THEY had the looks, the adoration of legions of young girls and the hits that took America by storm, but three decades on the Bay City Rollers are still battling for a fair share of the financial rewards their talents generated.
Scotland on Sunday can reveal that the 1970s stars will not enjoy any of the profits from a new compilation CD, The Very Best of the Bay City Rollers, which includes some of their biggest selling hits including ‘Bye Bye Baby’ and ‘Shang-A-Lang’.
The release of the greatest hits album has reignited the row between the former band members and their previous manager Tam Paton, fined £200,000 at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday after admitting supplying cannabis.
The new CD represents the latest chapter in an ongoing legal battle by the Edinburgh band - one of the few Scottish acts to conquer the US - to reclaim what they call their "missing millions".
They estimate to have lost around £90m in profits and royalties and are chasing repayments though the US courts. Band members blame Paton for signing a poor contract which they say has ultimately left them with nothing.
Paton, 65, who claims he is worth £5m and owns more than 20 properties in Edinburgh, was fined after he admitted supplying cannabis between January and March 2003. He denied two charges of supplying the class A drugs cocaine and ecstasy.
In the 1980s he was jailed for three years for gross indecency towards two teenage boys.
Derek Longmuir, one of the original members of the group formed in 1967, told Scotland on Sunday he blamed poor management for the situation. He said: "We’re chasing the money we’re owed through the courts and we will win, be sure of that.
"We’ve not got any money from the record label - and we won’t get anything from the new album - which incidentally we weren’t consulted about."
The Bay City Rollers’ current manager and lawyer Mark St John confirmed they had no say in the release of the new album. "The Bay City Rollers have no relationship with their record company," he said.
"The band is not getting a penny for the album nor were they consulted about it. We imagine the company arbitrarily decided that it was a good time to release ‘The Very Best of’ type album. They will pocket the profits from it but the Rollers will see nothing."
Guided by Paton, the band signed with Bells Records’, which then became Arista Records in the mid 1970s and was later bought out by music giants BMG.
The Rollers started with two brothers, Derek and Alan Longmuir, but later included Les McKeown on vocals, Stuart "Woody" Wood on guitar as well as Eric Faulkner, and enjoyed a steady run of teen-orientated hits, including ‘Summerlove Sensation’ and ‘All Of Me Loves All Of You’.
In 1975 the band had two consecutive UK number 1 hits and topped the US charts, causing hysteria from Toronto to Tokyo.
St John said the record deal was badly managed. "There is no easy way of explaining the current situation. It is the result of a long standing dispute with their record company which means they have not been paid any royalties since 1979.
"The band are probably owed in the region of about $300 zillion but the reality is we are likely to get more like $160m in back-payments."
He said the problem was generally bad management and that a bad contract which had been drawn up while Paton had been in charge of the band.
"I’m not saying he behaved improperly, I’m saying Tam was guilty of being stupid. He was not up to managing a band that was a multinational success."
He added: "The sheer scale of this rip off is incredible. The band have been ill treated but we will win every penny they are owed in the end."
Speaking before his court appearance last week Paton admitted he had let the band down. He said the deal he negotiated for the band in the 1970s was "not the best".
Explaining why he opted for a deal which gave them a 30% cut when another record company was offering 70%, he said: "To secure a good deal you need good lawyers and accountants - and I was never that good at that side of things. When it came to closing the deal I had to rely on people that perhaps I shouldn’t have relied on."
He added that he was inspired to chose one record company over another by remembering a word of advice his father gave him. "He said better to get 30% of something rather than 60% of nothing."
But Paton said that if the band "had not made a penny since 1979" then it was not his fault. "They sacked me in 1979 so after that I don’t know what happened."
He added: "I would find it strange if none of them had any money now - I can’t imagine they’re really struggling."
A spokeswoman for BMG said they were aware of the court action but that they could not comment on it "because of on-going legal issues".
