THE Bay City Rollers were one of Scotland's most successful bands, capturing millions of tartan teenybopper fans around the world in the 1970s, writes Chris Holme.

Derek Longmuir, who learned the drums with the Boys Brigade at the age of 14 when still a pupil at Tynecastle High School, was a founder member with his older brother, Alan, who played bass guitar.

They teamed up with singer Les McKeown and guitarists Stuart Wood and Eric Faulkner to form a group which set the trend for all the boy bands that came in their wake.

A combination of catchy but corny music, and a fresh, next-door masculinity which contrasted with the staged ugliness of their head-banging rock contemporaries, won the hearts of pubescent girlhood around the globe. America and Japan followed soon after Europe's teenagers had already willingly surrendered.

Ironically, this was to prove a harbinger of the scandal which was later to envelop the band.

Sporting the obligatory half-mast tartan loon pants, they first shot to fame in 1974 with Shang-a-Lang. This was followed by a string of chart toppers, including Bye Bye Baby and Give A Little Love.

However, the Edinburgh-based group fell to pieces in 1978 after a spate of rows culminating in a notorious punch-up on stage. Much of their royalties slipped through their fingers and they fell on hard times. A law suit is still being pursued in the US to recover millions which group members said was denied them by agents, lawyers, and managers.

Longmuir had a short-lived career as a property developer during the 1980s but, of all of them, he seemed to adjust best to getting on with a new life and leaving the glitzy world of pop behind him.

He worked for the Red Cross and studied hard to get on a nursing course. References from five medical and nursing colleagues at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary read in court yesterday bore witness to a conscientious and popular senior staff nurse. He graduated BSc with distinction in health studies and nursing shortly after the offences were committed.

His downfall comes after a string of scandals. Former manager Tam Paton was jailed for three years at the High Court in 1982 after admitting charges of sexual abuse against teenage boys at his luxury home on the outskirts of Edinburgh. He served only 12 months.

Les McKeown was charged with reckless driving after hitting and killing a woman pensioner.

Longmuir was absent from the band when it was reunited to perform at Edinburgh's Hogmanay party.

Alan Longmuir, 51, who has suffered a heart attack, said yesterday the last time he saw his brother was three weeks ago in London when the band were discussing plans to go back out on tour together.

''Derek told me the case was coming up but he hardly said anything about it because he's quite a deep guy. He's been out of the band for ages and doesn't really want to get back into it again. But he still comes along when we have band meetings and we all get along well.

''Derek has got a different lifestyle from me and has gone right to the top of the tree in his profession,'' he said.

Paton said he felt saddened about what had happened to his former protege. ''He was always one of the quieter members of the band and never chased the girls like the others did. But he was a lovely guy, one of the nicest people you could ever meet.

''He's the one member of the band who least deserves anything like this to happen to him. I can never say a bad word about Derek. I just hope he doesn't get jailed. Jail will be the wrong thing for him.''