By George Ziemann -- March 21, 2007

The BBC is reporting that the Bay City Rollers are suing Sony for unpaid royalties. It's about damn time.

Have to admit the band was never among my favorites. They had one hit in the U.S. ("Saturday Night"), back in 1976. It was catchy, but they were a little too "pop" and not enough rock for me. Being from Scotland, they did better in the UK and scored 10 top ten hits there.

The band says at least 70 million of their albums have been sold in the 30-plus years since they signed with Arista Records (now part of Sony/BMG). So far, they've received exactly one royalty check, for $254,000.

Sony says they'd love to pay the band the money it owes them but there is a small problem, namely that Arista long ago lost the original contract. So they don't know how they're supposed to divide it up. Faced with that dilemma, the record label decided to just keep all the money.

Another example of grand larceny by a record label, which makes the moralistic blathering of the RIAA all that much more annoying.

If you ever bought a Bay City Rollers album, they probably didn't get paid for it. If you downloaded the stuff you like, or every track from all of their albums, the band was not paid any less than if you had bought them in the store. You can't "steal" music from the Bay City Rollers because Arista beat you to it by 30 years.

So-o-o-o... if a BCR tune showed up on an RIAA subpoena, does that open up the "unclean hands" defense? Even better, how about a shared directory of songs by artists that have been famously financially screwed by their record labels? If every tune has an associated story that illustrates just who the real criminals in the music business are, who is the jury going to side with?

http://azoz.com

this is just far too easy... I refuse to re-write bay city rollers lyrics. still .......

I can't remember anything except the chorus anyway.

Mostly, I recall a number of their hits being re-makes of former hits (example, "I Only Want to Be with You", original by Dusty Springfield).

(Not that it matters.)

I hope they are solidly successful in their litigation, and that they collect extra compensation.

Sa-Sa-Sa-Saturday Niiiiiigth is about all you need to know.