Bay City Rollers were planning a reunion before Les McKeown died

2 November 2021, 11:44 | Updated: 18 September 2023, 10:42

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Stuart 'Woody' Wood reveals that a Bay City Rollers comeback was on the cards before Les McKeown's untimely death.

Stuart 'Woody' Wood has opened up about his ongoing battles with his former bandmate Les McKeown, but also revealed that the pair were planning a Bay City Rollers reunion together before Les died earlier this year.

Les died suddenly age the age of 65 in April, with a coroner later finding that his death was caused by a combination of natural causes, including heart disease exacerbated by his long-term struggles with drugs and alcohol.

He had joined Bay City Rollers in November 1973, replacing lead singer Gordon 'Nobby' Clark and fronting the group for its most popular period.

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Les left the group in 1978 and had a solo career, before rejoining the Rollers in 1996 for a one-off special and again in 2015 for a series of live shows.

The reunion fizzled out, and Wood went on to lead a new Bay City Rollers without McKeown, while Les toured under the "Les McKeown's Bay City Rollers" name.

"At the start of this year a friend told me Les had wanted to try a reunion tour again," Woody told The Scottish Sun.

"I remember thinking, 'Oh well, he's holding out an olive branch', and I wasn't going to dismiss that."

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He added: "I was hoping that Les was beginning to realise. 'Wait a minute, Stuart's not my enemy, he's my friend'.

"So I was keen to patch things up as that’s the type of person I am. But sadly just a few months later Les passed away."

Woody added that he and Les would "fall out 20 times a day" during their time together, blaming Les for doing "all the niggling".

The band's classic era bassist Alan Longmuir died in July 2018 after falling ill while on holiday, while Ian Mitchell – the man who replaced Alan on bass in 1976 – died in 2020.