The Sunday Herald
October 17, 1999

Courtney would love to make Rollers movie


By Lucy Adamson
 
Page 3 / 510 words

The American rock star and actress Courtney Love is planning to make a film based around a new book charting one woman's teenage obsession with 1970s tartan rock legends the Bay City Rollers. Love is best known for her film appearances in Sid and Nancy and The People vs Larry Flynt as well as fronting the rock band Hole. She also gained notoriety through her marriage to musician Kurt Cobain, of the band Nirvana.

Bye Bye Baby is written by Caroline Sullivan and published by Bloomsbury this week. Extracts of the book appear in today's Sunday Herald magazine. Sullivan writes about her infatuation with the band and recounts the trips to see their concerts and hang around hotel foyers in teenage pursuit of the elusive glimpse of her one-time idols. She describes the time she first met a member of the band, Leslie. "This was the moment I'd hoped for since I first laid eyes on him, and it was so stupendous that my mind went - well, numb is the only way to describe it. "I absorbed the fact of his presence, showed him into the room and shut the door, but there was an impenetrable membrane slipped into place to block my emotions. Where was the exuberance I'd been saving for this precise moment? What was this sudden queer emptiness?"

Courtney Love told the Sunday Herald she was already a great fan of the book, describing it as "really intense and cool". She said: "I did read it. I think it's great. I took a lot of notes - I felt like I was there and I was so embarrassed. It's an insanely good book. I'd love it to be a movie. It's so weird - I think for me it's my favourite rock book in an ice age."

The singer/actress is no stranger to the Scottish band. In an interview with American industry magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Love admits the first record she ever bought was Rock and Roll Love Letter by the Bay City Rollers. Love recently formed her own film company called Epitome Productions which will produce a romantic teenage comedy as its first feature project.

Sullivan, originally from Millburn in New Jersey, now lives in London and will be visiting Scotland in the next few weeks to promote her book. She said she was delighted at the plans but admitted she was wary of getting her hopes up. "Courtney read the book a few months ago and really liked it and requested five copies of the book. I've not seen the fax yet but she has 'sent her people to send a fax' to the publishers which says they want to explore the possibility of doing a film. "I was really excited about it when I first heard the news but you have to be careful so I'm not going to get my hopes up."

Sullivan now works as a rock critic. She says that she found writing the book a "cathartic experience" and thinks anyone who has ever devoutly followed a pop group may well recognise elements of the novel. She said: "It was nice to finally put it all on paper but it brought back a lot of memories and not all of them were happy."