Written by: Alex Green

Alan Longmuir, the original bass player for the Bay City Rollers has died.

Longmuir was 70 years old.

Details are few surrounding Longmuir’s death, but sources tell Stereo Embers that the musician had fallen ill on a recent trip to Mexico. He made it back home to Scotland via air ambulance, but succumbed to the illness only weeks later in an Edinburgh hospital.

BCR frontman Les McKeown wrote that his bandmate was, “the original Bay City Roller.”

Longmuir’s family paid tribute to him on Twitter, describing him as, “an extraordinary man with an extraordinary heart.” They went on to add: “He brought so much love and kindness to everyone he met, and he leaves a huge hole in our family…He would humbly say he was ‘just a plumber from Edinburgh who got lucky’.”

The Edinburgh-born Longmuir formed the first iteration of the band with his brother Derek in the late ’60s. Dubbed The Saxons, the band would later change their name to the Bay City Rollers and at the zenith of their career they were international sensations whose global fame many likened to that of The Beatles.

From “Bye Bye Baby” to “Saturday Night,” the Bay City Rollers were ubiquitous on the charts and had amassed a rabid and global fanbase known as The Tartan Horde. Although most of the members were in their late ’20s, their music appealed to a younger set and as a result, were known as teen idols.

Longmuir left the band in 1976 and he was replaced by the Irish-born Ian Mitchell. Longmuir returned to the group for 1977’s It’s A Game record.

The Bay City Rollers sold in excess of 120 million albums during their career.