Bee Gees

The Bee Gees

The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in the mid-to-late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies: Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid-to-late 1970s and 1980s. The group wrote all their own original material, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists, and are regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop-music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain's First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.

Maurice Gibb

Robin Gibb

Barry Gibb

Born on the Isle of Man during the late 1940s, the Gibb brothers moved to their father Hugh Gibb's home town Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, England, in 1955. They formed a skiffle/rock-and-roll group, the Rattlesnakes, which consisted of Barry on guitar and vocals, Robin and Maurice on vocals, and friends Paul Frost on drums and Kenny Horrocks on tea-chest bass. In December 1957, the boys began to sing in harmony. The story is told that they were going to lip-sync to a record in the local Gaumont cinema (as other children had done on previous weeks), but, as they were running to the theatre, the fragile shellac 78-RPM record broke. The brothers had to sing live but received such a positive response from the audience that they decided to pursue a singing career. In May 1958, the Rattlesnakes disbanded when Frost and Horrocks left, so the Gibb brothers then formed Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats, with Barry as "Johnny Hayes".

In August 1958, the Gibb family, including older sister Lesley and infant brother Andy (born in March 1958), emigrated to Australia and settled in Redcliffe, Queensland, just north-east of Brisbane. The young brothers began performing to raise pocket money. Speedway promoter and driver Bill Goode, who had hired the brothers to entertain the crowd at the Redcliffe Speedway in 1960, introduced them to Brisbane radio-presenter jockey Bill Gates. The crowd at the speedway would throw money onto the track for the boys, who generally performed during the interval of meetings (usually on the back of a truck that drove around the track) and, in a deal with Goode, any money they collected from the crowd they were allowed to keep. Gates named the group the "BGs" (later changed to "Bee Gees") after his, Goode's and Barry Gibb's initials. The name was not specifically a reference to "Brothers Gibb", despite popular belief.

The musically inclined young brothers “would find street corners and empty churches where they could get some echo to flesh out their harmonies, replicating the acoustics of a theatre,” Stanley writes. “Their favourite location was Lewis’s department store in Manchester, [England,] specifically the toilets.”

Before their departure from Australia to England, Hugh Gibb sent demos to Brian Epstein, who managed the Beatles and directed NEMS, a British music store. Epstein passed the demo tapes to Robert Stigwood, who had recently joined NEMS. After an audition with Stigwood in February 1967, the Bee Gees signed a five-year contract whereby Polydor Records would release their records in the UK, and Atco Records would do so in the US. Work quickly began on the group's first international album, and Stigwood launched a promotional campaign to coincide with its release. Stigwood proclaimed that the Bee Gees were "The most significant new musical talent of 1967", thus initiating the comparison of the Bee Gees to the Beatles. Before recording the first album, the group expanded to include Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. "New York Mining Disaster 1941", their second British single (their first-issued UK 45 rpm was "Spicks and Specks"), was issued to radio stations with a blank white label listing only the song title. Some DJs immediately assumed this was a new single by the Beatles and started playing the song in heavy rotation. This helped the song climb into the top 20 in both the UK and US.

New York Mining Disaster 1941

In 1968, the brothers were asked to write jingles for the soda company. Barry came up with “a chirpy woodwind-led tune (‘Sitting in the meadow, frolic in the grass’),” but Robin’s was a bit darker. Stanley writes, “It opened with the line ‘Another cold and windy day’ before the drink’s obliterating powers were extolled: ‘I open up some Coke and smile. And then my mind’s free, for a while.’”

By 1969, Robin began to feel that Stigwood had been favouring Barry as the frontman. The Bee Gees' performances in early 1969 on the Top of the Pops and The Tom Jones Show, singing "I Started a Joke" and "First of May" as a medley, were the final appearances of the group with Robin. While Robin pursued his solo career, Barry, Maurice and Petersen continued as the Bee Gees on their next album, Cucumber Castle. The band made their debut performance without Robin at Talk of the Town. They had recruited their sister, Lesley, to participate in at least one performance at this time as a replacement for Robin. To accompany the album, they also filmed a TV special with Frankie Howerd and cameos from several other contemporary pop and rock stars, which aired on the BBC in December 1970. Petersen played drums on the tracks recorded for the album but was fired from the group after filming began (he went on to form the Humpy Bong with Jonathan Kelly). His parts were edited out of the final cut of the film and Pentangle drummer Terry Cox was recruited to complete the recording of songs for the album.

In mid 1970, according to Barry, "Robin rang me in Spain where I was on holiday [saying] 'let's do it again'". By 21 August 1970, after they had reunited, Barry announced that the Bee Gees "are there and they will never, ever part again". Maurice said, "We just discussed it and re-formed. We want to apologise publicly to Robin for the things that have been said." Earlier, in June 1970, Robin and Maurice recorded a dozen songs before Barry joined and included two songs that were on their reunion album. Around the same time, Barry and Robin were about to publish the book On the Other Hand. They also recruited Geoff Bridgford as the group's official drummer. Bridgford had previously worked with the Groove and Tin Tin and played drums on Maurice's unreleased first solo album. In 1970, 2 Years On was released in October in the US and November in the UK. The lead single "Lonely Days" reached No. 3 in the United States, promoted by appearances on The Johnny Cash Show, J ohnny Carson's Tonight Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show and The Ed Sullivan Show.

Andy Gibb, considerably younger than his pop star brothers, had launched his own music career, and in 1976 at age 18 was offered a deal by Stigwood, then at the helm of RSO Records. Stigwood also offered Andy and his new bride, Kim Reeder, the use of his Bermuda home for their honeymoon that year, but when the couple arrived, there was Stigwood — and Barry. The brothers went into a bedroom to work on some songs for Andy. As Andy recalled, “’When Barry writes, it’s very hard to collaborate because he’s so quick. And before I knew it he was starting to do the chorus and I thought, Wow, what a hook. Within twenty minutes he’d written a number-one record [“I Want to Be Your Everything”]. And then we went right into another one.’” That was the hit “(Love Is) Thicker Than Water.” Andy died in 1988 at age 30.

Robin Gibb was asked to record a song for the album Sesame Street Fever. The deal was a great one in two ways. For one, Robin’s stipulation that he’d participate if his kids could meet Cookie Monster was honored, and the family traveled to New York from England to visit the Sesame Street set. Second, the album went gold in 1978, “like everything else the Bee Gees touched," Stanley writes.

The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, featuring songs by the Bee Gees, is one of the best-selling soundtrack albums worldwide. In 2010, Saturday Night Fever was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the highest-grossing R-rated films released in the U.S. in the 1970s, with a total box office gross of $673,899,098 in 2024.

Staying Alive is a 1983 American dance drama film and the sequel to Saturday Night Fever (1977). The title comes from the Bee Gees song of the same name, which was used as the theme song to Saturday Night Fever and is played during the final scene of Staying Alive. Staying Alive was theatrically released on July 15, 1983, to universally negative critical reviews, and is the oldest film to hold a score of 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite this, Staying Alive was successful at the box office, earning $127 million worldwide on a $22 million budget.

Barry Gibb's first marriage was to Maureen Bates, whom he married on 22 August 1966 when he was 19 years old. The couple lived together for only a short time and were divorced in July 1970. During the taping of the BBC's Top of the Pops in London, Barry met the former Miss Edinburgh, Linda Gray. On 1 September 1970 (his 24th birthday), they were married. Together, they have five children – Stephen (born 1973), Ashley (born 1977), Travis (born 1981), Michael (born 1984) and Alexandra (born 1991) – and seven grandchildren. Barry and his wife became U.S. citizens in 2009, while retaining their UK citizenship. In his 11 July 2014 interview with The Mirror, Barry said he became friends with Michael Jackson: "He would come to Miami and stay in our house. He'd sit in the kitchen and watch the fans outside his hotel on TV, just giggling – 'Hee hee!' He lived upstairs for a while, right before his child-molestation trial. We never discussed the case. We would just sit around and write and get drunk. Michael liked wine – there were a few nights when he just went to sleep on the floor", adding that he misses Jackson. Barry owns a home in the UK, but has lived primarily in Miami since 1974. In January 2006, Gibb purchased the former home of the late country singers Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash in Hendersonville, Tennessee, US intending to restore it and turn it into a songwriting retreat. The house was destroyed by fire on 10 April 2007 while under renovation, and a new house was built. The property was sold in 2014.

In 1968, Robin Gibb married Molly Hullis, a secretary in Robert Stigwood's organisation. Not long before they were married they survived the Hither Green rail crash together. They had two children together, Spencer (b. 1972) and Melissa (b. 1974). The couple divorced in 1980 after years of living separate lives, with Gibb almost permanently in the US and Hullis remaining in the UK; she filed for divorce on 22 May 1980. On 9 September 1983, Robin was arrested and sentenced to 14 days in jail for speaking to the press about his previous marriage in breach of a court order. Robin's second marriage, from 1985 until his death, was to Dwina Murphy, an author and artist. She is interested in the Druidry religion and is a follower of the neo-Hindu Brahma Kumaris movement. The couple had a son, Robin-John (known as RJ, b. 21 January 1983). Robin-John's first major musical project was the Titanic Requiem (2012), written with Gibb and first performed at the Central Hall, Westminster, London, on 10 April 2012, by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and RSVP Voices. At 50 years of age, Robin began an affair with his 25-year-old housekeeper, Claire Yang, that eight years later produced his fourth child, Snow Evelyn Robin Juliet Gibb, born 4 November 2008. Robin and his wife divided their time between their homes in Peel, Isle of Man, their mansion in Miami, Florida and their main residence in Thame, Oxfordshire.

Maurice Gibb met Scottish pop singer Lulu through Colin Petersen in 1967. Lulu recalls about Maurice, "I thought Maurice was cute, so I said, 'In that case, tell him to stop talking about me and take me out', He did just that, I never expected much to come from this, but in fact our relationship grew, after a fashion. Going steady is quite the wrong way to describe what was happening between us. Going unsteady might better sum up the way we fell in and out with each other". According to Lulu, she, Maurice and Robert Stigwood watched Pink Floyd at the Saville Theatre in London on 1 October 1967. Later, after his relationship with Lulu had become public knowledge, he said: "Lulu and I met on the Top of the Pops TV show three months ago, and then at the Saville Theatre in London last month". Gibb and Lulu married on 18 February 1969 and separated in 1973. Their careers and his heavy drinking forced them apart and they divorced, childless. Gibb later said they both drank: "We didn't have any responsibilities, we'd just party." In her autobiography, Barbara Windsor claimed to have had a brief affair with him. He married his second wife, Yvonne Spenceley Gibb, on 17 October 1975. They had two children. Their marriage lasted until his death. Maurice's alcoholic nadir came in 1991, when he pulled a gun on his wife and children after a month-long bender.They left him and immediately went to brother Barry's house, refusing to come back until he had done something about his drinking. Maurice went into rehab, calling Yvonne and telling her he was going to stay because he wanted to stop drinking. She said that that was the call she had been waiting for.

Maurice Gibb Died in 2003 at the age of 53 from complications of a twisted intestine, also known as volvulus. Volvulus is a complication of a bowel obstruction that causes the intestine to twist. Robin Gibb Died in 2012 at the age of 62 from complications of cancer and intestinal surgery. Cancer had spread from his colon to his liver, and he had pneumonia and was in a coma in the weeks before his death. Andy Gibb Died in 1988 at the age of 30 from heart failure, also known as myocarditis. Myocarditis is an inflammation that weakens the heart muscle. Dennis Bryon, 76, the Bee Gees’ drummer starting in 1973, died on Nov. 14, according to Blue Weaver, who played in the band Amen Corner with Mr. Bryon. He announced his death on Facebook on Thursday, but gave no cause of death for Mr. Bryon. Colin “Smiley” Petersen, the band’s first professional drummer, died on Nov. 18 at the age of 78, according to Evan Webster and Sue Camilleri, who work on The Best of The Bee Gees Show, a tribute band. Mr. Petersen died from a fall, they said.

In September and October 2013, Barry performed his first solo tour "in honour of his brothers and a lifetime of music". In addition to the Rhino collection, The Studio Albums: 1967–1968, Warner Bros. released a box set in 2014 called The Warner Bros Years: 1987–1991 that included the studio albums E.S.P., One and High Civilization as well as extended mixes and B-sides. It also included the band's entire 1989 concert in Melbourne, Australia, available only on video as All for One prior to this release. The documentary The Joy of the Bee Gees was aired on BBC Four on 19 December 2014.

In late 2020, a documentary titled The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart was released on HBO Max; it was received with positive reviews and won an Emmy award. A few months later, an as-yet-untitled biopic about the Bee Gees was announced to be in development at Paramount, with Kenneth Branagh directing and Barry Gibb serving as an executive producer.

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