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