It’s been announced today that Les McKeown, lead singer with 70s pop idols Bay City Rollers had died earlier this week at the age of 65.
The band achieved worldwide fame in the mid-1970s where their fame rivalled that of the Beatles and their success coined the phrase Rollermania, with the band selling more than 120 million records worldwide.
The group's line-up had many changes over the years, but the classic line-up during its heyday included guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart Wood, singer Les McKeown, bassist Alan Longmuir, and drummer Derek Longmuir.
The band visited Cardiff many times over the years but only twice during their most successful period playing the Capitol Theatre in both 1975 and 1976 in front of thousands of screaming fans reminiscent of earlier visits by The Beatles.
The band’s 1975 was vividly described as being Terrifying! In a report from the South Wales Echo
Ambulance man’s verdict on city Rollermania
Ambulance chiefs called for tougher safety measures at pop concerts after scores of youngsters were crushed at Cardiff concert by the Bay City Rollers.
Wave after wave of hysterical fans stormed the stage at the Capitol Theatre in Queen Street. They crushed and trampled on dozens on dozens of fans.
At least 20 fans were ferried by a fleet of ambulances to Cardiff Royal Infirmary for treatment.
Another 60 were treated at the cinema by St John Ambulance while four adults and a woman police officer were also injured.
Most of the fans hurt were young girls.
Ambulance superintendent Jim Clark described the night as “a terrifying experience – the most frightening I have ever known”.
The 1976 concert was so frenetic that police and St John Ambulance staff had to ferry out vast numbers of fainting teenagers to waiting ambulances and the day after the gig the South Wales Echo headline screamed ‘Rollermania sends 40 to hospital’.
