The widow of Bay City Rollers legend Les McKeown has revealed for the first time the ups and downs of their turbulent marriage following the death of the singer from a suspected heart attack.
Speaking from her London home days after the singer died on Tuesday, aged 65, Peko Keiko paid tribute to her late husband and admitted their love affair had survived for more than 30 years against the odds.
She also explained why she made him keep the first of two weddings, in London, a secret so that they could hold a second traditional Buddhist ritual on a Japanese mountaintop, for which the pop icon shaved his head.
Peko admitted she didn’t have a clue that her husband was a famous pop star and hadn’t seen him sing until after they were married.
She also told how he flirted and asked her for a date when he turned up for a meeting at a sushi bar where she was working as the manager.
Acknowledging the turbulent times together – including dealing with the singer’s drug and alcohol addictions and his affairs with other men – grief-stricken Peko said: “I met Leslie when I was working as a manager in a Japanese sushi restaurant that had a karaoke bar in the basement in London. He said, ‘Hello Suzie Woo’ and that was it.
“Leslie said to me, ‘Would you like to go for a movie after dinner?’ I said, ‘No I can’t go to the movie, I have a job’. Then he gave me his card and wrote his number on the back. I put it in my pocket. I didn’t call for a long time. I didn’t know he was in the Bay City Rollers. I was not interested in the Bay City Rollers because it wasn’t my taste. I like rock.”
The pair began dating in 1978 and eventually moved in together but only after she had told him their long-distance relationship couldn’t work.
But Les was determined they should stay together. In a last-ditch effort to save the relationship, he asked her to spend time with him in the US.
But when she flew to spend a week with him in Los Angeles, he served her with an ultimatum.
Peko said: “After three months of asking me, I gave up and said I would go to Los Angeles for a visit.
“I went to Los Angeles for a week and he was so happy to see me. We met with friends, we went to yoga and restaurants.
“I was only there for a week and Les asked me to stay longer. I said no I had to go back to my job.
“He asked me to choose between my job or him. After that we decided, he would come to London.
“He would stay in my flat and then he was going back and forth between Cornwall where his parents were living and my flat.
“Over time, all his stuff like his clothes and shoes were in my flat.”
To her surprise, he woke her one morning to tell her she was getting married – that afternoon.
She said: “One day when I was sleeping, Les woke me up and said, ‘Peko wake up, wake up, come on, we are going to get married today’.
“I just woke up and he kept saying, ‘Come on, get going’.
“I said, ‘But I have to tell my Mummy and Daddy first.’
“But Leslie kept insisting and told me that he had already taken my passport and registered for us to marry at Chelsea Town Hall on the King’s Road.”
They tied the knot but they both made a vow to keep the wedding a secret for the sake of her parents.
“We got married that day and we kept it a secret,” Peko said.
“Because my mother and father were not at our wedding, we went to Japan and had a traditional Buddhist blessing.
“My father was a Buddhist monk at Iwayadera Shrine so the blessing was there and he conducted the ceremony.
“To respect my father, Les shaved his hair for the ceremony.
“We both wore traditional wedding kimonos.
“We had close family and friends. I remember most about the day was telling my father not to cry because he was so proud.
“I feel guilty about that. Les spoke in Japanese in the ceremony and we were trying not to laugh.”
At the height of his fame, Edinburgh-born McKeown fronted the most famous pop group in the world. But Peko wasn’t a fan.
She had met the singer after his fame began to wane in 1978.
In fact, she hadn’t even seen him sing when they were dating.
She said: “I had never seen him sing before we married.
“A fan asked me which song do you like and I said, ‘I don’t know any of his songs’. I know they were the tartan check band but I didn’t know anything else.”
McKeown had joined the Bay City Rollers in 1973, after replacing Nobby Clark as lead singer.
Within months, “Rollermania” had gripped the nation – so-called because of the hysteria from fans who flocked to see the band wherever they went, just as the previous generation had done during Beatlemania.
His hits with the band included 1974’s Remember (Sha La La La) and the pop anthem Shang-a-Lang.
A year later, they topped the UK charts with Bye, Bye, Baby and Give A Little Love.
They made it No1 in the US – with Saturday Night – and had their own TV shows on both sides of the Atlantic.
But after a series of bust-ups with other band members, Les left to go solo. Soon after, the Bay City Rollers fell apart.
A series of dodgy deals by the band’s paedophile manager Tam Paton meant Les didn’t benefit from his share of royalties – estimated at £300million in today’s money.
Instead, he recently settled for £70,000.
Addicted to drugs and alcohol, he drank three bottles of whisky a day at one point.
In 2008, his GP told him he wouldn’t see Christmas and he decided to turn his life around.
By chance, the singer was asked to participate in a TV documentary about addiction.
In 2009, he entered the rehab facility Passages in Malibu, California. He spent four months there with Peko.
It was while in rehab he confessed to having had a string of sexual encounters with men.
At the time, he said: “I’ve been a bit of a George Michael, meeting people, often strangers, for sex.
“Peko’s an incredible woman. There have been times when she’s forgiven me for cheating with other women. I think this has been harder.
“This gay thing has been really hard for her to confront. She has been a big rock holding the family together and I’m really lucky to have her.”
Peko admits she put up with it all because she loved him.
She said: “Leslie was a good husband but of course everybody has ups and downs. I went everywhere to the concerts with our son. We had lots of good times and hard times.
“Leslie struggled with his own demons. His dying is a terrible shock but now he is in peace.”
Peko and son Jubei are asking fans to make donations to Music Support UK, which aids musicians who suffer from mental health issues and depression.
