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Bee Gee in surprise comeback with posthumous album
DURING his heyday as a member of the Bee Gees, Robin Gibb always knew just how to entertain an audience.
By: Adam Helliker
Now he has left the group's fans the ultimate surprise - a solo album he completed shortly before his death two years ago.
"It will be out in the autumn and is called 50 St Catherine's Drive, after the first house he lived in on the Isle of Man," discloses Robin's widow, Dwina.
"He started it when he thought he and Barry [Gibb] would get back together and it would be a joint album, but then he realised he was ill and so he decided to do it on his own. I think it will please a lot of people; I'm very proud of it, as I am of all his achievements.
"
Dwina continues to live in the couple's Oxfordshire home, a former monastery, where she says she often absentmindedly makes Robin a cup of tea, and listens to Bee Gees' CDs to remember that distinctive vibrato voice of the musician to whom she was married for 32 years.
"And when I go out I hear his music wherever I go, if I switch on the radio it is usually within 15 minutes that I hear a Bee Gees song, or a cover version." Among the many hits Robin wrote were Massachusetts, Nights On Broadway, Stayin' Alive, Night Fever, and Tragedy - all on albums that have sold more than 200 million copies.
Robin continued to raise money for causes such as the Bomber Command memorial until his death at the age of 62, from kidney failure brought on by colorectal cancer. His last performance, at the London Palladium for the military charity Coming Home, saw him receive a standing ovation after he sang How Deep Is Your Love.
Dwina is now enjoying her own burst of creativity, having written her first play, Last Confessions Of A Scallywag, which will be performed at The Mill At Sonning, in Berkshire from July 31 to September 27.
"I'm nervous, it's a big new step for me," she says. "It's an Irish farce about a man who on his deathbed makes all sorts of upsetting confessions.
I think Robin would have loved it, he adored farce and I started writing it because of him. The main character is not like Robin at all - he was always upbeat. Even when he was very ill we watched slapstick films together, like the Marx Brothers. I still miss him so much."
As do we all.
Now he has left the group's fans the ultimate surprise - a solo album he completed shortly before his death two years ago.
"It will be out in the autumn and is called 50 St Catherine's Drive, after the first house he lived in on the Isle of Man," discloses Robin's widow, Dwina.
"He started it when he thought he and Barry [Gibb] would get back together and it would be a joint album, but then he realised he was ill and so he decided to do it on his own. I think it will please a lot of people; I'm very proud of it, as I am of all his achievements.
"
Dwina continues to live in the couple's Oxfordshire home, a former monastery, where she says she often absentmindedly makes Robin a cup of tea, and listens to Bee Gees' CDs to remember that distinctive vibrato voice of the musician to whom she was married for 32 years.
"And when I go out I hear his music wherever I go, if I switch on the radio it is usually within 15 minutes that I hear a Bee Gees song, or a cover version." Among the many hits Robin wrote were Massachusetts, Nights On Broadway, Stayin' Alive, Night Fever, and Tragedy - all on albums that have sold more than 200 million copies.
Robin continued to raise money for causes such as the Bomber Command memorial until his death at the age of 62, from kidney failure brought on by colorectal cancer. His last performance, at the London Palladium for the military charity Coming Home, saw him receive a standing ovation after he sang How Deep Is Your Love.
Dwina is now enjoying her own burst of creativity, having written her first play, Last Confessions Of A Scallywag, which will be performed at The Mill At Sonning, in Berkshire from July 31 to September 27.
"I'm nervous, it's a big new step for me," she says. "It's an Irish farce about a man who on his deathbed makes all sorts of upsetting confessions.
I think Robin would have loved it, he adored farce and I started writing it because of him. The main character is not like Robin at all - he was always upbeat. Even when he was very ill we watched slapstick films together, like the Marx Brothers. I still miss him so much."
As do we all.
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