In 1975, the Bay City Rollers were one of the biggest bands in the UK. Following the release of their single, “Saturday Night,” in the United States, the Scottish pop-rockers stormed America with the hope of becoming the next Beatles.
The classic lineup of the Bay City Rollers featured singer Wes McKeown, guitarists Eric Faulkner and Stuart “Woody” Wood, bassist Alan Longmuir, and drummer Derek Longmuir. But were they enough to replace John, Paul, George, and Ringo?
On September 20, 2025, the Bay City Rollers made their U.S. TV debut when they appeared via satellite on the premiere episode of Howard Cosell’s short-lived variety show, Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. Cosell even introduced the Scottish boy band as the “new Beatles,” per Ultimate Classic Rock.
Their performance by the "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh” ended with a fan stage invasion that landed McKeown and Wood in the hospital, according to BBC. On September 30, the band landed in the U.S. for the first time and was greeted by more frantic fans.
"I went out there and witnessed this unbelievable happening at JFK,” record producer Phil Waimnman told BBC. “It was like the Beatles all over again. In fact, it might have been bigger."
The song “Saturday Night” was a huge hit, hitting the Billboard Hot 100 by October 1975 and eventually soaring to No. 1.
And the comparisons to the Beatles continued.
In an interview with Creem at the height of the “Saturday Night” success, the band’s manager, Tam Paton, said he hoped fans would be in a frenzy for the Rollers for years to come.
Paton noted that other UK supergroups that failed in the U.S. didn’t have albums that went straight to number one. “None of these groups have sold 300,000 advance orders in singles and LPs. Their first album went straight to number one and has been in the charts for ten months, in the top ten,” he said of the Rollers. “I wouldn’t even say kids, I’d say people – all different kinds of people. And they’re looking for something new. And they’ve grabbed on to the Rollers.”
“We’re not saying we’re bigger than the Beatles,” he added. “I’m not even bringing the Beatles into it. They were fantastic. They were great. And at the time, they were the biggest thing since sliced bread. I just hope people will talk about the Rollers the same way they talk about the Beatles in ten years time. And I believe, deeply, that they will.”
Unfortunately, the Bay City Rollers fandom began to fizzle out by the late 1970s.
In a 2024 interview with Glasgow World, Wood said of the band, “The fame side of it was 1974 to 1978. I would say it was hysterical. It was madness. It was crazy times. …When the success went downhill and we stopped selling records, it didn't matter to me, because I was still playing music, still in the band, still gigging, and we still got some kind of audience and still had the music to play.”
While they never achieved the worldwide success of the Beatles, a new version of the Bay City Rollers continues to tour for nostalgic fans. The current lineup features Wood, Ian Thomson, Mikey Smith, Jamie McGrory, and John McLaughlin, and they continue to play sold-out shows across the UK.
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