Description:
Everybody has a guilty secret--but most people tend to want to keep their skeletons well hidden in the closet. Not so Caroline Sullivan, a noted rock journalist in the U.K. In Bye Bye Baby, Sullivan stands up and shouts, "I was a Bay City Rollers fan." Sullivan readily admits that the Rollers were not musical geniuses. Growing up in Millburn, New Jersey, on a diet of Led Zeppelin, the Who, and Peter Frampton, she recognized skilled musicianship. But she was a fan from the moment she saw BCR on television. "My entire Rollermaniac career was a struggle between knowing they were no Led Zep but loving them anyway." For her obsession, Sullivan lacks even the excuse of extreme youth. Age 15 in 1975, when the Rollers made their first appearance in the U.S., she and her 16-, 17-, and 19-year-old friends--the self-proclaimed "Tacky Tartan Tarts"--were already older than the average Roller fan. But she was no average fan: "I love them desperately. For four years I lived for them. It's not a pretty story." But it is a funny story. Bye Bye Baby tracks the history of the band, from their unassuming beginnings as the Saxons to the top of the U.S. charts with "Saturday Night"--and their inevitable decline. It also traces the antics of a group of dedicated fans who would do anything to get close to their idols--turning up at airports at the crack of dawn, wild car chases through city streets, elaborate subterfuges with hotels, airlines, and PR companies. "We were a bit like those dogs who chase cars--what would they do if they caught one?" In the end, Sullivan did catch one--though only for a brief time (and she's gentlewoman enough never to expressly name which one). And she, her fellow Tarts, and the Rollers all moved on. But in Bye Bye Baby, Caroline Sullivan tells a funny and touching story--and pays homage to the band she once loved. --Sunny Delaney
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