Bee Gees Les Annees Tubes 1997

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Lulu On Her Marriage To Maurice Gibb | This Morning

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Bee Gees: fun video Islands In The Stream with Dolly Parton and Bette Midler

 

 

 

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Lost Star Cars: The Bee Gee's Maurice Gibb's Silver Cloud and Aston Martin DB6

    

                                                                        By: Patrick Smith




      They were stars twice over. The BeeGees were top hit makers in the 1960s, followed by excess and crack ups in 1970. Then they reunited and worked their way up to the top in 1977 with their disco opus, "Staying' Alive." The Brothers Gibb were very fortunate to learn valuable life lessons and prove it was worth the struggle. Along the way, Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb enjoyed fame, fortune and the good life. One of the perks in the good life was owning some truly righteous automobiles

 

Two of the Brothers Gibb were very much into cars; Maurice and Barry had excellent taste. Born on the Isle of Man, near England, the Gibbs lived in Manchester then Australia. The Gibbs were already involved in singing before they reached Brisbane, Queensland in 1958.Barry, Maurice and Robin continued their singing act. During the early 1960s, the Bee Gees sang on the ABC network (Australia Broadcasting Corporation). They had some tense moments when Beatlemania hit Australia in 1964 but In mid 1965, it started happening for them. "Wine and Women" broke into the Sydney charts at #35 eventually hitting #19. They did well in Australia but they realised England was where they had to break big.

      They reached England in 1967 and within months they were signed and released a hit record. The Bee Gees were able to really enjoy themselves by mid 1968 and that's where our car oydessy begins; with Maurice Gibb buying a Rolls Royce convertible. It was a beautiful Silver Cloud drophead convertible featuring coachwork by H.J. Mulliner. The Silver Cloud era of Rolls Royce had three phases and Maurice’s car falls into the third phase from 1962-1965. The new for 1963 design of Silver Cloud featured larger twin two-inch SU carburetors instead of the previous 1 3/4. The compression ratio went up to 9:1 and the crankshaft was nitride hardened to prevent cracking. Externally, the chrome plated wheel trim was replaced with stainless steel starting in April, 1963. The front seats became wider for January 1964 and by June the headlamp bezels started using the RR monogram.
 

Maurice Gibb with his 1964 ( at the latest) Silver Cloud drophead. Note no RR monogrammed headlamp bezels
and the wider front seat, this places it between January and June 1964.

    Looking at Maurice Gibb’s car, we can see it is no later than a June 1964 built car. In spite of the press release touting Maurice as having bought a brand new Silver Cloud with his earnings in 1968, the absence of monogrammed headlamp bezels and wide front seat gives the date of this car away. It was a well equipped car at the time and British bespoke workmanship was one of the best in the world at this time. Maurice’s Silver Cloud appears to be finished in black. Once source claims it was black but as the photograph is black and white, it’s hard to be certain. Rolls Royce also used dark blue. Maurice also owned an Aston Martin DB6 and a Morris Mini Cooper S. Maurice was very much a party goer at the time and indulged in a fair bit of drinking in the late 1960s. Sadly, he crashed the Rolls Royce against a tree one evening. The car was damaged but not extensively. You have to realize the grille of a Rolls Royce was exceptionally stiff and combined with the front bumper and steel bodywork, a tree in the city isn’t going to do a lot of damage. The Ringo Starr Rolls Royce coffee table with glass top produced in limited edition in 1969 required 4 men to lift it. Does that give you an idea how strong these grilles are?The car was most likely repaired and life went on.

     Maurice decided to get straight after meeting and marrying Lulu. The band was in trouble at this point with Barry and Robin drifting apart and being consumed with spending sprees and drug habits. By 1970, Maurice was down to one car, his Aston Martin DB6 and quit boozing to excess. Barry and Robin started working together again to make albums. It was a long road to success again with Saturday Night Fever in 1977.

      Strangely, Maurice Gibb’s Silver Cloud hasn’t reappeared. We know where Barry Gibb’s collection of Rolls and Bentleys went. His 1963 Bentley S2 MullinerPark-Ward convertible has been on auction as well as his 1965 Silver Cloud Mulliner-Park-Ward Chinese Eye convertible. Maurice’s Roller is missing. Someone owns it, there’s no question of that. The Silver Clouds have long been established as collector cars since the early 1970s. The question remains who owns it?

    While we’re pondering that one, here’s another cool ride with a Bee Gee’s connection that has slipped away to obscurity. In 1978, The Bee Gees were on top of the charts again with a smash hit LP, Saturday Night Fever. To reward the band, their manager, Robert Stigwood, presented them with a platinum 1978 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham sedan. The paint was platinum silver as was the full vinyl roof. The interior wasn’t silver though. It appears to have been dark red or maroon. This makes sense because silver would fade very quickly in Florida’s sunlight. Of course, metallic silver paint would fade too, but this was a promotional gesture, not a gift planned for lifetime use. Which brings me to my next point….what happened to this Cadillac? It doesn’t appear to have been kept by any of the Gibbs. In an interview with Maurice in November, 1979, he relates, “Before I was 21, I had 3 Rolls Royces and two Aston Martins. Now I have one Rolls Royce in London, a station wagon in Miami and a Cadillac Seville…that’s it.” The Cadillac was an all new redesign featuring the downsized body from 1977 so it likely was released into the car dealer network and sold as a demonstrator. Platinum by the way, was a standard Cadillac color in 1978, code 15.
 


The Bee Gees collect their 1978 Platinum Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham for platinum sales of
their Saturday Night Fever album. Current wherabouts is unknown. Pic was taken in Miami.

       Barry Gibb, likewise hinted he had pared down in an interview from his Miami home in 1978, although no specifics were mentioned as to what cars he owned. Robin lived nearby but his family was in England and he headed home as soon as the tax exile period was over. At the time of Maurice’s death, his car was a Pronto Cruiser. Most likely he owned other ones as well but that’s the only one mentioned in his interview.

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Elton John and the car of Bee Gees Maurice Gibb

When he started to get some success , Elton's manager advised him to buy a new car. That eventually became an Aston Martin which formerly belonged to fellow musician Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees . According to Elton was the start of his love car :

“I’ve been collecting Astons ever since. Then I got my first Bentley and once you’ve had cars like that and you’ve seen the workmanship and the beauty of them, you don’t really want anything else.”

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BARRY: 'IMPORTANT WE HAVE RESPECT'"

(Nick Logan, New Musical Express, August 10, 1968) 

 

BEE GEES talking frankly about the hit that wasn’t   

                           Round a conference table in the basement of the Robert Stigwood Organisation in Brook Street, Mayfair, a meeting was in progress. Members present: Colin Petersen, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb. Apologies for absence were received from Vince Melouney.
On the agenda was the contention that the Bee Gees are at a critical phase in their career and the question – have their fans deserted them since the flop of ‘Jumbo’ and their recent British tour, which was not as warmly received as was expected? A question that has since been answered by the arrival of ‘I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You’ in the NME Chart at No 21 this week.
Messrs Petersen, Gibb, Gibb and Gibb interrupted their campaign for the reconstruction of Great Britain – “we feel it is time for Nelson to be removed from his column. He must be freezing to death” to put their heads together in debate.
“This is no more critical than any other period,” said Barry confidently. “I think every period is critical”. And Colin added in support “Our career was critical when we went on stage at Bridlington”.
Robin entered the discussion with a reference to ‘Jumbo’, “I can only lay it down to one reason – not because it was the wrong choice of song, it wasn’t the wrong choice and could easily have been a hit. But (a) ‘Words’ was still in the Top thirty and (b) because we were releasing too many singles far too fast, which gets people confused.
“Take for instance, Manfred Mann. When ‘Mighty Quinn’ was no 1 they released ‘Up The Junction’ and nobody ever heard it. Yet their next single, ‘My Name Is Jack’, was an instant hit. You could have said that Manfred Mann was at a critical point, yet the one before ‘Quinn’ was a flop as well”.

 

Excused
Robin excused himself to answer one of the several phones placed at strategic points in the room and Colin took over. “You can put a record out and the timing can be put by a week or two weeks. If ‘Jumbo’ had been released three weeks later it could have been a smash”.
Robin was quickly back “say we had released ‘Jumbo’ now. Then it might have done better because people have not heard so much from us and the less you hear from a person, the more the interest grows and starts to build up again – we hope!”
Maurice mentioned Petula Clark who was still “right up there” even though she hadn’t had a hit recently, and Barry said that he was surprised there hadn’t been more nasty remarks when ‘Jumbo’ flopped.
“They passed it over as saying alright they’ve missed with a record but let’s not dismiss them too hastily. It knocked us out that a lot of people still had respect for us instead of jumping down our throats as soon as we had a flop record.
“And I think that is the most important thing, that we still have respect in the business and people are still waiting for the next record.
“Yeah! We only made Jumbo so the kids could feel sorry for us” joked Colin, which brought the retort from a “hurt” Maurice “Well I wish somebody had told me that!”
Phones started ringing from all points of the compass now and it was Maurice this time who left to take a call

 

 

Pushed into

“Robert (the group’s manager), was pushed into releasing ‘Jumbo’ by the American market because they preferred it to the other side. We preferred the other side,” said Barry.
Colin thought lack of exposure was mainly to blame. “I don’t think ‘Jumbo’ died by itself. With exposure it could have been a bigger record”
Barry said he thought the single would have fared better if it had been turned over.
“If it had been flipped and played just the same it wouldn’t have been any bigger” said Colin “If a thing is not played you just can’t have a hit. I don’t think half the public were aware that we had a single out”.
Back to Barry “I think the other side would have been a hit because in Germany they turned it over and we got to No 2 with ‘Jumbo’ and No 4 with ;Singer Sang His Song’. It dropped after a while and then this week ‘Singer’ jumped back in on it’s own to six from nowhere.
“In Britain it was our type of song and it would have been much stronger. ‘Jumbo’ was not our kind of song and we were trying to do something that wasn’t us. The new one is us”
Colin agreed the new single, ‘I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You’ was obviously more commercial but added he didn’t think ‘Jumbo’ had done them any harm.
“It hasn’t” said Barry “from the kids that we’ve spoken to … There are usually dozens of kids around our door and those kids haven’t faltered in any way. They haven’t sort of drifted away because we’ve had one record that hasn’t done well. They’re still there and they’re waiting for the new single.
“You see, people like the Beatles and other groups … It’s great for these people because they can’t miss. They have an established following and millions of fans who will automatically buy their record whether it’s good or bad, although the Beatles are always good”
“But it’s a bit more involved than that” said Colin “You see, the Beatles will put out a record which isn’t obviously commercial and takes a lot of plays. People feel obliged to play it and play it until it clicks.
“For other groups, us included, if a record isn’t obviously commercial at first they won’t play it again and again until it is commercial. And that is why the charts are full of obviously commercial songs”
And with Barry again “I think something’s changed in the past year as regards groups or any artists because you can have a flop record and still retain the popularity you had in the first place.

 

Popularity “Once you get to a certain popularity you can keep that even if you have a flop record. Because the kids now pick a group they like and then buy the song if they like it. If they don’t like it, it doesn’t mean they don’t like the group. Nowadays it’s the group they like more than the records.”
The Gibb brothers departed and I stayed on chatting with Colin for several minutes. On my arrival in Brook Street I had seen evidence of the fans Barry had said were still faithful to them and when I left, the group’s white Rolls was still parked in the roadway while Maurice, Robin and Barry obliged the surrounding autograph hunters.
The Bee Gees K can report, are not over worried about what the future may hold – and I don’t think they need to be.

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Howard Carpendale sings bee gees cover : Islands in the stream

above

Howard Carpendale singt ISLANDS IN THE STREAM in Hamburg AUF DER GROßEN FREIHEIT 36 im Rahmen seines Club Konzerts am 15. Februar 2016




above
Konzert Stark 2010 Köln


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Bee Gees :snippets

TO BE OR NOT TO BE A MEGASTAR 
In an interview for Los Angeles K-EARTH 101 back in 1998 the Bee Gees said that when they were shooting Sgt Pepper's they were all crammed into one little dressing trailer... until the Monday after Saturday Night Fever was released. They came to work that day and found three huge new trailers with their name plates on them! The movie had made them superstars overnight .


 BEE GEES and BOOKS 
The Bee Gees have used books' titles for their songs (Hemingway's Islands In The Stream and For Whom The Bell Tolls). But writers have also used the Bee Gees in their novels. For example, the Bee Gees are mentioned in Norwegian Wood (1987), a novel by Haruki Murakami. The scene (chapter 4) is set around 1969 and the main character, Watanabe, is reading a book in a café while Bee Gees music is being played in the background. 

SWITCHING COSTUMES
 The Bee Gees and Wisconsin Gov. Lee Dreyfus switched costumes in 1979 when the Bee Gees arrived at the Dane County Regional Airport. Dreyfus, who proclaimed July 25 "Bee Gees Day in Wisconsin," admired his black satin tour jacket while Maurice, Robin and Barry Gibb donned their red vests. The gifts were exchanged before hundreds of fans who met the group at the airport. Dreyfus honored the group for donations to a children's charity.


 BIRTHDAY PRESENTS FOR MAURICE 
Maurice Gibb: "Years ago, what I got for my 21st birthday was a movie camera from Ringo Starr, a Rickenbacker guitar from George Harrison and a Gibson Monarch from John Lennon." (Inquirer News Service)

 BARRY GIBB'S RECOMMENDED SINGLES
 Roy Orbison: Cryin' Beach Boys: God only know Beach Boys: Good vibrations Carole King: It might be as well rain until September Bobby Vee: Take good care of my baby The Shirelles: Will you still love me tomorrow (Performing Songwriter) 

BARRY and HIS 'STUPID THINGS' 
His sister Lesley recalls, "I've never known a kid like him, always doing stupid things. We used to play in this park which had a building in the middle. We were always being told to stay away from there, but of course Barry wouldn't. It had a corrugated roof and he just went straight through. We thought he'd broken his back, but he'd only bruised himself." Though Barry thinks, "It was quite a bad fall and probably the core reason my back is still bad to this day.

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Happy 70th birthday to David English

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