When The Screaming Stops: The Dark History of the Bay City Rollers by Simon Spence

Author:Simon Spence
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Music Sales
Published: 2016-09-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Darkness

“I was green until I got friendly with Les and he opened my eyes to girls. With Paton it was all to do with boys and gay sex. Me and Les had lots of girls but the trouble was if you got caught with a girl Woody would go back to Paton and tell him everything. I never saw any of the other band members sleeping with girls apart from Les.”

– Pat McGlynn

Jack Strom arrived in Edinburgh with two cameramen to begin filming what would be the defining documentary on the band. Strom was treated as a friend and hung out with the band members when the cameras were off.

He filmed their lives in Edinburgh, even interviewing their parents. “We got a really good insight into the families, the friends of the boys and the way they lived,” he said. “We filmed Tam’s mother helping with the fan club, opening the envelopes. Woody’s parents were such lovely people. We walked up to their place and there was a girl stood there with some flowers for Woody’s mum. When she saw Woody she passed out on the spot.”

The band and their families were not living lavishly. “Woody’s parents, John and Joan, lived very frugally,” said Strom. “John still worked at the Post Office. Eric’s parents were not wealthy at all. Ian’s parents were not wealthy.” Joan Wood was a school dinner lady. She was interviewed by Record Mirror and mentioned three girls from Denmark and three from America camped on her doorstep. She said she received a “lot of letters” from fans. “The only time I get the police is when they make an awful noise,” she said. “There’s not a day goes by without someone coming.”

Strom would use Wood’s car, a Range Rover four-wheel drive, to get about the city. “It was a big monster of a car and the fans would recognise it,” he said. “Every time I stopped at the lights or the end of the lane leading up to Tam’s place the fans would come out and rip bits off the car. When we went to their studio, which was in a big Victorian building outside of Edinburgh [Castlesound Studios], the fans were hiding in the bushes. The fans were everywhere.”

Wood admitted on camera that he purposefully kept his shirt open and his trouser buttons undone as a turn-on. “That’s what it was about,” Strom said. “It was an image band designed to excite the fans.”

Strom met Alan at a pub in Dollar, a small historic town about 40 miles from Edinburgh, close to his farm. “We went back to his home, filmed him with his horses, and he spoke about how he wanted to focus on the farm and lead a quiet life.” Alan said he was learning about sheep farming and planned to get some sheep of his own. His girlfriend, who was 17 when they met, lived close by. He spent a great deal of time at the local pub, downing endless pints, often riding there on a horse.

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