitter battles over the money they should have been paid dragged on for 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.
