One of the most startling allegations about ex-Bay City Rollers manager Thomas “Tam” Paton (b. 1937) involved him setting his dogs on the father of singer Les McKeown, who’d popped round to discuss some missing royalties.
The story featured in Channel 4’s 2004 documentary Who Got The Rollers’ Millions? which investigated claims that the 1970s chart-toppers had been defrauded by Paton and others. Paton denied it all.
It was actually one of the less sordid events in his life, during which he was convicted of gross indecency with two teenage boys aged 16 and 17 and fined for drug dealing.
Paton oversaw an early version of the Rollers in 1971. Keep On Dancing made the Top 10, but it wasn’t until 1974 that he conceived the teen-centric tartan look and drafted in veteran writers Martin and Coulter to pen Remember (Sha La La), Shang-A-Lang and Summerlove Sensation.
At the height of Rollermania in 1975, he had secured the band their own TV series. But after their fortunes dwindled, they sacked him in 1979.
Paton died in 2009.
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