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Heartache of the unknown Gibb sister who
sang with the Bee Gees
Lesley
Evans, who turned down stardom, has buried three of her brothers who died
premature deaths
She's the
Bee Gee people have never heard of. The sister who sang with the band in their
early days but turned down stardom.
Lesley
Evans, 67, has always stayed in the background, away from the limelight loved
by her legendary brothers.
Only the
most die-hard Bee Gee fans know she exists.
But today
she opens her heart to the Sunday Mirror for the first time about her anguish
at the death of her younger brother Robin after losing his twin Maurice and
youngest brother Andy too.
And she
talks about her amazing memories of growing up in the Gibb family – and how she
once saved Robin’s life. Holding a treasured photo of herself and the
superstar, Lesley tells how her only surviving brother Barry Gibb, 65, called
her to tell her Robin was dying of cancer.
“Just
before he died, Barry rang and said to me, ‘You know he’s not gonna come
through this, Les’,” she says.
“And I
said, ‘Yes, I know’. And then he said, ‘It’s just us now, luv’. I can’t believe
it. It doesn’t seem to make sense.’
Speaking
at her home in Australia’s remote blue mountains, grieving dog breeder Lesley
pours out her memories.
She tells
how she once stood in for Robin, replacing him on stage in London for a
sell-out performance in 1969 after he had a “brotherly spat” with the band. A
new mum of twins, she had to step in and rehearse in his place a month before
they were due to perform at the Talk of the Town.
Lesley
says: “I secretly became the fourth Bee Gee. It was amazing. I loved it on the
night. I know Robin watched it and he said he felt very choked up about it.
“I
couldn’t sound like Robin, of course, but our harmonies as Gibb family members
sounded very much the same.
“He said
he loved my performance, but I told him if he felt like that, why don’t you
just come back then? Which, of course, he eventually did.”
But
Lesley was not interested in showbiz. Instead she was to become became a top
breeder of Staffordshire bull terriers, married to an Australian salesman,
Keith Evans, and having seven children.
But her
mind keeps coming back to her childhood with Robin, and she recalls how she
saved his life after he fell into a river when the family lived in the Isle of
Man.
She says:
“Robin and Maurice were about 18 months old and were toddling along. Robin fell
in. I remember him floating along with his eyes staring up.
“I went
in up to my waist and grabbed him under the arms until people came to help us
both out of the water.”
She adds:
“We grew up surrounded by love and music in a very happy household. We had a
brilliant childhood.
“We all
used to say, ‘Oh, Robin’s a stuffed shirt’, because he was always very
pompous. He never called me Lesley. It was always sister. I would not see him
for 10 years and I could walk into a room and he would say, ‘Oh, hello sister.
How are you?’
“He was a
thinker. He was very deep, really.”
She last
saw Robin in Sydney in October 2010, shortly after he had emergency surgery for
an intestinal blockage.
“He was
bouncing off the walls. He couldn’t wait to tell me how fantastic he felt,” she
says.
“But I
thought he looked painfully thin. And a month or so later mum rang to tell me
he had cancer.”
Lesley
said Robin’s death last Sunday has left their mother Barbara, 93, devastated
after losing Maurice to complications from a twisted intestine at 53 and Andy
to heart inflammation at 30.
“She
asked me, ‘What have I done wrong to lose three sons so young?’ She is still
fighting fit,” says Lesley.
“I know
Robin said they were being punished to pay for the fame and fortune.
“But a
lot of it was fixable. Maurice had a twisted bowel and if it had been
diagnosed properly, he would have been OK. And Andy never told us he had a
heart condition.”
Lesley
pays tribute to Robin’s wife Dwina, who cared for him throughout his cancer
battle.
“She’s
very sweet. You just feel her calmness, even when you talk on the phone.”
Lesley
will not be at flying to England for Robin’s funeral because she is caring for
husband Keith, 70, who is recovering from a stroke.
“Barry
and mum understand. It would be all too much for me,” she says. “But he will
live on in my heart forever.”
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