Author:
Julie
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Date Posted: 03:34:56 07/18/04 Sun
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>Hello,i thought i would write form across the pond, having found your great Website.
There are LOADs of Roller fans over here still too!!!
the Hogmanay gig went well , although according to Les's book(Shang- a Lang0 he says that Eric kept changing chords to put him off.The old bad feelings are still there.There was a great programme on tv the other week called'Who got the bay City Rollers Millions' and Les actually faces Tam Paton at his home.Eric doesnt really ever speak now, he lives in Hastings in the south of England, he has been seen in the recording studios and out and about, but i think that they all just want to live a quiet life now!!!
All the Rollers have 'official' sites(apart from Derek simce he was arrested)but Eric doesnt.
My friends and i followed the Rollers from 1974.we went to Edinburgh to look for them, to Preston pans( a right dump!!)we followed them on tour, then they went to your side of the pond and the rest is history!!!
I have a flower from Erics guitarthat he gave me at a concert( a red carnation!)in a little tartan box.My friends and i all liked a different 'Roller' ans so we had a great time!.Reading caroline Sullivans book brought back so many memories.I recently purchased Stuart Woods cd from the web, and its very good.The 'Rollers where going to try and get back together again, after their scottish gig at the millenium, but the old wounds have opened up again, and Les says in his book that he is sorry to Eric, for being the lead singer.It cant have been easy for any of them at the time in the 70's,at their concerts here, we didnt have huge stadium gigs then.the lads could be seen in little concerts in town halls and small theatres so everyone was near- great photos!!!!We even sussed out where derek and Alans Mum and Dad lived from photos and maps.we sent a letter to them and received a phto autographed by the lads themselves!!.we were quite young then, so any thoughts of getting together with them, like caroline did was not really an option( but a few years later we were all up for anything if the chance had been there!)
we never really saw much of the 'rollers after Ian joined,then Pat and i have never seen Duncan live at all.
All the old albums have just been re released here with bonus tracks, some never released before, so im out to get those soon!.its great knowing that despite all the time that has passed, there are still 'roller' fans out there!!!How about starting a world wide crousade to get them their money back??surely all the fans all around the world could do something?Julie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx TOGETHER..FOR AULD SHANG A LANG SYNE;
>THE BAY CITY ROLLERS BURY THE HATCHET (NOT IN ONE
>ANOTHER) FOR A
>MILLENNIUM COMEBACK
>BYLINE: Billy Sloan Exclusive
>
>BODY:
> THERE'S a picture I thought I'd never live long
>enough to see, and neither did The Bay City Rollers.
>All four original members, in the same room, at the
>same time, and World War III not being declared.
> Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn't it? But,
>as our exclusive photograph on the far right proves,
>Scotland's first ever pop supergroup are back together
>again in their trademark tartan. They've re-formed
>after what seems like a lifetime of bitter words and
>farcical legal battles, just in time for the
>Millennium, to headline the Hogmanay celebrations in
>Edinburgh. The classic Rollers' line-up of Eric
>Faulkner, Stuart "Woody" Wood, Les McKeown and Alan
>Longmuir are due to play their first concert for
>nearly 20 years in Princes Street. They've dusted
>off all the old hits, like Shang A Lang, Bye Bye Baby
>and Summerlove Sensation, and come up with a new
>improved tartan image. The spectacular Millennium
>bash will start a new chapter in the The Bay City
>Rollers' amazing success story.
> "We were offered opportunities to play
>Millennium gigs in America, Australia and Egypt," said
>lead singer Les. "But we're all Scots and this is such
>a historic occasion that we thought - if we're gonna
>do this, then let's do it on home soil."
> Guitarist Eric told me: "We're delighted that
>our songs seem to have so many happy memories for so
>many people. It's a thrill for us to be asked to play
>in Edinburgh at Hogmanay."
> A few years ago, a Bay City Rollers' reunion
>would have been simply unthinkable. When they fell
>out, they fell out big time. Bitter arguments about
>money, music, touring - and just about everything else
>in between - led to the Rollers splitting into two
>camps. On the one side was Les McKeown and, at
>loggerheads on the other were Faulkner, Wood and
>Longmuir.
> Les said: "There was a time when Eric and I
>couldn't stand being in in the same country as each
>other, never mind the same room."
> The situation became such a farce that, after
>one famous court battle in 1992, two versions of the
>Rollers - playing exactly the same songs - toured the
>country. Alan's brother, drummer Derek Longmuir, got
>so fed up he quit the group to become a registered
>nurse in an Edinburgh hospital. That's all water
>under the bridge now.
> Two years ago, Les, Eric, "Woody" and Alan took
>the tentative first steps to get back on speaking
>terms, and they've been speaking ever since. It was
>arguments over money which split the Rollers... and in
>the ultimate irony, it was money which helped bring
>them back together again. The group are suing their
>former record label, Arista Records, in the United
>States for an estimated pounds 160 million in unpaid
>royalties and lost earnings. The Rollers claim
>they've not received a penny in back royalties from
>Arista since 1976. Their legal team are trying to
>sort out the mess.
> Les, 44, who is based in London with his
>Japanese wife, Peko, said: "Initially we had to get
>back together for business reasons - to find out what
>happened to our missing royalties. We reckon there
>are vast sums of money lying in bank accounts all over
>the world, that we can't get our hands on. The figure
>of pounds 160 million is based on what we were owed
>plus how much money we would have generated over the
>years in terms of record sales and merchandising."
> Eric, also 44, told me: "It's been great working
>together again, and the reunion has been surprisingly
>painless. "People think we got paid millions when
>Rollermania was at its peak, but we didn't. "That's
>why we had to keep touring. To survive. The bills
>didn't stop coming in, but the royalties did."
> In the Seventies, the group were managed by Tam
>Paton. He quit his job as resident bandleader at the
>Palais ballroom in Edinburgh after spotting their
>potential. Paton chose their name when he stuck a pin
>into a map of America, and it landed on Bay City,
>Michigan. Back then, only Alan and Derek Longmuir
>were in the line-up. The original Rollers' singer was
>a bloke named Nobby Clark. Their first hit was Keep On
>Dancing, which reached No. 9 in the UK charts. It
>wasn't until McKeown, Faulkner and Wood joined the
>group that the Rollers became superstars. They
>sparked off scenes of teenybop hysteria on a scale not
>seen since the heady days of Beatlemania. The
>adulation of their fans even became life-threatening.
> In 1975, more than 47,000 screaming girls
>swamped a Rollers' Radio 1 Roadshow appearance in
>Leicestershire. It was abandoned - and the group were
>airlifted to safety by helicopter, when fans began
>swimming across a lake to try to reach their idols.
>Paton was a brilliant scam merchant who planted
>stories in the Press to keep the Rollers in the
>headlines.in the same country as each other, never
>mind the same room."
> The situation became such a farce that, after
>one famous court battle in 1992, two versions of the
>Rollers - playing exactly the same songs - toured the
>country. Alan's brother, drummer Derek Longmuir, got
>so fed up he quit the group to become a registered
>nurse in an Edinburgh hospital. That's all water
>under the bridge now.
> Two years ago, Les, Eric, "Woody" and Alan took
>the tentative first steps to get back on speaking
>terms, and they've been speaking ever since. It was
>arguments over money which split the Rollers... and in
>the ultimate irony, it was money which helped bring
>them back together again. The group are suing their
>former record label, Arista Records, in the United
>States for an estimated pounds 160 million in unpaid
>royalties and lost earnings. The Rollers claim
>they've not received a penny in back royalties from
>Arista since 1976. Their legal team are trying to
>sort out the mess.
>A still-bitter Les McKeown told me: "We got into this
>messy financial position through sheer bad management
>by Tam. He may have thought he was the greatest pop
>manager in the world - but he was also the stupidest.
>We were idiots for listening to him. Tam was too busy
>creating stories for the newspapers to run our affairs
>properly. He employed a bunch of crooks to look after
>our money. It was all siphoned off into offshore
>accounts. We didn't see any of it. We reckon we've
>sold in excess of 120 million records worldwide but
>we've never been paid a penny. To say we're p*****
>off is an understatement."
> The pounds 160 million lawsuit against Arista
>was the catalyst for getting the members back on
>talking terms. They also have a renewed enthusiasm
>for the group on a musical level. For the last few
>months, they've been recording new tracks in a London
>studio and plan to do a full scale comeback tour in
>February. There are also plans to release
>Rollermania, a live album recorded at the Budokan in
>Japan in 1977. It was discovered on an old reel of
>tape gathering dust in Eric Faulkner's garage.
> Eric - who lives in a farmhouse in Eastbourne
>with his girlfriend Kass - said: "Seeing Les again was
>a very strange experience. We went to dinner a few
>times and tried to sort out the problems. The
>misunderstandings were stunning. It seemed almost as
>if our being at loggerheads seemed to make some people
>happy. In a situation like that you can either carry
>it on for the rest of your life or sort things out. We
>saw a chance to solve our differences. And I'm glad we
>did. It's time to forget the past and move on."
> Bass guitarist Stuart "Woody" Wood, 42, agreed.
>He said: "We've all moved on, thank God. Life is too
>short. At the end of the day, the problems we had
>weren't about us as people. It was all the outside
>pressures that drove us apart. The financial mess we
>were in was a bit of an unreal situation. When I left
>school, I became an electrician, then I joined the
>Rollers. I had no experience of the business side of
>things. We'd heard stories of bands being ripped off
>and thought: 'That will never happen to us.' Then
>when we were ripped off, none of us had enough
>knowledge of the financial side of things to sort it
>outHopefully, we'll get our money back. We worked hard
>for it, so we should get the rewards."
> For now, Les, Eric, Stuart and Alan are fired up
>at the prospect of the classic Rollers' line- up going
>on tour and making records again. They have fond
>memories of the crazy days of Rollermania.
> "Woody", who lives in Edinburgh with his wife,
>told me: "It was sheer excitement being at the centre
>of such hysteria. You just had to lift your hand on
>stage and instantly 2000 girls would go berserk. That
>felt amazing. But it used to get real crazy when we'd
>be trying to escape from a venue in our limo and
>hundreds of fans would be pressed against the windows
>trying to get to us."
> However, the Rollers are determined not to
>abandon their famous tartan image. Eric said: "The
>tartan look is an important part of the band's
>background. So, for Hogmanay, we were keen to have an
>updated tartan image, with kilts and Doc Marten boots.
>We wouldn't be The Bay City Rollers without tartan. I
>remember seeing Status Quo on TV once and they were
>wearing suits. It just wasn't the same seeing the band
>minus their denims. That's how I feel about us. Okay,
>so we're not 17 any more. But maybe the fans will
>enjoy the music now. We just want to have some fun."
>Woody" said: "I think if we were to wear tartan
>stripes up the side of our trousers, we'd look daft
>but we've had the tartan image since the early days of
>the group. Any time we caused a riot, newspaper
>headlines always described the scene as a 'Sea of
>Tartan'. It's always been with us, even though tartan
>itself has gone in and out of fashion. So celebrating
>the new Millennium in Edinburgh - with the classic
>Rollers' line- up and all the hits - is going to be
>brilliant. We're back, and we're back to stay."
>TOP
>
>Copyright 2000 The Scotsman Publications Ltd.
>Evening News (Edinburgh)
>January 3, 2000, Monday
>
>
>1976. Bay City Roller, Eric Faulkner nearly becomes
>the Kurt Cobain of teeny-pop after taking an overdose
>at his manager's house
>
>
>OH AND DID ANYONE KNOW ABOUT THIS ?
>WHAT KIND OF DRUGS DID HE TAKE? and he was at tam
>patons house, omg!!! POOR ERIC!
>
>PLEASE, ANYONE WHO KNOWS WHAT HAPPEND HERE FILL ME IN.
>IM SHOCKED I NEVER KNEW!......it's all there in black
>and white under www.askjeeves.com type in eric
>faulkner and alot of info comes up. hope this is not
>to long for the message board : ) KEEP ON ROLLIN, HEIDI
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Feedback: 
Re: Heidi, did you see VH-1's Behind The Music video on the Rollers? They cover this subject and quite a few others.
Re: iterviews with the rollers : )
'sOkay - No Harm.