Tartan mania as Bay City Rollers reform four decades on from glory days

Credit: PA

'Rollermania' is set to return to the UK after the Bay City Rollers announced their comeback tour almost 40 years on from their heyday.

The Scottish boyband attracted a huge teen following at home and abroad with their distinctive tartan outfits and upbeat pop tunes like Bye Bye Baby and Shang-a-Lang, selling more than 100 million records.

Three of the original line-up - singer Les McKeown, Alan Longmuir and Stuart Wood - revealed the reunion, promising "a very special Christmas present to all the fans that have kept the faith with the band over the years" with a gig at Glasgow's Barrowland on 20 December.

Frontman McKeown said he was "feeling fabulous" about the reunion, adding that it had taken a lot of hard work "on everyone's part" to get the band back together.

"Maybe I instigated it a couple of years ago when I mentioned on TV that I'd love to get back with the guys and that put a little seed in everyone's head.

"Slowly but surely we started to gravitate towards each other again."

The original line-up also included Eric Faulkner and Derek Longmuir, and the band said Faulkner may join them in the next few weeks.

McKeown said: "We're quite happy to get on with and the door's always open if Eric wants to come and join us, which could happen sooner rather than later."

He added: "Derek is just not interested, he's been a cardiology nurse for 28 years, he's changed his career completely."

The band rose to fame producing numerous top 10 hits, sell-outs tours and their own TV show before splitting in 1978, with bitter battles over money between band members and managers dragging on for decades.

There were also a number of line-up changes in the band over the years and an infamous on-stage fight between Wood and McKeown.

The frontman said: "Stuff happened but we've put it in the past and will leave it in the past, and we've had time to talk to each other as grown ups.

"There were important emotional scars but it's not something that you can't get over."