Alan Longmuir


Alan Longmuir was a Scottish musician and a founding member of the 1970s pop group, the Bay City Rollers. He played the bass guitar in the band whilst his younger brother Derek Longmuir was drummer.

Biography

Longmuir was born at Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion Hospital, Edinburgh. His father was an undertaker. A member of a musical family, he formed his first band at the age of 17, with his brother Derek and two others. They changed their name and line-up to become the Bay City Rollers. Until their career took off, he worked as a plumber.
In 1976, at the height of the band's popularity, Alan Longmuir left and was replaced by rhythm guitarist Ian Mitchell, a man ten years his junior, who would in turn make way for Pat McGlynn. Tam Paton, then the group's manager, alleged that Longmuir had tried to commit suicide. Paton's own conduct was later revealed as a contributory factor in the unhappiness of some band members.
Longmuir returned to the group in 1978 following McGlynn's departure, and thereafter switched between bass guitar, rhythm guitar and keyboards. He also played piano accordion.
Longmuir was married twice, first to Jan Longmuir, from 1985 until their divorce in 1990; they had one son, Jordan. His second marriage was to Eileen Rankin, and lasted from 1998 until his death; Eileen had two sons of her own. In 2016, it was claimed that Eileen had fought backstage with the wife of another band member, after the latter criticised Alan Longmuir's playing at a reunion concert.
While owner of the Castle Campbell Hotel in Dollar, Clackmannanshire, he suffered two heart attacks and a stroke, and in 2000 he decided to retrain as a building inspector.
Longmuir died on 2 July 2018 at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Scotland, after contracting an illness while on holiday in Mexico, where he had been a patient at the Galenia Hospital in Cancún but had been cleared to return home. He was 70.