For auld Shang-a-lang syne, it's Les

Published on Monday 24 November 2003 00:00

BAY City Rollers legend Les McKeown is returning to Edinburgh for a one-off Hogmanay gig.

The former frontman is bringing his band to a newly-revamped nightspot - and all 2000 tickets are expected to be quickly snapped up.

Tickets are already on sale for the Edinburgh Arena gig which will see Les perform Rollers hits in the city for the first time since the Millennium, when a "classic" line-up of the band performed in Princes Street Gardens.

Les, who lives in London, will be the only member of the original Rollers, who topped the charts with a string of hits like Bye Bye Baby and Shang-a-Lang, present.

But speaking to the Evening News from Australia, where he is currently touring with the band, Les promised fans they were in for "a hell of a party" on Hogmanay.

He said: "Edinburgh has always been in love with the Bay City Rollers. I did the Millennium gig with all the old boys but I’m going to be playing Hogmanay with the guys I’ve been touring with for the last 11 years.

"We’ll be doing all the old songs, a few new ones and some Christmas stuff as well. I don’t think there’s any doubt it’ll be a sell-out. I can remember playing the Cavendish a few years before the Millennium gig and it was sold out well in advance."

Les will take to the stage in Edinburgh just months after the release of his controversial autobiography, which was serialised in the Evening News.

It lifted the lid on behind-the-scenes bust-ups with other band members, as well as notorious Rollers manager Tam Paton.

Les, from Broomhouse in Edinburgh, was 18 in 1973 when he became the lead singer of the Rollers, who had already had one British chart hit. But over the next few years the band transformed into an international supergroup, consistently reaching No 1 all over the world, selling an estimated 300 million records.

The group provoked mass hysteria in the UK not seen since the days of Beatlemania, and also had huge success in the United States and Japan.

But by the end of the 1970s Les was homeless and penniless after quitting the band.

A spokesman for First Leisure, the operators of the Edinburgh Arena, who have booked McKeown’s band to headline the club’s New Year celebrations, said it would be hosting "the ultimate Scottish Hogmanay party".

"Returning to his home city, Les wants to rock the Capital right the way through to 2004 at the best Hogmanay party in Edinburgh," he said.

"The venue’s newly-adapted stage and dance floor area is guaranteed to capture a true concert-style atmosphere."

The Edinburgh Arena opened on October 31 on the site of the former Eros & Elite nightspot, which closed in March after a troubled tenure at the FountainPark leisure complex.

First Leisure decided to close it down for a revamp voluntarily after being threatened with losing its licence over a string of violent incidents involving security staff.

The venue’s 2000 capacity gives it the potential to compete with such other live venues as the Corn Exchange and Usher Hall for major gigs in the Capital.

The Millennium gig saw the Rollers perform alongside Del Amitri and The Mavericks in Princes Street Gardens.

The band had reformed briefly in the 1980s and toured the world for several years, but the Hogmanay show was the first time in 12 years that the classic line-up of Les, along with Eric Faulkner, Alan Longmuir and Stuart Wood, had played together.

Les McKeown’s Legendary Bay City Rollers - which the star has to call his band for legal reasons - have toured Japan, Germany, Canada, the USA and New Zealand, over the last decade.