Alan Longmuir, co-founder of the Bay City Rollers, dies at 70
Alan Longmuir, a founding member of the hit-making 1970s pop band the Bay City Rollers who played multiple instruments, including bass guitar and keyboards, died Monday in Scotland. He was 70.
His family confirmed the death in a Twitter statement but gave no other details. He had been receiving medical treatment in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Bay City Rollers were formed at the end of the 1960s and enjoyed substantial commercial success. They were known for their tartan outfits and such upbeat, catchy tunes as “Bye Bye Baby,” “Shang-a-Lang” and “Saturday Night.”
The band had a fanatical following of teenagers and sold more than 100 million records, but Longmuir left the group in 1976 because of depression. The Rollers split up a few years later amid personnel and management strife but reunited in 2015 for a string of sold-out performances.
Longmuir, the son of an undertaker, was born in Edinburgh on June 20, 1948. Watching Elvis Presley in “Jailhouse Rock” stirred his early dreams of pop stardom. He formed a band called the Saxons, but the group eventually took the name the Bay City Rollers after its members, including his brother Derek, stuck a pin on a map and it landed on Bay City, Mich.
After leaving music, Longmuir worked as a plumber. He was married twice, but a complete list of survivors was not immediately available.
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