The Bay City Rollers

Tartan scarves became very popular all of a sudden in the Midlands when I was about four. Total fashion disaster for anywhere outside of Scotland.

I’d heard the song Bye Bye Baby on the radio a lot and would sing along to it, but the first I remember hearing the name of the band was my older sister chanting, ‘B-A-Y, B-A-Y’.

I didn’t remember the whole thing but wouldn’t you know that Wikipedia would provide:

B-A-Y, B-A-Y,
B-A-Y, C-I-T-Y,
With an R-O-double-L, E-R-S,
Bay City Rollers are the best!

I think the ‘oh my god they’re gorgeous’ thing passed me by because they all looked like hairy men to me. But I loved to dance along to the songs. They became very naff very suddenly at the end of the seventies, but the songs can still be heard at parties which demonstrates they were more than a passing phase.

For a full impression of the Glam Rock experience, including the bizarre clothes, screaming fans and rocking music, see Shang-a-Lang on YouTube. This music is so catchy that it still gets radio time now, and yet according to the BBC, the artists didn’t get much in the way of royalties.

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Josie Henley-Einion, author, blogger, Legend in my own Living Room