A look at the career of the Bay City Rollers.A look at the career of the Bay City Rollers.A look at the career of the Bay City Rollers.
- Director
- Writer
- Stars
Photos
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Featured review
"Unabashed pop"
In 1966, two brothers from Edinburgh, Scotland, Derek Longmuir (drums) and Alan Longmuir (bass)--presumably working-class, though that's only intimated--form a band named The Saxons, playing teen dances with minimal success. Once their first single, "Keep on Dancing", a cover song borrowed from The Gentrys, hit the charts in 1971 (and the executives at Bell Records smelled real money), the sonic polishing began, first with new band members except for the Longmuirs and the songwriting team of Bill Martin and Phil Coulter (who contributed the cheerleader-chant "Saturday Night" to the Rollers' first album, ignored in Britain but eventually a number-one hit in the US). It took the pop band quite a while to become "overnight sensations" in the UK and their homeland--and even longer in America, which didn't catch on until 1976--but the pandemonium among teen and pre-teen girls, as well as chart success on both continents, was short-lived. Derek and Alan are interviewed here, as is lead vocalist Leslie McKeown and guitarist-turned-bassist Stuart Wood, but lead guitarist and chief songwriter for the group, Erik Faulkner, is absent. This points up something that Carl Hindmarch's mediocre documentary doesn't wish to dwell over: that internal unhappiness in the band was so strong, one of its most important players won't even talk about the group all these years later. Made up mostly of news footage, the film almost makes the case for non-admirers of the Rollers that they were strictly a fan-phenomenon and not much of a music group. Perhaps the absence of Faulkner meant that the filmmakers could not spotlight the band's musical output, instead putting the emphasis on screaming girls, police barricades, etc. There's a good story here, but "Rollermania" doesn't tell it, excitement in the streets only taking you so far--as the Rollers themselves soon found out. ** from ****
helpful•12
- moonspinner55
- Dec 3, 2017
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Color
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content