“Still Rollin”, a Bay City Rollers fan community, with members all over the world, organises fan events lead by Gail Shackley in the UK and the most recent gathering marked 50 years since the release of the band’s first studio album, Rollin, held in October 2024 at the Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh.
McKeown’s wife, Peko, had told fans she and her husband “had often walked through Princes St Gardens looking at the bench inscriptions, and that Les had frequently told her he would like to have a bench when he is no longer with us”.
She donated items of his stage clothing for auction to help raise the £5,045 required for a bench, and the stage clothes were displayed at the Gala Event in October 2024 with the auction launching soon after.
A GoFundMe page was also set up to allow fans unable to take part in the auction to make a donation instead. After a few days of fundraising for Les’ bench, it was agreed that it would be nice for fans to have a memorial bench for Alan also – and with his wife Eileen’s blessing, the fundraising was extended to cover two benches.
The organisation said: “Fans were so generous and supportive and within a few weeks funds had been secured to fund the first bench for Les. Eric Faulkner, BCR Lead Guitarist and songwriter then contacted us to say that he had found an old cassette tape containing some early demos and previously unheard Bay City Rollers’ music that he would like to make available to fans for a limited period only in exchange for a donation to help with the bench fundraising.
“The location of the benches is perfect, overlooking the Ross Fountain, practically in the shadows of iconic Edinburgh Castle and very close to the Ross Bandstand – where Alan and founding member brother Derek performed in public for the first time as schoolboys at the weekly Saturday Show Time.”
