Alan Longmuir, the driving force behind the 70s pop group ‘The Bay City Rollers,’ has died after a brief illness at the age of 70. This early ‘pop band’ from Scotland took America by storm in the mid-70s with great songs like ‘I Only Want to Be With You’ ‘Saturday Night’ “Bye Bye Baby’ and ‘The Way I Feel Tonight,’ selling millions of albums and touring the US for over 7 years.
Yes, the manner in which the band chose their name is actually true; while discussing changing their names to appeal to American fans, they threw a dart at the map of the United States, watching it land on Bay City, Michigan. Thank heavens the dart didn’t land on Saginaw or nearby Flint Michigan.
Alan Longmuir obituary mentions that he was just a blue-collar worker, a plumber from Edinburgh who got lucky.