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Bay City Rollers to headline New Year's Day parade

Supplied A photo from the 1970s of the Bay City Rollers - five young men wearing tight jeans, white trousers and tartan trousers, two showing their bare chests, are stood in front of a plane. One is holding up a closed tartan umbrella.Supplied
The tartan rockers will join 2002 Pop Idol winner Gareth Gates to celebrate the start of 2027

Seventies rockers Bay City Rollers and pop star Gareth Gates are to lead London's New Year's Day parade.

The Scottish band, who reached US Billboard No 1 in 1975, and the 2002 Pop Idol winner, who has performed in hit West End shows, will join 8,000 performers from around the world.

The 1 January tradition sees thousands of people pack the two-mile (3.2km) route from outside The Ritz Hotel on Piccadilly to Parliament Square.

Bay City Rollers band member Woody Wood said: "What a great way to kick start the new year, a wee Shang-a-Lang to get things going. Don't forget your tartan KOR (Keep on Rolling)."

Shaun Whitmore/BBC Gareth Gates, wearing a white T-shirt and dark brown leather jacket. His hair and beard are black and his face is tanned. He is smiling at the camera.Shaun Whitmore/BBC
Gareth Gates has gone from Pop Idol winner to West End performer

Gates, who has appeared in productions of Les Misérables, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Legally Blonde, said: "Performing live in the London parade, for such a massive street audience and hundreds of TV stations across the world, is right up there as a career highlight for me.

"I have watched the parade down the decades and always wanted to be a part of such an extraordinary event. I am sure that my fans will take the opportunity to come join the party with me on January 1st."

The parade goes along Piccadilly, Regent Street, Pall Mall, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall before finishing at Westminster.

Joe Bone, the event's executive director, said: "It's party time in London and everyone's invited, there's no better free, family knees-up on the planet.

"We are nothing if not eclectic. Who else could have amassed such a multi-talented mix?"

The event welcomes in the new year and generates hundreds of millions of pounds for London businesses and has raised millions for charities across the capital.

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