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Speaker 1: Jonesy and Amanda's.

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Speaker 2: When I woke up this morning, I heard the news

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Speaker 2: that lesmiecewen, lead singer of the bas City Rollers, had

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Speaker 2: passed away. I was never a massive Rollers fan, but

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Speaker 2: I was absolutely in the drop zone of roller frenzy,

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Speaker 2: my friends, everyone at school. Sure, it was everywhere.

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Speaker 3: Barry Madeleet would have taken up a lot of your time.

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Speaker 2: I don't even know if I was into Barry at

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Speaker 2: this point.

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Speaker 3: You were cool, weren't you, Oh so cool? So cool

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Speaker 3: you would have been The Tufts would have run a mile.

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Speaker 2: Everyone loved the ba City Rollers. Do you know they

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Speaker 2: sold one hundred and twenty million records in nineteen seventy

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Speaker 2: five alone. Wow. They conquered the US, the UK, Australia, Japan.

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Speaker 2: At the height of their success, they were the biggest

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Speaker 2: pop sensation Scotland had ever seen, and they were often

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Speaker 2: referred to as the New Beatles. They really were. They

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Speaker 2: were everywhere. But these kids were so young. The youngest

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Speaker 2: of them Woody remember Stuart would He was sixteen when

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Speaker 2: he joined the band. Wow, he's still performing as part

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Speaker 2: of the remaining members of Basity Rollers. He's sixty one now.

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Speaker 2: I remember when I was working as a segment producer

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Speaker 2: on the midday show with Ray Martin. We had the

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Speaker 2: Basity Rollers on the show. They would have been in

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Speaker 2: there like twenty then their early thirties, probably by then.

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Speaker 2: They had a really tough time of it when they

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Speaker 2: were young. Their manager Tom Payton, who I think went

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Speaker 2: to prison after this, was working them so hard. He

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Speaker 2: gives them amphetamines. They were constantly drugged. They were toured

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Speaker 2: the world pretty much as prisoners, sometimes sexual prisoners of

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Speaker 2: him and other people. They have said that he urged

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Speaker 2: the band to have sex with a pedophil radio DJ

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Speaker 2: in the seventies, telling them will get more airplay. It's

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Speaker 2: a very dark story for the Basity Rollers. Les McEwan

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Speaker 2: struggled to periods of drug and alcohol addiction in the

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Speaker 2: late seventies. So their fame disappeared as quickly as it came,

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Speaker 2: and that left they were young men nothing.

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Speaker 3: How long did they last in the spotlight?

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Speaker 2: I don't know. I reckon three four years something like that,

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Speaker 2: I think.

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Speaker 1: So.

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Speaker 2: I've had a string of hits though. How familiar are

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Speaker 2: these songs?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh wow, I mean.

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Speaker 3: Very thin.

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Speaker 1: This is.

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Speaker 3: The US today's hero Yeah, before JP, Why would have been,

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Speaker 3: wouldn't it. JP White Yesterday's Hero came out in nineteen

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Speaker 3: seventy nine.

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Speaker 2: That was seventy six, or maybe around the same time.

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Speaker 3: But there was a time when the overseas here Australian

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Speaker 3: acts would record because the overseas acts couldn't get here,

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Speaker 3: so Australian acts would record the songs that were hits

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Speaker 3: overseas well.

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Speaker 2: They did a number of tours here. I'll tell you

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Speaker 2: what's happened to the other members as well.

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Speaker 3: Well.

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Speaker 2: As I said, Les struggled with drug and alcohol problems.

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Speaker 2: He went on one of those TV shows about like

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Speaker 2: Rehab and he confessed that he'd had a string of

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Speaker 2: homosexual relationships that his wife didn't know about. Alan long

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Speaker 2: Muele do remember Alan. He was the bass guitarist. He

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Speaker 2: passed away at the age of seventy in twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 2: His brother Derek was the drama. He was sentenced to

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Speaker 2: three hundred hours of community service for admitting to possessing

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Speaker 2: child pornography. Od Eric who had I always thought he

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Speaker 2: had a head like a watermelon. He was the lead guitarist.

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Speaker 2: He almost died in twenty fifteen. He had viral in

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Speaker 2: kephalitis yep. He was left with posting kevalitis syndrome and

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Speaker 2: hasn't played in public since. Stuart Woody is the only

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Speaker 2: original member who still performs today, not as we bas

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Speaker 2: I think they still and even recently les they were

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Speaker 2: they were doing shows as Basity Rollers, but that you know,

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Speaker 2: when they famous so young and that hard beginning has

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Speaker 2: really affected all of them, hasn't it. But to hear that,

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Speaker 2: you know, it's such a chunk of your childhood just gone. Magazines,

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Speaker 2: everything you picked up was all about the Basity Rollers.

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Speaker 2: Everyone had the outfits. This is There'll be a lot

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Speaker 2: of people very sad today to hear this news. Can

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Speaker 2: we play a Basity Rollers side?

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Speaker 1: Last week?

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Speaker 3: Can what would you like? What about this one?

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Speaker 2: Bye Bye Baby fail less Jonesy and Amanda's