The Rollers were at the height of their success and had even started to break the tough American market, but for Les McKeown life was hell. During a break in touring he was in a road accident and killed an Edinburgh pensioner - a tragedy which haunts him to this day. Then he attacked a photographer. As a result 1975 saw him end up in court - twice. WHILE we were making an album and a TV series, Jef Hanlon organised our second UK tour. Everything was bigger and better for this one and progressed much as we’d expected. It was the same as the first one but better or worse, depending on how you look at it. There were more fans suffering from hyperventilation and needing treatment during gigs, and many more forced stoppages. One of our hometown shows had to be stopped not once but twice to restore some sort of order. We were even accused in Parliament of deliberately "whipping up" hysteria.
After a gig in Great Yarmouth, we were given the next 24 hours off. I went home to Edinburgh. A few hours before I had to fly down to Bristol for the Thursday night gig, I was driving my girlfriend at the time and my brother Hari around in my brand new Ford Mustang.
We waited to turn out of a side street onto the main Corstorphine Road. Seeing a gap coming in the outer lane, I put my foot down and pulled out quickly. Once going with the flow, I slowed down and pulled into the inside lane. By now the traffic had thinned and I noticed an old lady up ahead a bit at the kerb. She looked as though she was about to step into the road so I hooted and she looked up.
In that split second, I thought, "OK, she’s seen me", and then she stepped off the kerb. I swerved and missed her, but then she changed direction. The next thing I knew the car was embedded in someone’s front garden wall and I couldnae see where the old lady was.
A nurse who was walking along the road helped me out of the car through the window. I’ll never forget and I’ll never get over seeing that old lady lying in the street. An ambulance and the police were called, and my girlfriend, who had head injuries, was taken to hospital to be fixed up. I was charged and my court appearance was set for November, a few days after my 20th birthday.
The gig that night was cancelled. I felt as if I was not in my own body but our manager insisted that the best thing I could do the following night was go ahead with a gig in Southampton. I shouldn’t have been surprised by that - Alan and Derek did Top Of The Pops the night after their beloved mother died.
But I couldnae take it and cracked. I broke down and ran from the stage. The rest of the guys carried on playing and by the time they started the next number I’d been pushed back in front of the audience, still crying.
I just wanted to curl up and die. I was 19, I’d just killed someone, and it seemed like everyone around me was pretending it hadnae happened or it didnae matter.
I got through the two London gigs in some kind of haze. The next was an Oxford gig. There were security guys and photographers in the orchestra pit, and the girls were clambering into it as they tried to get onto the stage. It looked to us like the guys were being really rough with the girls in their attempts to stop them.
In my unstable state of mind I hit one of the photographers with the mic stand. Next, Eric and I were in the pit trying to stop these guys from hurting our fans. I ended up with another court appearance set for November and Eric walked away.
It felt like everyone hated me. On top of that was the guilt when I thought about the old lady’s daughter, then there was the concern and sadness in my mum’s eyes and the helplessness in my dad’s - just as hard to deal with.
The guilt doesn’t fade; it grows. The more I think, the worse it is, so if I start to think, I usually end up having a drink. I’d like to be able to put some blame for that feeling elsewhere, especially on Tam. But at the end of the day, no matter how you’re forced to behave, you still have to answer to yourself. I know I shouldn’t have gone on stage so soon after the accident. I should have had the strength of character to say no.
After that hell Tam told the newspapers he was giving us some time off. I moved into my new house at Torphichen and learned to fly. Despite what Tam said he was making plans to put us under more pressure than we’d ever known. That pressure was called America. But first, we had another album to make and another No 1 to notch up.
During the summer, we recorded our third album, Wouldn’t You Like It? Routinely by now, there were fights over which and whose songs would be on the album. In the end, with the exception of Give A Little Love - the only single to come off the album - all the songs were written by Mr Faulkner and Mr Wood. Now you might think that Eric would’ve been happy about that. Not a chance. But the excellent Give A Little Love was rushed out as a single and our second No 1 spent nine weeks on the chart.
Three albums into our career, worldwide domination was ours for the taking. But America was the priority.
On September 15, Arista released Saturday Night in the US. Five days later, we made our American television debut, pre-recorded, on a show called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. The next day, it was reported that the show had been watched by 25,000,000 viewers. Saturday Night went to No 1.
We finally flew to America on September 30 for a promo tour. By this time, though, we were taking various medications to help us sleep at the right times, be awake at the right times, and do everything else at the right times. For a fair wee while we’d had a stash of stuff to help us out as and when we’d needed it, and now it seemed we were needing it more and more often.
Back from the US, I had two court cases to deal with. I had to go to court for hitting the paparazzi guy in Oxford. Apparently, it was a "fairly violent and unprovoked attack". I was fined £1100 and given a three-month suspended sentence. I celebrated my 20th birthday two days later by doing nothing except worrying about my next court appearance . . .
On Tuesday, November 18, I was at Edinburgh Sheriff Court facing a charge of causing the death of Euphemia Clunie by reckless driving or, alternatively, of driving without due care and attention. By the time I actually arrived at the court, I felt like a serial killer.
I knew everything was stacked against me. When the first witnesses were called, I was sure I’d be jailed for life. One of the vehicles in the inside lane that I’d overtaken when I came onto the Corstorphine Road was a van full of Scottish National Orchestra musicians.
They were adamant I’d been driving too fast. It was more of the same from other witnesses. It seemed to me at the time that everybody thought I was a pop star with loads of money and a flash car, who had obviously been drunk and was probably high on drugs, too. I needed to be brought down a peg or two and anyone who could help do that was only too willing to oblige.
At the 11th hour, the nurse who’d helped us from the wreckage at the scene appeared and convinced the court that there was absolutely nothing I could have done to avoid the accident. On Thursday, 20 November, I was found guilty of reckless driving. I was fined £100 and banned from driving for a year. Naturally, I was relieved at not being taken down to the cells, but I didn’t feel any better, and I still don’t.
• Shang-a-Lang: Life as an International Pop Idol (£15.99 hardback) by Les McKeown with Lynne Elliot, foreword by Irvine Welsh is published by Mainstream on October 20. To receive your copy (p&p free) call The Book Service on 01206 255800 or visit
www.mainstreampublishing.com • Les McKeown will be launching his book in conjunction with Ottakar’s at Acanthus on Waverley Bridge on Wednesday, October 8, at 7pm. Tickets £3. To purchase tickets call Ottakar’s on 0131-225 4495. Les will be signing copies of his book at WH Smith’s at the Gyle shopping centre, Edinburgh, on Thursday, October 9, at 1pm.
The full article contains 1588 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
