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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Sally Hind

Original Edinburgh Bay City Rollers frontman vows to recover decades' worth of royalties

Original Bay City Rollers frontman Nobby Clark claims he was the main voice on the Edinburgh band's biggest US hit.

Clark has vowed to recover decades worth of royalties having been the voice of the band for almost a decade before being replaced by the late Les McKeown, who died in 2021.

As the Record reports, Nobby claims it was his voice on the single that broke the band in the US - Saturday night. He also claims he was conned out of cash by Rollers manager Tam Paton, who has also passed away.

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Nobby said: "When the band filed a motion to have me dismissed from the 2011 court case in New York against Arista/Sony for unpaid royalties, they forced me out." He added: "For years, certain members of the band's so-called 'classic line-up' have done everything in their power to write me out of the Rollers' story.

"I'm sick of it. Some were not even in the band when songs like Keep on Dancing and Remember were hits."

He added: "The Bay City Rollers sold an estimated 120million records, which include many songs sung by me, yet band members destroyed my right to present evidence to that effect in court.

"I -discovered, while speaking to a record company insider, money due to me was split between classic members and Tam Paton. I received nothing." Claiming it is his voice on key Rollers hits in the US, Nobby said: "The Bay City Rollers' only No 1 in America, Saturday Night, was released by Arista Records with my lead vocal and backing harmonies.

"One band member actually phoned me to tell me I'd better get my lawyer on to it." Nobby was the original singer in the group with, Dave -Pettigrew, Neil Porteous and the Longmuir brothers.

Throughout the 60s and early 70s Nobbdy took the band into the top ten and on to Top of The Pops. Now 72, he recalled his early years with Scotland's biggest pop band with Liam Rudden for a new podcast, One Life, One Dream, One Reality.

Nobby reveals how he told Paton he was leaving the band in 1973 while his final song Remember was at No 6 in the charts.

On his role in their biggest US hit, Nobby said: "Saturday Night was sent to Clive Davis, head of Arista Records in America, after Les McKeown had joined the band.

"He was unaware my voice was on it because the record company in London and Paton did not want him to know I had left the band and that they had a new singer. They later re-recorded the song with Les for an album but by then Saturday Night had already entered the Billboard Top 100.

"This was confirmed by Alan Longmuir and Bill Martin, the co-writer of Saturday Night, when we met in Edinburgh before his death in 2020."

Nobby added: "It has taken me a long time to gather evidence of 35 Rollers albums released worldwide featuring my voice as well as a list of single releases prior to the classic line-up filing a motion to have me dismissed from the court case against Arista/Sony. That took any chance of receiving my royalties away from me but I'll continue to fight for what is rightfully mine."

One Life, One Dream, One Reality: Nobby Clark is available at liamrudden.substack.com from noon tomorrow. Nobby's story also features in Secrets of the Bay City Rollers on ITV and ITVX tomorrow at 9pm.

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