Oh, blessed relief is in sight...
Our "welcome to the weekend" slot is upon us, but before we get to the party proper, a little tribute is in order. Before Disco was invented, before Punk was even a wet dream in Malcolm McLaren's pants, the pop world was a very different place. In the early 1970s Britain was depressed, hit by constant strikes and power cuts; the "Swinging Sixties" and even the supposed "Summer of Love" a distant memory. Then along came Glam Rock - basically an excuse to dress up in faintly ridiculous clothing and have a bop - and, in its wake, the rise of a phenomenon. The "boy band" was born - with the arrival of the Bay City Rollers! Sadly, news arrived yesterday that the band's spunky lead singer Les McKeown has unexpectedly departed for Fabulon, aged just 65...
RIP
Tributes done, let's continue the party with what is a more customary way to welcome a weekend - a Roller Boogie, of course!
C'est Magnifique - and Thank Disco It's Friday!
Have a great weekend, peeps!
Oh. Hitting on Three of my favorite things. TGIF - the film. Badly edited, but so much potential fun. And a mumble-mouthed Donna Summer! The Bay City Roller. Don't laugh. I had All their albums. I thought they were amazing. Money Honey was my fave and the direction I think they should have gone. Sad about Les. A young one. I guess we never know when our time will come. And then Roller Boogie! With Linda Blair pretending to skate. All that coke did wonders for her figure. She looks amazing. So much fun. And again, so badly edited. But then, when white powder is in the editing room, what can one expect? Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteI never realised the Bay City Rollers were even known in the USA! I somehow thought, much like The Jam, Cliff Richard, Manic Street Preachers, Take That, Blur or the Sugababes, that they never "broke" the American market... Jx
DeletePS Truth be told, I have never seen Thank God It's Friday - over here we didn't get to see Saturday Night Fever till 1978, the same year it was released, so it would have been completely overshadowed. I am not even sure Roller Boogie was ever released in the UK, and if it was it flopped for similar reasons - SNF was massive, but the appetite for that type of movie began to wane soon afterwards (and Grease-mania took its place). Jx
oh gawd, who DIDN'T like the BCR back then?
ReplyDeleteHeavens - you too? I'm impressed! Jx
DeleteLet me confirm your impression that Bay City Rollers were unknown at least by lots of us. And I thought I sort of remembered Magifique, but then I realized it sounds like they swiped the bass and drum sections from better songs and just slapped some forgettable hook over the top.
ReplyDeleteAh, but that was entirely the nature of "Euro-Disco" in the 1970s. It was a mere fluke that among this kind of dance-floor fodder, a certain Signor Moroder and a certain Miss Summer happened to meet, and it all suddenly exploded into the kind of sound that launched a whole new musical era. Jx
DeletePS At last - someone untouched by "Rollermania"!
Watching Shang-a-Lang was almost a religious experience!
ReplyDeleteGawd bless Les.
SX
Tartan vestments! And the call to prayer...
DeleteYeah we sang shang-a-lang
And we ran with the gang
Doin' doo wop be dooby do ay
They don't write lyrics like that any more. Jx
They were the very antithesis of 'Cool' but they were fun I thought him rather sweet at the time.
ReplyDeleteAnother sad loss.
The boys were heartthrobs for teens of both sexes at the time - I was, however, too madly in love with (ahem) Donny Osmond to care. Jx
DeleteCar Wash (1976) was the best 'Disco' film ever !
ReplyDeleteBy the way.
It certainly was! Jx
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