Original Bay City Rollers frontman Nobby Clark has vowed to recover decades’ worth of royalties – claiming it was his voice on the band’s biggest US hit. For almost a decade, Gordon 'Nobby' Clark was the voice of the Edinburgh band before being replaced by Les McKeown, who died in 2021.
Now, speaking out before a bombshell documentary on the band, Nobby claims it was HIS voice on the single that broke the band in the US – Saturday Night. He also says he was conned out of cash by notorious Rollers manager Tam Paton, who is also now dead.
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 Nobby took the band into the Top 10 and on to Top of The Pops, singing lead vocals on hits like Keep On Dancing, We Can Make Music, Manana and Remember. Now 72, he talked about his early years with Scotland’s biggest pop band to writer and broadcaster Liam Rudden for a new podcast, One Life, One Dream, One Reality.
He reveals how he told Paton he was leaving the band in 1973 while his final song Remember was at No 6 in the charts. He claims Paton, linked to sex attacks on young men and accused of conning the Rollers out of cash, reneged on an agreement to pay him royalties.
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.Secrets of the Bay City Rollers airs on STV and STV Player at 9pm on Thursday 29 June.
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