Slik – Forever And Ever

The Bay City Rollers’ Reject That Made Midge Ure a Star

Winter 1976: Scotland’s Slik slide onto the UK charts and, by 14 February, nudge ABBA’s “Mamma Mia” off the summit for a single, sparkling week. “Forever And Ever” had crept onto the listings on 17 January, then surged—sweet, swooning, and utterly out of step with the oncoming punk tide. The twist? The tune had been recorded the year before by Kenny and reportedly turned down by the Rollers. Slik grabbed it, straightened their lapels, and suddenly every teen mag wanted the band with the new frontman: Midge Ure.

The chart tale plays like a quick-change: nine weeks on the UK list, one at No. 1, and then swiftly replaced by The Four Seasons’ “December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night).” In Ireland it climbed to No. 2, proof the song’s 50s-leaning romance cut across borders even as disco and funk gathered steam. For a moment, Slik outpaced glam leftovers and tight-jeaned rockers alike, muscling past the pack in a crowded early-’76 lineup.

Origin stories rarely come cleaner: pop architects Bill Martin and Phil Coulter—kingmakers behind the Bay City Rollers—steered the Glasgow outfit that had recently shed its Salvation name. The song existed already, but Slik’s clean harmonies and earnest lead tilted it from bubblegum to prom-night slow dance. Lesser-known footnote: the B-side, “Again My Love,” came from bassist Jim McGinlay, a hint that the band had more than just outside writers in their pockets.

In the studio, Martin and Coulter polished rather than overworked. The snap of handclaps, a chiming guitar figure, and those stacked “forever and ever” responses gave it a heartbeat you could sway to. No gizmo tricks—just a performance that felt like the best take of the night. It also marked Ure’s first big step to TV lights; his Top of the Pops turn became the calling card that would follow him for decades.

On the album front, it anchored the self-titled Slik, briefly recasting the band as Britain’s next clean-cut hitmakers. But 1976 moved fast. Within a year the group pivoted to PVC2 as punk blew the doors off, and Ure soon chased sharper, synth-edged horizons. In hindsight, the single reads like a hinge: one era closing, another quietly opening.

Legacy has quirks: a different song called “Forever and Ever” hit UK No. 1 later in 1976 via Demis Roussos, confusing chart trainspotters ever since. More importantly, Slik’s hit is the prologue to Ure’s Ultravox and Band Aid chapters. Verdict: a short, shining chapter that still matters—both a postcard from pre-punk pop and the first line of a much bigger story.