Update from Barry Gibb and his team in Miami Beach.

Unfortunately there are no touring plans for 2015 but there may be one or two charity events where he does a short performance.
 We have at this time no details yet about these plans to announce.
 Then there is of course the Grammy presentation in February!
As for recording: Barry is planning on writing and putting down a few demos in the new year as to try out his newly refitted analogue home studio.

Source : Dick Ashby



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Samantha Gibb "Wild At Heart" (Acoustic Live Performance)

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The Joy of the Bee Gees review – a song of constant reinvention

The Joy of the Bee Gees review – a song of constant reinvention

The Gibb brothers’ saga could have been filled with an endless parade of hits, never mind their turbulent life stories

So deep is my love for Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb that you don’t know what it’s like having to avoid the temptation to review a programme like The Joy of the Bee Gees (BBC4) by – and I’ve gotta get a message to you about this – incorporating the titles of as many of their hits as possible.


It seems like a tragedy to waste such an opportunity. But perhaps to do so would be too much heaven. OK, you win again, dead hand of convention. I am more than a woman but one with a touch of night fever, barely stayin’ alive even without your clammy grip, so enough of this jive talkin’. Although I started a joke and we should be dancing, let’s return to work.

The point is, you could do it. Such is their catalogue of hits – even without the ones they penned for the likes of Dolly Parton, Dionne Warwick and Barbra Streisand – since they started singing together as children in the holiday resorts and dive bars of Australia in the late 50s that you could build just about anything out of them. After knocking out 11 hit singles down under, they found international fame in the UK. By the mid-70s, they were ready to conquer another continent.

So they moved to the US and – uh – did. Every so often over the decades the siblings’ rivalries would overwhelm them and they would split up. Then they would re-form, take the temperature anew of the times and adapt as necessary, moving from 50s novelty act to 60s beat group to 70s soul trio to early 80s disco gods before falling from Olympus and retreating from their suddenly too-kitsch image to become behind-the-scenes hitmakers for La Streisand et al. In the 90s their back catalogue was put into service by boy bands needing to tap into talent from somewhere. Doubtless there would have been another reinvention and resurgence in the new millennium but fate was against them; Maurice died suddenly in 2003 and Robin followed him in 2012 after a long struggle with cancer. “I still have very vivid dreams about my brothers,” said Barry. They sing together on stage. Close and harmonious still.

the joy of the Bee Gees

The Bee Gees, George Harrison & More Honored with Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award

December 18 2014
  The Recording Academy announced its Special Merit Awards recipients today, and this year's honorees are: the Bee Gees, Pierre Boulez, Buddy Guy, George Harrison, Flaco Jiménez, Louvin Brothers, and Wayne Shorter as Lifetime Achievement Award recipients; Richard Perry, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, and George Wein as Trustees Award honorees; and Ray Kurzweil as the Technical GRAMMY Award recipient. '

A special invitation-only ceremony will be held during GRAMMY Week on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2015, and a formal acknowledgment will be made during the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast, which will be held at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015 and broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network. For GRAMMY coverage, updates and breaking news, please visit The Recording Academy's social networks on Twitter and Facebook. "

This year we pay tribute to exceptional creators who have made prolific contributions to our culture and history," said Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow. "It is an honor and a privilege to recognize such a diverse group of talented trailblazers, whose incomparable bodies of work and timeless legacies will continue to be celebrated for generations to come." The Lifetime Achievement Award honors performers who have made contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording, while the Trustees Award recognizes such contributions in areas other than performance. Both awards are determined by vote of The Recording Academy's National Board of Trustees. Technical GRAMMY Award recipients are determined by vote of The Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing Advisory Council and Chapter Committees, as well as The Academy's Trustees.

The award is presented to individuals and companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field.

About the Lifetime Achievement Award Honorees:

The Bee Gees, comprising of brothers Barry, Maurice* and Robin Gibb*, were one of the most successful groups in pop history with hits such as "Stayin' Alive," "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart" and "How Deep Is Your Love." The trio's contributions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack made it one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time, selling more than 15 million copies in the United States and garnering the group four GRAMMYs, including Album Of The Year and Producer Of The Year.

Samantha Gibb singing a snippet of her new original song "Memories".

Island Ignited Bee Gees’ Musical “Fever”

March 12, 2013

The lyrics to one of their 1976 hits ran “What you doin’ on your back/You should be dancing, yeah/Dancing, yeah …” and the following year the entire world was doing just that when three songs written by the superstar Gibb brothers in Bermuda topped the international music charts.

“Stayin’ Alive”, the Bee Gees’ theme song to the phenomenally successful movie ”Saturday Night Fever”, along with two back-to-back number one hits by teen sensation Robin Gibb were all composed at the Bermuda home of Australian-born impresario and entertainment entrepreneur Robert Stigwood.

The Bee Gees — brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb — had been managed by Mr. Stigwood since the 1960s when they first found fame as a pop act. The trio later released their singles and albums on Mr. Stigwood’s independent RSO Records label which he launched in 1973.

The groups’s career was resurgent in the mid-1970s; they had moved from pop songs and ballads marked by their soaring harmonies to a more rhythmic, disco-influenced style, producing hits such as “Jive Talkin’”, “Nights on Broadway” and “You Should Be Dancing.”

In 1976 Barry Gibb, the eldest Gibb brother and the Bee Gees’ unofficial leader, along with brother Robin had spent a number of months at Mr. Stigwood’s luxurious resort home “Palm Grove” in Devonshire.

While on the island planning new projects with Mr. Stigwood, the brothers had penned several new songs — one of which was titled “Stayin’ Alive.”

Bee Gees Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb with Robert Stigwood

The songs were originally intended for a new Bee Gees album. The group was in the midst of recording the material at France’s Le Chateau Studios when Mr. Stigwood informed them the songs they were working on were now to be featured on the soundtrack of his upcoming film “Saturday Night Fever.”

Mr. Stigwood’s transitions from a rock band manager and producer to multimedia entertainment impresario had started in the late ’60s when he saw the musical “Hair” on Broadway and decided to produce it in London’s West End.

He went on to produce the stage and movie versions of “Jesus Christ Superstar”, a film adaptation of The Who’s rock opera “Tommy” and brokered the deals which repackaged British TV hits “Til Death Do Us Part” and “Steptoe & Son” as “All In The Family” and “Sandford & Son” on American television in the early 1970s.

A 1976 “Rolling Stone” magazine profile described Mr. Stigwood “as constant traveler, a bachelor with homes in Los Angeles, New York and Bermuda … a peripatetic power broker with a penchant for style and a fondness for life in the grand manner.”

When Mr. Stigwood arrived in Bermuda in 1976, he was planning a slate of new movies — one of them a low-budget production based on a “New York” magazine article about the disco sub-culture called “Tribal Rites Of The New Saturday Night”; the film’s title was changed to “Saturday Night Fever.”

Starring the relatively unknown sitcom actor John Travolta, the film told the story of of a Brooklyn paint store clerk who escapes his dead-end life on the disco dance floor.

A massive popular and critical success, the film was a cultural phenomenom. It popularised disco music around the world and turned Mr. Travolta into a superstar ["We thought we were making a little art film," the actor said in the wake of "Saturday Night Fever's" remarkable success].

The “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, featuring four new songs by by the Bee Gees and two previously released tracks, became one of the best selling soundtracks of all time.

Some sections of the other chart-topping Bee Gees singles from the soundtrack — “How Deep Is Your Love”, “Night Fever” and “More Than A Woman” — had been sketched out in Bermuda. But “Stayin’ Alive” — the first and biggest selling single from the album — is the only song that was largely completed here.

Speaking to a Netherlands radio interviewer in 2002, Maurice Gibb said “Stayin’Alive” was “really born, I think, more in Bermuda than anywhere else. We finished it off in France.”

Independently of working on new songs for themselves in Bermuda during their 1976 sojourn, Barry and Maurice Gibb were also planning the next career move for younger brother Andy with Mr. Stigwood.

With his blonde good looks and clear, melodic voice, the youngest Gibb brother — he was then 18 — had become a pop sensation in Australia and Mr. Stigwood was interested in launching his career internationally.

After Andy Gibb married girlfriend Kim Reeder in Sydney on July 1, Mr. Stigwood invited the couple to spend their honeymoon at “Palm Grove”.

“[Following] the reception, the new Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Roy Gibb left for a honeymoon in Bermuda at Robert Stigwood’s lavish home there,” said Bee Gees biographer Andrew Hughes “Barry and Robert Stigwood were there to meet them and to begin making plans for turning ‘The Bee Gee’ Baby Brother’ into the teen idol, Andy Gibb.

While in Bermuda, Andy Gibb signed a recording and management contract with RSO and collaborated on two songs with brother Barry — “I Just Want To Be Your Everything” and “[Love Is] Thicker Than Water.”

“[When he wasn't working] Andy and Kim found plenty of time to themselves to enjoy their honeymoon,” said Mr. Hughes. “They rode motorbikes all over the island, went shopping and took sightseeing trips.

“They went swimming in the crystal clear water and went out in catamarans. An entire day was spent out on a big-game fishing boat.

“Kim enjoyed Bermuda and loved Stigwood’s house and its garden with a huge pond with a map of Bermuda in it.Stigwood’s culinary skills also impressed her. ‘We ate five-course dinners,’ she remembered. “Robert Stigwood imported nothing but the best and he cooked the food himself. He’s a pretty good chef’ …”

“I Just Want To Be Your Everything” was the first single released by Andy Gibb on the RSO label; released in May 1977 it reached number one in the US and Australia and was among the most played records of the year.

The follow-up Bermuda-penned song “[Love Is] Thicker Than Water” was even more successful.

Released in October, 1977 the single peaked in early 1978 during the time that the Bee Gees’ contributions to the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack were dominating the world charts.

Ironically, in the United States it replaced “Stayin’ Alive” — another product of Barry Gibbs’ frenetic “Palm Grove” writing sessions — at the top of the charts. ”[Love Is] Thicker Than Water” was in turn surpassed by the Bee Gees’ “Night Fever”, which also owed something to the Gibbs’ 1976 Bermuda retreat.

While he had a handful of other hits, Andy Gibbs’ career proved to be a troubled one. Succumbing to drug abuse and the pressures of fame, he died in March, 1988 of a heart ailment in Oxford, England. He was just 30 years old.

Among the best-selling musical artists of all time, the Bee Gees continued to record and tour for many years. Maurice died suddenly on January 12, 2003 at the age of 53 from a heart attack, while awaiting emergency surgery to repair a strangulated intestine. Robin Gibb died in May, 2012 following a long illness.

Surviving brother Barry Gibb lives and works in Florida.

Mr. Stigwood lived in Bermuda for many years, moving from “Palm Grove” — which he had rented — to the sprawling “Wreck House” property at the West End of the island [while he was negotiating to buy that estate one of his spokesmen told a Chicago newspaper the mogul was in the process of buying "a small corner of Bermuda the size of several golf courses ... He loves it there"]

“Palm Grove”, the luxurious South Shore estate rented by Robert Stigwood in the ’70s

While in Bermuda he went on to produce the ’50s-era rock’n'roll movie musical “Grease”, which co-starred John Travolta and Australian singer Olivia Newton-John, and the stage show “Evita” along with a later film adaptation starring Madonna.

He hosted such visiting luminaries as the Duchess of York, Mr. Travolta, film director Ken Russell and pop star Cyndi Lauper at his Georgian Wreck Road mansion before moving to the Isle of Wight in the late 1990s. Mr. Stigwood now lives near London.

 

update The Joy Of The Bee Gees at BBC december 19th 2014

The special documentary BBC is going to air about The Bee Gees this year. The program is called: The Joy of the Bee Gees and will be aired on the British BBC Four at 9 pm on 19th Dec 2014. (local British Time!) This is be followed by an hour long compilation of Bee Gees' performances and promos called Bee Gees at the BBC...and beyond - which features performances from 1967 up to 2001, including a recent discovery of World from Top of the Pops 1967, How Can You Mend A Broken Heart from Whittakers's World Of Music 1972 to an acoustic of To Love Somebody from The Late Show 1994.
The contributors:
Barry Gibb
Alexis Petridis Music Journalist
Bill Oakes Former Head of RSO
Billy Gaff RSO Agent
Vince Melouney The 5th Bee Gee
John Lydon Fan
Guy Chambers Record Producer
Gary Brooker Procol Harum
Mykaell Riley Record Producer
Steve Levine Record Produce
r Ana Matronic Scissor Sisters
Mike Quinn Bee Gees' Tour Compere 1968
Helen Walmsley-Johnson Journalist
Blue Weaver Bee Gees' Musician
Mark Moore S'Express
Alan Jones Writer
Philip Pope The Heebeegeebees
(Thanks BBC: Dione Newton).


© GSI

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Andy Gibb, In the Shadow of the Bee Gees

Published: 3/5/2011

Teen idol Andy Gibb had a slew of hits in the late 1970s but struggled to emerge from the shadow of his older siblings. On what would have been his 53rd birthday, we take a look back.
Born March 5, 1958, Gibb grew up near Brisbane, Australia, the youngest son of Hugh and Barbara, working-class musicians who'd emigrated from Manchester, England. The Gibb parents encouraged their five children to pursue showbiz and Andy's three older brothers proved wildly successful.
Barry, Maurice and Robin – better known as the Bee Gees – would dominate the charts, first in the late 1960s as a soft rock act whose finely honed pop sensibilities won them comparisons to the Beatles (a band they often covered), and later during the disco era when their music was showcased in the film Saturday Night Fever. More than a decade younger than the oldest Bee Gee, Andy at once sought to emulate and distance himself from his successful brothers early in life, as their fame brought him unwanted attention at school, where he was subject to bullying and ridicule by classmates convinced that his musical heritage gave him a superiority complex.
While he sought his own identity, he didn't stray far from the family business. At 13 he began performing in Ibiza, a tourist destination in Spain popular with vacationing Britons. While it was generally assumed he would join the Bee Gees when he got old enough, Gibb was determined to forge his own path.
Well, sort of.
His first band, Melody Fayre, was named after a Bee Gees song. The first song he recorded in a studio, "My Father Was Reb," was written by his older brother Maurice. The band was managed by his mother. Unlike his brothers, Gibb never had to struggle through years of obscurity playing Brisbane speedways and Queensland resort towns, and unlike them, he'd never been exposed to the gray, working-class environs of England, but grew up amidst the sunshine and beaches of Australia. His more laidback, casual approach to work frustrated his bandmates. While Gibb could rely on the largesse of the Bee Gees, his bandmates needed the steady income that came with gigging and recording. Eventually, guitarist John Anderson and drummer John Stringer returned to England. The short-lived Melody Fayre was no more.
Deciding to continue on as a solo artist, Gibb recorded the single "Westfield Mansions," which charted in Sydney but had little impact elsewhere. He toured in support of the Bay City Rollers as a member of the band Zenta. After relocating to Miami he entered the studio to record his first full solo album – albeit with older brother Barry producing and penning both hit songs on the record

The album was a smash, with "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" – a tribute to Gibb's new bride (a year later, she'd be divorced from him and pregnant with his child) – staying in the Billboard Top 40 charts for 23 weeks. The follow-up, "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" actually bested his brothers' "Stayin' Alive" before being toppled by another Bee Gees song, "Night Fever." (That, in turn, was knocked off by Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can’t Have You," a song written by Barry Gibb, making him still the only songwriter in history to simultaneously hold the top four slots in the Billboard Hot 100).
Gibb's next album, Shadow Dancing, benefitted from the help of all three brothers, with the titular tune they co-wrote spending seven weeks at number one and going platinum – making Andy Gibb the first male solo artist to have three successive number one hits.
Despite his success, he was more likely to appear on the cover of Teen Beat than Rolling Stone and was in some quarters dismissed as a blow-dried pin-up idol coasting on his brothers' coat tails. With the nascent punk rock and new wave scenes beginning to dominate England and "Disco Sucks" T-shirts a common sighting in America, the musical tide was turning. By the early 1980s, the hits stopped coming for the brothers Gibb.
His elder brothers were perhaps better positioned to weather this sea change. They'd had more than a decade of success, were all in their 30s and happily married. Gibb may have felt his career was cut off at its peak – he was only 22 when he recorded After Dark, his final studio album.
He tried diversifying into acting, starring in a Broadway production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The performance was well received but short-lived – he was fired for absenteeism. A television gig hosting Solid Gold ended the same way, and those around him worried about his increasing cocaine and alcohol addictions. His tumultuous romance with TV star Victoria Principal ended in 1982 over his drug use.

"The most embarrassing thing for me was the day Bob Hope called," Gibb later told an interviewer. "I was supposed to do his TV special and didn't turn up. Consequently, I was blacklisted by NBC for a long time. I damaged my career."
By 1985 his family had persuaded him to enter the Betty Ford Clinic. He successfully went through rehab and moved to Miami to be near his brothers, living on $200 a week after having declared bankruptcy. With his demons seemingly behind him, he signed a recording contract with Island Records and was preparing to enter a London studio when he died at age 30, a few days after complaining of chest pains while celebrating his birthday with his mother.
The official cause was an inflammation of the heart brought on by viral infection. Though many felt that years of cocaine abuse had weakened his heart, the attending physician announced there was no evidence that the condition had been brought on by drug or alcohol abuse. His family later admitted Gibb was drinking heavily during the final weeks of his life.
"A lot of people remember particularly his kindness," Maurice Gibb told VH1. "Because he helped a lot of people. He just couldn't help himself."



Bee Gees fan Fever

wolfhound Mistletoe or "Missy"passed away

december 7th 2014

A few minutes ago our beloved wolfhound Mistletoe or "Missy" as she was always known, passed away. My father's last pet, she will be remembered as a loyal and beautiful soul who brought so much joy to us all for the past 8 years, she was Paddy's companion and practically reared Olly with us from a pup. R.I.P. Missy Love and best wishes to all,

RJ xx


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ANDY GIBB EN MEXICO CON RAUL Y DORLE VELASCO..

Barry Gibb Interview - love & hope 1987

Andy Gibb Festival de Viña 1984 Chile

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Bee Gees Fan Fever

Spencer Gibb in movie Hostage 2008

 When Evan breaks into his drug dealer (Morgan's) house to find his stash he never expected to discover a woman scared and beaten and bound to a chair but as much as he tries to ignore the situation he quickly finds himself conflicted to either release the girl or to walk away making himself a hostage to the situation as well.


Cast
Spencer Gibb as Charlie
Gwendolyn Hanson as The lovely Daughter of Chief Superintendant Martins
Eileen vignoles as Emergency Operator
Crew
Executive Producer Amanda Zeigler
Produced By Amanda Zeigler, William J. Orendorff, and Spencer Gibb
Assistant Director Glen Moorman
Line Producer Sarah E Howell
Associate Producers
Tommy Rodriguez
Jen White
Tracie Laymon
Jess Haas
Original Music/Score by Stewart Cochran
Written and Directed By William J. Orendorff


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BBC 4 the joy of the Bee Gees

'The Joy Of Bee Gees' tells the inside story of the band - seen as iconoclasts and outsiders. The band went from been child stars on the Australian variety circuit to be competing against the Beatles in the UK charts in the late 1960s. The band reimagined themselves in the 1970s, with a image that eventually saw them elbowed out of fashion. In the 1980s the band came back, as a strong writing force, penning songs for Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand and Diane Ross.

Classification: Documentary
Genre: Music
Status: New Series
Network: BBC FOUR ( United Kingdom)
Airs: Fridays at 09:00 pm
Runtime: 60 Minutes
Premiere: December 19th 2014

 

bee gees fan fever

 

 

 

Maurice Gibb Discusses That Clive Anderson Show

You've heard about that Clive Anderson show on BBC One called Clive Anderson All Talk, the UK chat show where Barry Gibb took exception to some of Clive's comments and walked off the show, with first Robin and then Maurice following close on his heels. Until Bernie Quayle, of Manx Radio on the Isle of Man, managed to get some information about what happened, all of the Bee Gees were silent about that incident.

The following is a partial transcript of an interview CD called Come Home To Ellan Vannin: The Follow-Up, where Maurice Gibb discusses what happened. It is reproduced here by permission from Bernie Quayle. Enjoy!

Well, what about that Clive Anderson interview? Now, Barry and Robin were not that keen to have their comments recorded. So when it came to talking to Maurice about that thorny subject, I used a different approach.

Incidentally, Clive Anderson asked if I could toss a few questions in. Do you recognize this voice? [imitates Clive] "I think you're a bunch of tossers, too. Yes, it's Clive. This is your life."

[pause, after a bit of laughter]

You were the only one that sat there for a while.

 

Bernie:

Yes, I thought, "This is great." I thought the [bleep] had done it now, 'cause we were in the Green Room watching Elvis Costello and I thought it was pretty good. He still is not that bad. But we were told he was a huge fan and he was gonna show the video. I went, "Oh! Well, in that case we'll do the show." 'Cause we know we heard things about the show that - well, we're not doing that. Who the hell is going on TV and get ripped apart by that, you know? And they said, "Oh, no, no, no. Clive's a big fan. He really wants you on." And we went, "Okay."

It's funny how it turned out 'cause we didn't think they'd show it, because I thought Clive would be too embarrassed to show it. But it's - 'cause he thought it was - they're setting me up. That's what he thought. He thought we would go back and he'd say, "Got ya!" But we didn't. You know, "I've got ya" would have planted it. We don't mind being ripped apart, but don't rip the songs apart. That's something - 'cause they're like our kids. You know, you don't do that. And we [sic] told us he was gonna be really lovely.

You know, we called ourselves Les Tosseurs, you know, 'cause we put it on the Brit Awards - when we were doing the Brit Awards in London at the Earl's Court. We had dressing room things, and Elton [John] wanted a garden with his so we said, "What's going on?" They were building all afternoon with it while we were rehearsing. And then they built a whole garden with a fountain and everything for Elton and he said, "I was only joking."

Anyway, we put on our door "Les Tosseurs As Seen On Father Ted." Just as a joke, you know, on our dressing room door. So everyone was going around saying, "Who could do that to the Bee Gees dressing room? Who put that on our door?" And everyone was getting real mad because they thought someone was taking the piss on this. And Barry said, "No, we did it." And they went, "Oh! It's very funny, isn't it?" You know? But everyone was looking around for the [bleep] who put that on our door. But that's what it's all about. It's fun. And we thought Clive was gonna be like that.

 

Maurice:

You may not know this yet, but I know that the BBC are after you - BBC Radio 2 - to produce a program, The Comedy Hour, because you've [Maurice bursts out laughing here] - no seriously. They know what a sense of humor you three guys have.

 

Bernie:

I know. Obviously, someone said the Bee Gees haven't got a sense of humor. I said, "You're kidding!" Everybody who knows us knows we always have a good time, you know. I mean, and we expected actually to have a good time with Clive 'cause I've always liked him. I've always liked his shows. I love - you know - "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" I've sort of followed his career a bit 'cause he had a lot of that on PBS over here, you know, on cable and stuff. So I was enjoying it. I said , "Oh, yeah. It should be fun to do that." And we were really disappointed

Children of the World mimics Main Course while pushing further into funky disco and falsetto-tinged R&B

 

The Gibb brothers’ trek to Miami’s Criteria Studios with legendary producer Arif Mardin gave birth to Main Course, a defining moment in the pop group’s transition from. The marriage didn’t last long. With only two albums produced by Mardin, the Gibb trio decided they could pull off the next set without the famed producer on their next set. They meticulously studied his studio tricks and quickly discovered the magic behind Criteria’s acoustics. Children of the World isn’t technically a major improvement over Main Course, nor is it a total knockoff. But the boys are surprisingly comfortable with their mirage of soulful EW&F funk and blue-eyed soul that they try to scoot away from their Beatles-ish songbook as best as they can.

Of course, “Love So Right” is the album’s finest ballad and still proves they are a Hallmark card away from being professional poets. Newly christened lead singer Barry Gibb squeals with his nasally falsetto with the confidence of Phillip Bailey, as he charges forward with his dynamic outbursts of conviction. Finishing in second place is “Love Me,” which swoons with Quiet Storm warmth and melodic prominence. But it is the album’s disco-friendly grooves that carry the weight of the album’s eminence. “You Should Be Dancing,” boasting a heavy, irresistible concoction of Stephen Stills’s calypso beats, Barry’s sexy lead vocals, delicious bass lines, guitar whirls and Sunshine Band-esque horns, opens the set so mightily that it’s almost impossible for the Bee Gees to top it. They try to keep the night fever spreading on the lite-funk of “You Stepped Into My Life” (which Melba Moore later covered and owns), and even spreading it out on “Can’t Keep a Good Man Down,” but the funk seems a bit safe, even generic at times. Only “Boogie Child” harnesses a feisty, in-your-face groove that rivals “You Should Be Dancing.” The grit found in the Gibbs’ harmonies on their “boogie-child” chants and their Doobie-meets-Funkadelic jam session is just enough to keep their boogie shoes on.


Just a few second-rate album fillers - only centimeters shy from being memorable – are hidden in the mix, particularly the EW&F experimentalism of “Lovers” and the Elton John-sounding “The Way It Was.” But Children of the World, now with the Bee Gees in the production chamber and with co-producers Albhy Galuten and engineer Karl Richardson on board, are on their quest for creative control and rediscovery. Mardin may have started them on their way with Main Course, but the Bee Gees are in total control of Children of the World. It’s a good effort, but the boys still had a few kinks they needed to iron out.

LABEL: RSO // PRODUCER: Bee Gees, Albhy Galuten, Karl Richardson
GENRE: Disco, pop, R&B // RELEASE DATE: 1976

Col Joye remembers the night he discovered the Bee Gees

21 May, 2012 6:01PM AEST

By Laura Bailey

Col Joye first met the Gibb brothers at a BBQ in the Gold Coast when they were just 13 and 14 years old. He knew immediately that he'd discovered something very special.

"I was just knocked out with the sound that they had so I recorded them the next day," he told Richard Glover of the experience.

"It was kind of freakish how one harmony could suddenly go to the lead and the lead would go to the third and the third would go to the fifth... I was more than impressed."
The chance meeting was the beginning of a lifelong relationship between Col and the Gibbs, one that produced hits like Spicks and Specks and set them on their journey to London and three decades of worldwide hits.
Hear more of Col reminiscing about his experiences with Barry, Robin and Maurice including having them come and live with him for a year in the early days.

Click below to listen

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/sydney/201205/r945438_10042302.mp3

Bee Gees Fan Fever

Samantha Gibb "Wild at Heart" (Official Video)

https://itunes.apple.com/album/id942696002


A care-free uplifting video to Samantha Gibb's single "Wild at Heart". Laugh, cry, and dance to a very genuine performance of everyday people of all ages being "Wild at Heart".

Andy Gibb on the Robert W. Morgan Special of the Week

Bee Gees Fan Fever

The Bee gees in Bern 1968

Die Bee Gees 1968 in Bern: Die Brüder Gibb geben ihr erstes Konzert in der Schweiz. Stundenlang harren die Fans aus, um ihre Idole zu sehen. Dass die Band im Gegensatz zu den Rolling Stones äusserst presse- und fernsehfreundlich sei [01:00], scheint die Journalistin am meisten zu beeindrucken. [«Antenne» vom 11. März 1968]

Robin Gibb the George Harrison of the Bee Gees

By Steve Horowitz 18 November 2014


Robin Gibb was the George Harrison of the Bee Gees. He was the quiet one who stood in the background while his siblings Barry and Maurice (and later Andy) received the bulk of the attention. Robin’s distinctive warbling on songs such as “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”, which he co-wrote with his brother Barry, revealed his vocal and lyrical talents. But Robin may be the least known and celebrated of the brothers Gibb.

 

Like Beatle George, Robin died too young. Cancer killed him back in 2012 when he was 62 years old. His career with the BeeGees is well-known, but Robin’s solo work never fared well in the United States. (The British / Australian sold best in Germany for some reason.) Robin’s last record has just been issued. Most of the songs on the 17-track 50 St. Catherine’s Drive were recorded between 2006 and 2008, but never released. The material was compiled by his wife Dwina Gibb and son R.J, who also co-wrote three songs on the album. Dwina writes in the liner notes that the selections were the ones Robin would have wanted to include.

 

Again, like Harrison, Robin was the most spiritual member of the group. That can be heard here on the divinely secular philosophy of “All We Have is Now” that speaks of celebration and recognition of living in the moment. The immanence of lines such as “All we have is love as we fly through space and time / We are only visitors and nothing’s by design” are not all that different than what Harrison sings about in Harrison’s Living in the Material World. The implied koan, we can make a change / nothing ever changes, suggests the importance of human relationships, music, and time.

 

As a whole, the individual songs on 50 St. Catherine’s Drive suffer a bit of generic instrumentation. The drums in particular seem to be too much in the foreground and don’t do much else than keep time. However, Robin’s has the good taste to sing and play beautifully no matter what is in the background. At this point, it is probably useful to note that Peter-John Vettese produced, did string and bagpipe arrangements, played keyboards, co-wrote many of the cuts, and sang backup on the record. While deciding who supplied what and how much to each song may be impossible, this clearly seems to be a Robin-dominated effort.

 

The best songs are the most triumphant. “Allen Freeman Days”, named after a British deejay from Robin’s youth, captures the carefree spirit of when music meant something wrapped up in love and life and provided the soundtrack to everyday existence. “Days of Wine and Roses” shows the glorious impermanence of it all. Romance is all the more valued when it is ephemeral, Robin proudly claims. “Time and tide wait for no one,” he sings bagpipes swell in the background. And the new version of the Whitmanesque “I Am the World”, which was written originally in 1966 and appeared as the B-side on the Bee Gee’s first hit single, “Spicks and Speck”, boldly proclaims Robin contains multitudes.

 

Americans may have never recognized Robin’s solo talents, but this album should cause many to go back and listen to his discography. Like George Harrison, whose career and influence only grew after his death, Gibb’s final efforts reveal that he too deserves a re-evaluation of his solo offerings. Those Germans must have recognized something that listeners in the United States did not hear.


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Samantha Gibb "Wild at Heart" (Official Teaser)

A teaser to Samantha Gibb's Wild at Heart video. Please subscribe and stay tuned to updates on when we will be releasing new material and for extra behind the scenes bloopers. You can also pre-order on iTunes. Hope you enjoy! -sam

Andy Gibb: "I'm Tired of Running Around..."

  "I haven't exactly led the most typical or understated life in the world," says Andy Gibb with typical British understatement. The world's number one male singer has lately been doing some thinking and re-evaluating of his much-chronicled, frenzied lifestyle. There's a new Andy Gibb emerging - with some major surprises in store for his millions of fans.

First, there are the girls. Andy has already been married and divorced and he is a father, although he declines to discuss his past. He has dated countless girls, mostly blondes. "I like all females," he grins, "but I admit blondes have a certain attraction for me. However, my ideal girl could just as easily be a brunette or a redhead - anything but bald," he laughs during one of his SRO concert tours. Susan George, Andy's former flame, is now his best friend and he is coming to respect girls as friends.

He declares, "When I was a teen I was scared of girls. All boys are, really, only they act like they're not. Especially in countries where the macho thing is very big. Then I discovered they were fun to be with and I did a lot of dating. I've had good times and bad times, but I've come to find that having a terrific friend is worth more than dates, which are a dime a dozen, to borrow a cliché."

Of late, Andy hasn't been seen painting the town after hours, and he is spending more time at home in Florida, near his brothers and his protective, loving family. The singer hopes to do more songwriting and to compose material that is also worthy of other performers. He much admires Billy Joel, who is both a musician as well as a composer and singer. So far, a number of Andy's hits have come from his famous brothers, and biggest brother, Barry, is giving him more sound career advice than ever.

"It's not the easiest situation," admits Andy, "because each of the four of us has a sort of ego. That's healthy and natural, and in show business you can't help it. Even so, Barry has the most know-how, and I trust him implicitly. We all do. He's the wonder-boy of the family, you might say."

Barry recently disclosed that by mutual consent Andy will eventually become one of the Bee Gees, although he may retain part of his separate career, depending on how things work out. The integration will reportedly commence in 1980, perhaps with a joint worldwide concert tour and an album. How does Andy feel about becoming the fourth Bee Gee?

He can't say much about it yet, but admits, "They're the greatest. I think anybody would be flattered to become a part of that powerhouse of talent and performing." Andy still can't understand why or how Sgt. Pepper, his brothers' film debut, could have flopped, and says he's seen it several times. But what about Andy's own film future? Obviously, he has the potential of being another Travolta, and inside sources say he has acting talent and is preparing for the big day. Producer Allan Carr has tapped Andy for the lead in the sequel to Grease, titled Summer School. However, after the trouble the Bee Gees had, he's making certain his debut goes smoothly.

"Olivia Newton-John and I are good friends," he notes enthusiastically. "I'd love to work with her. We sang a duet at the United Nations for the UNICEF program my brothers and Robert Stigwood organized. I'd like to get together with her further, for maybe an album or in a movie . . . I like love stories myself, perhaps because I'm kind of romantic. But they don't make that kind of movie anymore."

A few recent rumors have connected Andy and Olivia romantically, but he denies this. "We're only friends. She has a beau and anyway, she is a bit older than me [she's 30]. I'm used to being linked with every other girl, and I don't really mind because it's kind of flattering. But if I get a steady girl who means a lot tome, then I'll mind it, because I won't want her to get hurt."

Likewise, big brother Barry watches over Andy and has helped him stay away from the destructive drug scene that's so prevalent in Hollywood. he's also trying to get Andy to settle down - not into marriage yet, but to focus his talents on his career and do a bit less partying.

"I'm tired of the running around kind of life," reveals Andy. "Touring all the time can be very tiresome, and so is meeting and dating several girls, none of which I get to know very well. I'd rather have a few good close friends than truckloads of acquaintances, and my family life is very important to me. I mean, I'm not a square or anything, but I think some of the old-fashioned values are great."

What kind of girl does he prefer? He has definite ideas: "Somebody a lot like Olivia, really." He enumerates, "She should be confident and self-respecting, intelligent and attractive, interested in herself and the world around her. I think if a person likes himself a lot, other will like her or him. Losers only attract other losers; people usually treat you the way you want to be treated; act grown-up and that's how you'll be treated."

So for now Andy is cooling his heels by the family pools outside Miami Beach, working on his music, preparing himself for movie stardom and perhaps to become the fourth Bee Gee soon. He is also seeing one "special" girl but it isn't very serious - yet. "I've never had the time, being an active performer, to get to know one girl really well. I'm still pretty young and there's lots of time, but I look forward to having more meaningful relationships. I think one-on-one is a beautiful concept."

Lulu: Why I had to dump Bee Gee husband Maurice Gibb over his drinking

Sixties pop icon Lulu has told how she had to dump Bee Gee ­ex-husband Maurice Gibb over his heavy drinking.
The celebrity couple wed in 1969 after a whirlwind affair, then split just four years later when Maurice’s rock and roll lifestyle started to take its toll.
Now, 39 years on, Lulu has admitted they should never have got married in the first place.
She and Maurice met ­backstage at Top of the Pops. She was 20, he was 19 and they fell for each other at once, marrying later the same year.
But Maurice, who died from a twisted intestine in 2003 aged 53, was battling alcoholism and it did not take long for cracks in the relationship to appear.
Lulu said in an interview for Piers Morgan’s Life Stories: “We thought we were king and queen of the world and were fabulous.
 

Turbulent marriage: Lulu with then husband Maurice Gibb

“The drinking was a part of it but we shouldn’t have got ­married in the first place... we should have just had a romance.
“I decided it had to end. He didn’t want it to end and it hurt him. I totally loved and adored him but... in love with him? I was ­probably in love with love.”


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Lost Albums: Robin Gibb: Sing Slowly Sisters

Lost Albums: Robin Gibb: Sing Slowly Sisters by Pete Paphides on Mixcloud

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"I've Never Paid My Dues!"Why Andy Gibb is Scared of Success

Teen Beat
July 1979
Price: 75 cents
Pgs: 12-14

"I've Never Paid My Dues!"
Why Andy Gibb is Scared of Success

"I don't have any degrees and I've had very little education really. I've gotten past the age where people said I was going to start wishing I'd gone back to school - and I still don’t' wish I had. My brothers and I only wanted to be musicians. We didn't want to be anything else, it's as simple as that. I wasn't interested in formal education, I was interested in learning only what I was interested in. I made it very hard on the school teachers … Actually, traveling has been a big education for me, more than anything else. It's important to find out what is going on in the world."

Now those are the words of a young man who seems to know exactly what he wants out of life, who's determined to seek his goal no matter how unconventional his methods are, whose driving ambition is his mainstay in life. Well, perhaps, that's one description of Andy Gibb, but there are those, even some close to him, who see an insecure, somewhat unsettle little boy. As a matter of fact, Andy's brothers, the Bee Gees, have become synonymous with Mom's home cooking and Sunday afternoon drives. Then Andy came on the scene, made it big with his first hit "Words and Music" and then hit the headlines with his marital woes with his Australian wife.

In an almost "fatherly" tone, Andy's brother Maurice explained it all: "He's taken up with the glamour of it all. He wouldn't be human if he didn't, but he'll get over it."

Even Andy, in moments of insight and honesty admits that just maybe he wasn't ready to handle all that has come his way in such a short time. Says the singing idol: "When people ask about my beginnings, I can't just answer them. It's weird. I have evolved totally from what the Bee Gees have done. I have no "roots" of any kind and I'm the first to admit I've not paid my dues musically speaking. My brothers certainly have and they handed it down to me … on a silver platter, I think the saying goes … I know that people try for years to break into even the lowest level of the music business, and I just stepped into the top level. I never even had to audition. So it doesn't bother me when people connect my break with my brothers, because I realize that, without them, I would not be where I am. But, as I said, it also makes me feel that I haven't paid my dues."

Actually, it seemed to be a double-edge sword for Andy - he felt somewhat guilty for "not paying his dues" and a little bit resentful for not really having an identity of his own. Why, when he first started, and even after he had made his first hit, he was often billed as "The Bee Gees Younger Brother!" At that time, Andy admits: "I had no say in it and it used to worry me: Will I ever have an identity of my own?"

Then real success came and Andy saw it wasn't so much of an "identity of his own" that was important, but a strength of character that can only be built by the long, hard climb to the top. His brothers had made that climb - and had their lumps along the way, too. There was a time the Bee Gees were just considered a mediocre rip-off of the Beatles and another time that drugs and family dissention almost destroyed the group completely.

Andy remembers those times, but then he was just on the outside looking in, he never really experienced them himself. That's why success has scared him so much - he had to wonder if he could handle it without the background, without the "root" his brothers have. After all, even they admit that if they hadn't gone through all they had, they would have never been able to be the hottest singing group in the world today. Trials and tribulations do tend to teach tough techniques - it may sound good, but it really is true!

Andy claims that in the beginning he was totally caught up in being a star, that "you want the excitement of needing security. You want to be well-off. You want to be famous. But after a while you start analyzing it and you almost feel like you don't have any more communication with the outside.

"It's a strange mental thing to walk down the street and have people you don't even know turn around and look at you. Or turn and whisper to each other. Or to come up and want to touch you. You think 'Gee, I never used to have that. I could go anywhere. Burger King, McDonald's.' No more. Privacy is an advantage you never know is an advantage until you don't have it anymore. Like anything else, the novelty wears off after a while."

And what should be there when the novelty wears off is an understanding that this is part of the "dues" you have to pay if you want the fame and fortune. Actually Andy is just now learning that lesson and though there have been moments when he's really questioned his entire "star trip," Andy knows that he'll get through it. Indeed, even though he had his place at the top handed to him on "a silver platter," it probably has been harder for him than most to really handle his success. At least he's been able to have the advice and love of his older brothers and they've been able to help him get through the rough spots. Hopefully there will be a day soon when Andy Gibb will be able to say proudly and loudly: "I am a man, then a star, and I intend to stay right here on my own!"

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Flashback: Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers Take 'Islands in the Stream' to New Heights

 

By Rolling Stone | October 29, 2014                                             

On this day (October 29th) in 1983, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers reached the top of the Billboard 100 chart with their now-iconic duet, "Islands in the Stream." Written by the Bee Gees (and later performed on their 1998 live album), the tune was inspired by Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name and was meant to have a very different, more R&B sound. Co-writer Robin Gibb once told ABC News that he and his brothers originally wrote the song with Marvin Gaye in mind.
               

When Rogers got a shot at "Islands," he went in to record it solo — with the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb producing — and just didn't click with it, he has admitted in several interviews over the years. Parton just happened to be at the same recording studio, so the two musicians tracked her down and approached her about turning the song into a duet. Thus was born an award-winning musical partnership (and very special friendship) of more than three decades.


The year after "Islands in the Stream" was released, Rogers and Parton teamed for a Christmas album and TV special, followed by a duet on another chart-topper, "Real Love." They have since recorded dozens of duets together, including one nominated at this year's CMA Awards, "You Can't Make Old Friends."
"We were cutting this song, 'You Can't Make Old Friends,' and it's really our lives. We are in the middle of the song and she comes over and throws her arms around me and she says, 'Kenny, I want you to know something: I could never sing at your funeral.' I went, 'We are assuming I am going first…. is that what you're saying?'" Rogers tells Rolling Stone Country of the October 2013 recording session for their latest duet. "We realized in the studio that day that it had been 30 years to the day since 'Islands in the Stream' went Number One on the pop charts."
"Islands in the Stream" was the only country song to reach Number One on the all-genre Billboard 100 until 2000, when Lonestar topped the chart with "Amazed." It also reached the pinnacle of the country and adult contemporary charts and was CMT's pick for the Number One greatest country duet of all time.

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Has country and bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs gone disco?

Not exactly. But the multiple CMA and Grammy-award winning artist collaborated with Barry Gibb of “Saturday Night Fever” fame on one of the songs on his new album, “Music to My Ears.”


“There’s a whole lot more to the Bee Gees than what most people remember,” Skaggs told FoxNews.com. “I mean, just songs like, ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,’ ‘I Started a Joke,’ ‘To Love Somebody’–songs like that, I’m telling you, they are prime country songs.”
After hearing a song Gibb wrote, “Soldier’s Son,” Skaggs asked the author of “Night Fever” and “Stayin’ Alive” to sing on his new album.

“I asked him just to think about it. I told him he didn’t have to give me an answer right now, but just think about if he’d be willing to come and sing on this record with me,” explained Skaggs. “Barry said, ‘I don’t have to think about it, I’m going to give you an absolute yes right now. I want to do it!’”
Gibb even fulfilled a childhood dream with Skaggs this past July. Before rehearsals for an unannounced show at Nashville’s historic Ryman Theater, Skaggs made Gibb an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“I asked him, ‘Well, what would you think about doing the Grand Ole Opry with us on Friday night,’” explained Skaggs. “There was this long silence on the other end of the phone, and then Gibb said, ‘When I was 12 years old, living in Australia, I used to see Marty Robbins and others on the Grand Ole Opry on an old black-and-white television in Australia. I dreamed of standing behind that microphone that says, ‘WSN Grand Ole Opry.’ But I thought with the brothers and the pop and rock ‘n roll direction that we took, that would never, ever happen. So this is a dream come true.’
The show went well, to say the least.

“Barry was thrilled to death,” said Skaggs of the three standing ovations Gibb received at the Grand Ole Opry. “He told me, ‘I could die now, and it would be totally okay. This is one of the greatest moments of my entire career–you don’t know what this has meant to me.’”
Now, Skaggs believes that Gibb has a whole country album in him.

“He told me that he has got four or five things written that he wants me to listen to and there’s a song about (his brother) Robin that he’s written that no one’s heard yet,” said Skaggs. “I’m not trying to push them on that one, I just said, ‘Hey, send it on out to me when you want me to hear it.’ We’ve talked a lot about Robin’s passing, we just have a really great relationship and friendship and I love him dearly.”

Gibb already has property in Nashville, Johnny and June Cash’s former estate, which was tragically destroyed by fire in 2007.

“They were so torn up over it,” said Skaggs of Barry and his wife, Linda’s, reaction to the fire. “Their dreams just kinda got dashed for a little while. We’ve been talking to him over the last six or eight months, saying, ‘Hey man, you’ve still got the property, you can rebuild.’ 

While the Gibb may be reluctant to make a permanent move to Nashville, Skaggs is insistent. 
“I said, ‘Look, you need to live here. You need to just put roots town and come up to a place where people love you, honor you and appreciate your singing and songwriting abilities, you’ve got a lot of music left.’ Barry has outlived all of his brothers, and I know that’s been hard for him. But there’s a freedom that comes with that, too. He’s free now, he can do any kind of music that he wants to do. I think his plans are to do a record sometime and he wants me to help him. Hopefully, at some point we’re going to get more music out of him.”

Skaggs added that Gibb’s Christian faith can help him heal.
“He’s got a lot of Christian friends here,” said Skaggs. “Both he and Linda have been to Bible studies at my house. I think he maybe had a lot of that in early life with his mom and dad, but I think that the business can sometimes really consume our life. I just don’t think he wants that anymore. I think he wants to enjoy his kids, his grandkids, his good friends, and making music when he wants to make it. I think that’s what he’s looking forward to.”

Skaggs firmly believes that Gibb is on the verge of a songwriting renaissance.
“Some of his greatest songs are going to come in the next five or 10 years or so,” declared Skaggs. “I think he just needs the freedom to not have to worry about running things by his brothers. He’s got a clean slate and he’s got a short pen. He can write his future, he really can.”

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Heartache of the unknown Gibb sister who sang with the Bee Gees

Heartache of the unknown Gibb sister who sang with the Bee Gees

                          May 27, 2012 00:00

                        By Dominic Herbert

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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