I Ran With The Gang is Liam Rudden’s tribute to Alan Longmuir, one of the original Bay City Rollers; an upbeat look at the world of pop music that largely ignores the misery beneath the frothy top, writes Michael Holland.
The Bay City Rollers were a small Edinburgh band that took over the world and became ‘the biggest thing since the Beatles’ in the early 70s, and who still have pockets of a fanbase dotted around the globe. In fact, there was a woman from Germany in the audience for the London premiere.
To be honest, it was a 70s crowd at the premiere, a 70s crowd with crows feet and faded tartan who could still scream like teenyboppers and dance in the aisles like no one was looking… Except Alan, Derek, Eric, Woody and Les.
Michael Karl-Lewis as Alan takes us through his early life and tells how the band came together. Other parts are played by Ross Jamieson, with Lee Fanning filling in the rest of the story as The Narrator. It is an all-smiling affair, so smiley, in fact, that it would be easy to believe that Tam Paton, the Svengali puppet-master who took the Rollers to the top by making them squeaky-clean, was still pulling the strings.
I Ran With The Gang is all about the good times while the horror-show within the band was delivered in throwaway lines: ‘I left the band and went back to plumbing’. Even news of failed solo records is given as if they went to Number One.
Where’s the divorce, the heart attacks? Did these young men really drink milk all the time?
But, do you know what? None of that mattered because there was enough tartan here to win another Bannockburn and they had all come to rejoice the Rollers, not kill them off.
However, with only the sweet stuff to devour and no sour to taint the palate of pop, the show lasted less than an hour, but after a minute’s silence for Alan Longmuir, who died in 2018, there was a medley of Roller hits that culminated in Bye Bye Baby and had everyone up and dancing, including Longmuir’s widow, who was there with Les McKeown’s widow and son.
We shared an experience. We bonded. We Ran with the Shang-a-Lang Gang in what could have been a cosy fireside chat in the bosom of the Longmuir family.
I Ran With The Gang can go on and on at fringe festivals as long as there are Roller fans around, but for the whole story of these Scottish lads that ruled the world it needs someone to make a film.
Stage Door Theatre, Prince of Wales Pub, 150-151 Drury Lane, London, WC2B 5TD until 17th August. Tuesday to Friday 7.30pm, Saturday 8.30pm. Tickets £25, which includes admission to after-show.
Booking: www.stagedoortheatre.co.uk
