This group seems to have taken over another thread (Status Quo?). I sang 13 of the 14 vocals on their first hit which I produced - Keep On Dancing. The lead singer was Nobby. Their followup flopped and I dropped them. Bill Martin took over some years later and broke them. I was involved again when Clive Davis, who had bought Bell from Larry Utal and turned it into Arista, asked me whether they could break America and I told him my head said NO but my heart said YES. Lots more to be told about Tam Paton and the Rollers - all in the third volume of my autobiography - hopefully out by this Christmas.

14 of the first songs, were they all session staff or the early members of the Rollers?

I can only speak for my first sessions (7 or 8 track). All session musicians and mainly JK backing vocals. Only Nobby could sing. I dropped them before Les joined - met him several times; a very troubled soul. Tam tried desperately to move them from Bell to UK Records but I wasn't interested.

The Rollers didn't play on their instruments on the first rollers album "Rollin" in 1974, although Les did vocals.

On the second album "Once upon a star", Bill Martin and Phil Coulter were dropped, and the rollers were allowed to play on the album. They had 2 consecutive number 1's. "Bye Bye Baby", and "Give a little Love". Apparently it took about a month to get the vocals right on "Bye Bye Baby".

JK2006 wrote:
I can only speak for my first sessions (7 or 8 track). All session musicians and mainly JK backing vocals. Only Nobby could sing. I dropped them before Les joined - met him several times; a very troubled soul. Tam tried desperately to move them from Bell to UK Records but I wasn't interested.

Les had a lot of demons, he was whacked with guilt and coming to terms with sexuality most of his life. Even though he killed an old lady, he still carried on drinking and driving and snorting a bit of cocaine here and then.

Bye Bye Baby, is not an easy song to sing, despite having a basic melody; the Monkees found it hard to sing Daydream Believer as the lyrics didn't flow well for their voices. You can hear Davy straining at times.

If BCR had gone to UK Records, would they have seen the royalties they deserved?