The family of the late Bay City Rollers frontman Les McKeown have told how he “never found peace” and screamed in his sleep for decades after being abused by the band’s manager aged 19.
Heartthrob Les died a broken man in April 2021, aged 65, after battling drink and drug addiction for decades. Despite his troubles and numerous affairs, his widow Peko Keiko stayed by his side for 40 years.
And now she and their son Jubei have laid bare the suffering and anguish he battled after being raped by manager Tam Paton. Les kept the secret for decades and only admitted what had happened in 2009 on a reality TV show.
Peko said: “He never told me but he suffered it, when he was sleeping he was screaming. He was screaming in the night. He cried a lot. He said to me, ‘I hate Tam Paton.’”
Asked if Paton raped him, she adds: “I think so.” Jubei also tells a new ITV documentary his father’s troubles were linked to his earlier life.
He said: “When he would go on these binges, sometimes he would say he hated himself. That was often, almost every time he started drinking.
“And then it kind of made sense. You know, the drinking, just the anger. He was a broken man. My dad never found peace in his life. He never found peace and that hurts.”
Jubei is now writing a book with his mum about his experiences and his dad whom he believes only truly lost himself when he was on stage in he band.
The ITV film, Secrets Of The Bay City Rollers, fronted by Nicky Campbell, looks at the band’s rise to being one of the biggest pop acts of the 70s – while a much darker story played out
Original band member Stuart “Woody” Wood tells Campbell how touring worldwide was the ticket out of life in Edinburgh. But he faced another challenge: Tam Paton.
He said: “Tam was very domineering, very much the band leader. He was the sixth Roller … on the road he was a big kind of bully kind of person.”
Original singer Nobby Clark also reveals the band were encouraged to sleep with Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning, later imprisoned for abusing underage boys, to get more airplay for a single.
Clark said: “It might have been a hit but at what cost? I realised the Bay City Rollers were about Tam Paton. He didn’t care about the band.”
A string of monster-selling singles followed, including Bye Bye Baby and Give a Little Love, both of which hit No1 in 1975. They also had No1 albums and success in the US and around the world.
But Paton’s success has been over-shadowed for decades for his abuse of power. Guitarist Pat McGlynn claimed he had been the subject of an attempted rape by Paton in Australia in 1977 but the police could not gather sufficient evidence to mount a prosecution.
The band changed members regularly with new teenage boys being brought in by Paton. Danish singer Gert Magnus was 16 when he was brought to stay in Paton’s home on the outskirts of Edinburgh and told he would be joining the band.
But he never got into the line-up and said he was cast out after two years when he refused to have sex with Paton or join in at the parties held at the house. He said Jimmy Savile was among the attendees.
In 1982, Paton was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to molesting 10 boys over a three-year period. In 2004, he was fined £200,000 for drug dealing after police found large quantities of cannabis at his home. He died in 2009.
McKeown joined the band in 1973 and remained lead vocalist until 1978. In 1975, as his fame continued to rise, he was fined £100 and banned from driving for a year after he struck and killed elderly neighbour Euphemia Clunie in Edinburgh. After leaving the band, he suffered from drink and drugs issues.
● Secrets Of The Bay City Rollers airs at 9pm on Thursday June 29 on ITV and ITVX.
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