Les McKeown, Bay City Rollers Frontman, Dead at 65

Les McKeown, the frontman for the Bay City Rollers at the height of the group’s popularity in the 1970s, died suddenly, his family said Thursday. McKeown was 65. During his time with the group, they notched several hits in the U.K., including “Remember (Sha-La-La),” “Bye, Bye, Baby” and “Give a Little Love.” He was the lead singer on their only number one hit in the U.S., the single “Saturday Night.”

McKeown’s family told The Guardian he “died suddenly at home” and asked for privacy after the “shock of our profound loss.” A cause of death was not announced. The singer was raised in Edinburgh and joined the Bay City Rollers in 1973 to replace the original singer, Gordon Clark. At that point, the band had been around for almost nine years already but had failed to find success.

When McKeown joined, he helped the group attract a teenage audience and brought them back to the Top 10, starting with “Remember (Sha-La-La-La).” They sold 120 million records in the U.K., and their Scottish heritage soon became a major part of the band’s identity. “We were young, working-class guys who wanted to be famous, and wanted to play all over the world and make our music and Scotland and tartan famous, and that was our main goal,” McKeown said in a 2013 interview.

However, success in the U.S. continued to evade them until Arista Records founder Clive Davis signed them in 1975. That year, they recorded a new version of their 1973 song “Saturday Night” with McKeown on lead vocals. The song was never a big hit in the U.K., but it became their first and only chart-topper in the U.S.

The success in the U.S. was short-lived though, and by 1978, McKeown was already out of the band and was only 22. He began recording solo albums though, starting with All Washed Up, which was a hit in Japan in 1979. McKeown struggled with drug and alcohol addiction. In 1975, he was convicted for reckless driving after striking and killing an elderly neighbor. He was also charged with drink driving twice in 2005. In interviews, he said he struggled with a “dark side” after the deaths of his parents and began drinking alcohol in the early 2000s. In 2008, he spent time in a California rehab center. He recorded his last album, The Lost Songs, in 2016 and would perform with the Bay City Rollers for reunion tours. He is survived by his wife, Peko Keiko, and son Jubei.