Aug. 31, 1976 review and interview: Bay City Rollers at Kleinhans Music Hall

 

To take the full measure of the mania for these tartan-clad teen idols in concert, I brought along three of the neighborhood kids from Auburn Avenue.

Aug. 31, 1976

Bay City Boys ‘Think Straight,’ Roll Along With Hysteria 

          Up on the sixth floor of the Sheraton Inn-East – their second hotel here – the Bay City Rollers are winding down from Monday night’s screamfest in Kleinhans Music Hall.

          They’ve hung up their trademark tartan plaid for the evening, but there’s no loud partying, no liquor, no groupies, no drugs.

          Not many Rollermaniacs either. Few of the ‘70s successors to the Beatlemaniacs have found their way out here. Plus there’s obstacles like cops and Mike Klefner of Arista Records, who’s hefty as the security crew that hauled teenage girls back to their seats during the show.

          Klefner leads the way to singer Les McKeown, 20, who’s wearing only cut-off jeans, and bass guitarist Stuart (Woody) Wood, 19, who’s under covers taking a ride with the vibrating gizmo after a stop in the steam room.

          “Someone may have had a sip of champagne at a reception,” Les acknowledges, “but it’s true, there’s no alcohol backstage. If a young guy or girl sees that we do something, then they think it must be OK. The world is like sheep. You start something and everybody does it.”

* * *

“WE HAVE TO think straight all the time,” Woody puts in. “We can’t be getting clouded up in the head.”

          Things do have a way of escalating. Take the tartan plaid of their native Scotland, which has evolved into a whole colorful array of Roller gear.

          There’s the sneakers, striped socks, rolled-up or shortened jeans, plaid accents on shirts, suspenders, scarves and weird buttons.

          The nearly 3,000 early teens in Kleinhans wore Roller gear in varying intensities, screamed that shrill scream, threw their buttons at the group and waved banners, homemade signs and plaid scarves with the names of their favorites on them.

* * *

IT WAS QUITE an hour. Among this reviewer’s party, the three kids from the neighborhood loved it, another Buffalo Evening News reporter, aged 26, was screamed to a frazzle, and the 23-year-old guitarist figured he should stop practicing and put on some plaid.

          The Rollers carried it off well, better than what might be expected of early adolescent romantic idols. Better, in fact, than the Beatles in that film of their 1964 Washington, D.C., concert.

          The four selections off their new “Dedication” album (due out this week) had pleasant voices. So did hits like “Rock ‘N Roll Love Letter” and “Saturday Night.”

* * *

BUT THE five of them are not yet a total musical experience. Instrumental work sometimes is pretty simple and thin. Vocals occasionally stray. And older listeners won’t accept what they do to ‘60s tunes like “Shout” and “Keep on Dancing.”

          Woody and Les cite Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra and say their goal is to keep improving and carry their fans with them. Right now, however, that involves a lot of wear and tear.

          They’ve gotten black eyes from buttons thrown at them. Their limousines get mobbed backstage (the crowd Monday night swarmed all over their hasty exit). And their followers tend to wreck hotels, which is why they’re banned from lodgings in London.

* * *

AUSTRALIA was the craziest, Les and Woody agree. Eight limousines were dented up and a swarm of faithful gave them their shortest appearance – 15 seconds – before the stage was overrun and the equipment was knocked over.

          They take a lot of vitamins and there’s no doubt they need them. Consider that they came from St. Louis Monday and depart for Philadelphia today. Still, fatigue has a hard time overcoming all that high-pitched enthusiasm they’ve just seen.

          “All the screaming is great just before you go out on stage,” Les says. “It’s like a novelty at first and it’s still great fun to us. It’s been funny, it’s been weird seeing all this happen.”

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: The classic Bay City Rollers lineup from the mid 1970s, from left, Derek Longmuir, Eric Faulkner, Alan Longmuir, Les McKeown and Stuart “Woody” Wood.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: It was catchy. It was innocent. It was huge. And it was pretty much a total fabrication. The squeaky clean image was a construct of the band’s evil mastermind of a manager, former Edinburgh nightclub owner Tam Paton. How evil was he? He plied the boys with drugs and was accused of raping them. “Whenever we got a wee bit tired,” singer Les McKeown told an interviewer in 2005, “he’d give us amphetamines.”

          McKeown had joined the band in 1973, replacing the original lead singer, and his presence was one of the keys to their success. He left in 1978 and their popularity sank. He died at age 65 in 2021, alcohol and drug abuse having taken their toll.

          Guitarist Stuart “Woody” Wood came aboard in early 1974 and has more or less stuck with various versions the group through reunion tours, albums, financial woes, a lawsuit against Arista and disputes with McKeown (for a while they fronted rival Bay City Rollers bands). The two of them were discussing another reunion when the pandemic hit. 

        On setlist.fm, there no record of the Buffalo show and few reports of the songs they played on this tour. Instead, the website offers what it says is a standard setlist for 1976: 

Rock 'N Roller 

Rock 'n Roll Love Letter (Tim Moore cover)  

Bye, Bye Baby (Baby Goodbye) (Four Seasons cover)  

Don't Worry Baby (Beach Boys cover)  

Don't Stop the Music  

Maybe I'm a Fool to Love You  

My Teenage Heart  

Let's Have a Party (Elvis Presley cover)  

Shanghai'd in Love  

Wouldn't You Like It  

You're a Woman  

Too Young to Rock & Roll  

Yesterday's Hero (John Paul Young cover)  

Just a Little Love  

Money Honey   

I Only Want to Be With You (Dusty Springfield cover)  

Saturday Night