The Sunday Mail
March 22, 1998, Sunday

I'll Bay City stroll down the aisle

Alan Longmuir recovers from heart attack by getting married and working on new music project

Former pop idol Alan Longmuir is bouncing back from heartbreak - by starting up his music career again AND getting married! The Bay City Roller who suffered a heart attack and a stroke will walk down the aisle with long-time sweetheart Eileen Rankin who helped nurse him back to health.

The pair will jet off for their wedding on a pradise isle then host a big bash at home in Scotland. "I'm going to marry the woman I love", grinned Alan. "I'm the happiest man alive". The 49-year-old musician's nuptial trip to St. Lucia in the Caribbean will mean a break from the recording studio. He's not revealing exactly what he's been working on. But he admits to "a few projects" with Stuart "Woody" Wood, who also played with the top 70s band. "We'll just have to see what happens", he says. Woody and another ex-Roller, Eric Faulkner, will be guests of honour at the Scottish party after Alan says "I do" with 38-year-old civil servant, Eileen.

It's a dream ending for the couple who shared all the heartache after Alan was strickened by illness in 1995 and 1997. His brother Derek, who was also in the band, was invaluable too. He works as a nurse in Edinburgh. Alan, who was rushed into Stirling Royal Infirmary when he suffered the stroke last year, has made an almost complete recovery. But he says: "I'm not only looking forward to the wedding, I'm hoping for sunny weather. I still have problems with my shoulder and the heat could help".