It started as a nostalgic post on a Bay City Rollers fan page — a grainy, newly restored backstage photo from 1975, showing frontman Les McKeown laughing with his bandmates before a show. But when one sharp-eyed fan zoomed in on Les’s white T-shirt, they noticed something no one had ever seen before: a faint handwritten message scrawled across the fabric in pen. The words read, “We’re still the kids from Edinburgh.”
Within hours, the image went viral across Roller fan communities, sparking an outpouring of emotion from longtime followers of the band. “It’s like he was reminding us who they really were,” one fan wrote. “Fame never changed their hearts — they were just boys chasing a dream.”
The photograph, believed to have been taken during the Bye Bye Baby tour, had been tucked away for decades in a private collection before being digitally restored and shared online by a fan archivist. “I was just cleaning up the contrast,” the archivist explained. “Then I noticed those words, faded but still there — and it hit me hard. It’s something Les must’ve written himself.”
McKeown, who passed away in 2021, was often described by friends as the emotional center of the band — the one who carried their roots proudly even amid the chaos of Rollermania. “Les never lost sight of home,” said a former crew member. “Even when they were flying around the world, he’d talk about Edinburgh, about the old days before the tartan suits and screaming crowds.”
Fans have since interpreted the message as a kind of time capsule — a quiet promise from Les at the height of fame, frozen in ink and fabric. “He could’ve worn designer clothes, but he wrote something personal instead,” said one admirer. “That’s Les. Always real.”
Social media flooded with tributes and fan art featuring the quote. Some even printed it on shirts and posters, calling it “the truest Rollers lyric that was never sung.” Others described it as a posthumous message from Les to his fans — a reminder that behind the pop-star glow was a humble Scottish heart.
“Maybe he wrote it as a joke before going on stage,” another fan speculated. “But now, it feels like a love note — from him to us, and from the band to the city that made them.”
The rediscovered detail has reignited a wave of memories for those who grew up in the age of tartan scarves and teenage devotion. “That little message says everything about who they were,” wrote one fan. “Fame fades, but friendship and music — those never go away.”
And perhaps that’s why this tiny handwritten phrase means so much. It’s not just ink on a shirt — it’s a whisper from 1975, from Les McKeown himself, reminding everyone that behind the fame, the hits, and the headlines, the Bay City Rollers were always — and will always be — the kids from Edinburgh.