A couple of months ago, I was finally coerced into writing about my teenage relationship with the Bay City Rollers, and had a fond couple of days revisiting some of the memorabilia (unbelievably) still in my possession. When looking back, it became apparent there would have been no BCRs had founder member Alan Longmuir, along with his brother Derek, not persevered and pestered until they found success. He was definitely the shyest of the bunch however, and at times found it tough being the oldest member of what we now would call a “boy band”. I was sad therefore to hear it announced today that Alan has died in hospital aged only 70 – The first of the Rollers to leave us.
They were ill-equipped in the early ’70s to cope with the kind of international success they achieved and it is well known they ended up with little of the vast riches that must have accrued from the tours and sale of albums. As for Alan, that didn’t seem to faze him, and humble until the end he used to tell friends and family – “I was just a plumber from Edinburgh who got lucky.” RIP Alan Longmuir.
Welcome to this occasional series where I share the contents of my archive box of teenage memorabilia. I always knew these random bits and pieces would come in handy some day, but little did I think back in the 1970s that they would find their way onto such a thing as a “blog”, courtesy of that as yet unthought of invention, the world wide web!
I’ve been threatening to write this post for a while, and it seems the time is right, coming at the end of a trilogy of posts inspired by my recent trip to Edinburgh. On our last day there we met some friends in an area of the city called The Meadows, a large green space near the Old Town. Bordering the Meadows is a large building which I discovered was Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary, however in days gone by it was called Simpson’s Hospital. And why…
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Thought you might make an appearance here tonight Alyson.
Sad news
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It’s no time since I revisited all that memorabilia so yes, a bit sad. He apparently picked up a virus whilst on holiday in Mexico. The shyest and quietest of them all, but without him, there would have been no Rollers!
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Evening, Alyson.
I can’t recall exactly how popular the Rollers were in the States, but I think they were reasonably popular here. I know that American magazines and newspapers wrote about them quite a bit.
I’m sorry to hear that the main BCR has died. It seems like only yesterday when that band was young.
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For a short time they were very popular – An unlikely thing to have happened but there you go. Yes, where has the time gone? We’ve raced ahead a bit too quickly for my liking!
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Yes, coming from (roughly) the same neck of the woods, I knew a few plumbers who looked and sounded just like him – But they didn’t go on to become international teen heart throbs! Sleep well indeed Alan – Gone too soon it seems.
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