Music: Hype or Hope?

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Like the Beatles, the Rollers have devised a look all their own. Their denim trousers are cut halfway to the knee and trimmed with tartan. Below are striped football stockings and sneakers.

Above are either T shirts or denim jackets, decorated with more tartan. Out in the audience, in Britain at least, are invariably several thousand girls dressed the same way. Says Manager Paton: "It's cheap, it's original, and any fan can dress like a Roller simply by sewing some strips of tartan on a shirt and cutting off the trouser leg at mid-calf." Right, Mom?

A Little Love. Neither the Rollers nor their backers make any great claims for their music, and that is probably just as well. Their songs are essentially pale imitations of the 1960s, in which one can hear echoes of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Beach Boys mingled with the Rollers' own routine four-chord harmonies and chug-a-chug rhythms. The lyrics are never ambitious enough to confuse a ten-year-old. Sample:

You have to give a little love,

take a little love,

Be prepared to foresake a little love.

And when the sun comes shining through,

We 'll know what to do.

The Rollers' real expertise seems to lie in their ability to titillate the hearts and minds of their young audiences. One of their most adroit teases is to encourage one or two girls to come up to the stage for a kiss, usually from Les, the lead singer.

The blunt truth is that the Beatles were inventive harmonically and had two major rock poets (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) in their number; no lyric like She's Leaving Home or With a Little Help from My Friends or Eleanor Rigby is within the Rollers' capacity, range or competence. In their favor is the fact that the young have been waiting for new rock heroes for years. Maybe—just maybe—the Rollers are next.