The Ultimate Biography of The Bee Gees

by Hector Cook

  According to their Spin label stablemate Tony Barber, the brothers were also involved on his Nat Kipner produced Someday … Now album, but any vocal accompaniment is undetectable so it is likely that the participation is solely restricted to instrumental contributions, possibly from Barry and Maurice only. Like the Gibbs, Tony had emigrated to Australia on the Fairsea; in his case following the break-up of a serious relationship when his girlfriend left him for another man.

  “We recorded a lot of my album at Ossie Byrne’s studio,” he said. “I used The Bee Gees on quite a few of those tracks. It was a great little studio. We got some remarkable sounds out of it, a lot of it due to Ossie’s ingenuity. Ossie was great. We recorded ‘Spicks And Specks’ at his studio [and] I helped out with the arrangements and recording.”

  It wasn’t long, a month to be precise, before another M. Gibb & N. Kipner writing credit appeared on a Down Under release. This time it was The Mystics turn and ‘Don’t You Go, I Need Your Love’ was the end product, with a non-Gibb song, ‘Turn The Lamp Down’ appearing on the B-side. The ear suggests that the brothers sang on both sides but, if this is indeed the case, it has never been confirmed.

  The Mystics lived upto their name by maintaining a low profile. Originally from Cooma in New South Wales, the band won the Canberra division of Hoadley’s Battle Of The Bands competition; their prize being a one-release contract with Festival. Sadly, ‘Don’t You Go, I Need Your Love’ failed to launch their career, but mention of the song still brings back happy memories for lead singer Ron Watford, who maintains that, for one week, it actually outsold The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ in Cooma. Okay, so it only was 70 copies, but what a great claim to be able to pass on to future generations! Only 19 then, Ron also remembers Maurice’s amazing ability to notice little details, telling Ron that his guitar’s “G-string was flat”.

  October brought the final Down Under release to have Gibb involvement. Like all four of its predecessors, Ossie Byrne and Nat Kipner produced it at the Hurstville studios. The singer who sang their songs on this occasion was Adelaide born April Elizabeth Potts. She was discovered by Johnny O’Keefe who heard her sing, and who persuaded her to leave school early, and take up her hobby as a full-time career in Melbourne. Her new manager, Horrie Dargie, patiently groomed her for stardom, and was rewarded when, as April Byron, she had a big hit in May 1964 with ‘Make The World Go Away’. She became much in demand for television appearances, as well as live performances at discos dances and hotels. Her follow-up Leedon single, ‘Listen Closely’, was backed with ‘What Does A Girl Do’ which was co-written by April herself with Bill Shepherd. It is likely that it was Shepherd who introduced her to the Gibbs.

  Once again, it was a Maurice and Nat collaboration on the A-side, ‘He’s A Thief ’ while its companion was Barry’s ‘A Long Time Ago’. All three brothers provided backing vocals and instrumentation on both sides.

  There was a whole collection of Bee Gees demos lying unreleased in Festival’s vaults, recordings that would eventually be released against the Gibbs’ wishes. One that never did see the light of day on a Bee Gees record was ‘All The King’s Horses’, written by all three brothers, which 20-year-old singer Ronald Leslie Burns paired with ‘Coalman’, preferring Barry’s song as the A-side of his January, 1967 single. The Bee Gees’ backing vocals are apparent on both sides, as indeed is Barry’s guitar, Maurice’s piano and bass, and Colin Petersen’s drums. Spin’s press release predicted that its latest release “was all set to burn up the charts,” describing it as “a red hot item with Ronnie’s searing vocal of ‘Coalman’ given a tremendous musical backdrop featuring haunting guitar and male vocal chorus. A winner for sure!”

  As with their own ‘Spicks And Specks’, ‘Coalman’ would become a hit in the Gibbs’ absence, reaching a very commendable number seven in both the Sydney and home town of Melbourne local charts. Ronnie plundered the demo tapes, firstly releasing a four-track EP where he combined the single with ‘Top Hat’ and ‘Butterfly’. He then had another hit single with ‘In The Morning’ / ‘Exit Stage Right’. All of these songs would be joined by ‘Terrible Way To Treat Your Baby’ and ‘I’ll Know What To Do’ on his début LP, Ronnie; resulting in eight of its 14 tracks having flowed from the pen of a Gibb hand.

  Peter Robinson, former bass guitarist with Ronnie’s Melbourne-based backing band, confirmed that The Strangers were involved as unaccredited session musicians in the recording of the two singles, as well as on ‘Terrible Way To Treat Your Baby.’ These songs may have also have been co-produced by fellow band member, guitarist John Farrar, famous later for teaming up with Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch of The Shadows, and producing and writing for Olivia Newton John.

  The versions of these songs are very similar to The Bee Gees’ original demos, but they are new recordings. “I was given the demo’s for ‘Coalman’ and ‘Exit Stage Right’,” says Ronnie, “and I was really impressed. I went back to my manager at the time, Jeff Joseph, and said that the songs were really good and can we get some more? So all the other demos arrived, which I really liked also. I went upto Sydney at the Hurstville Studios to record the songs, and while Nat Kipner is given the credit as producer on the records, it was really The Bee Gees who produced the songs. I was relatively new as a solo singer having left my previous band, The Flies. I had just had two reasonable hits (‘Very Last Day’ and ‘True True Lovin’ ’), so I was looking for some other material.”

  One demo, which particularly caught Ronnie’s ear, was ‘Terrible Way To Treat Your Baby’. “I was really into the Scott Walker sound, and that’s why I liked the song. I spent some time with them while we were recording the album, and even spent a night at their house, I think. I remember their old green Kombi van, [but] what I really recall is they had this guitar at home with only two strings on it, and they were too poor to afford the other four strings.” Perhaps displaying a hitherto well disguised sense of humour, but then again perhaps not, Ronnie went on to claim, “That’s how they came up with the ‘Spicks And Specks’ song, because that’s all they could make of two chords!” Ronnie continues to perform today with his band, Burns, Cotton and Morris, with his colleagues Daryl Cotton and Russell Morris.

  Maurice and Nat managed to squeeze two more songs out of their available time together, with ‘Raining Teardrops’ and ‘As Fast As I Can’ comprising both sides of a single for Barrington Davis. Displaying their versatility as writers, the A-side is a rock number while the reverse is a slow ballad. This time Spin’s press-release was somewhat wide of the mark. Although it did earn the solid airplay predicted of it, it was much to Maurice’s chagrin that he discovered that both the R&B flavoured numbers were “penned by two Australians, Nat Kipner and Barry Gibb, aimed at the teen set”.

  While Barrington did make some other records that do sound like they had Gibb vocals on them, this was definitely not the case. Maurice played bass and piano on this record though. While recording with Nat and Maurice, Barrington remembers Barry was busy in another corner of the studio working on a new song which had a strange title. It was called ‘Spicks And Specks’. One member of Powerpact, Dennis Wilson, also regularly recorded at Hurstville, and often played on The Bee Gees demo recordings, although not on the finished product itself.

  Like the Gibbs, Barrington himself originated from Lancashire, in his case from Blackpool, and he returned to England in 1969 where he met up with the eldest brother again while Barry was recording with P.P. Arnold. He remembers driving around London with Barry in his Rolls-Royce convertible.

  As The Bee Gees ‘Spicks And Specks’ began to make an impact, the brothers quickly found themselves in greater demand than ever before. In most cases, the actual release of these late 1966 recordings came after the boys had left Australia, and some would even be delayed until the latter part of 1967.

  Jon Blanchfield, simply referred to as “Jon” on disc, went to Hurstville and recorded ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ and ‘Town Of Tuxley Toymaker, Part One’. Barry alon
e wrote the more often played side, which reached number 32 in Queensland, but all three are credited on ‘Tuxley’. It is ironic that, on the back of the success of ‘Spicks And Specks’, Jon should receive more promotion than The Bee Gees ever got during their time in Australia. Leedon purchased a full page advert in the February 1 edition of Go-Set which contained nine photos of Jon and contained near embarrassing accolades from three prominent deejays. The “Bee Gee’s” (sic) ‘Tuxley’ was described by 4GR’s Ross Weldon as “a very haunting and absolute up-tempoed ballad,” whatever that means. Almost 35 years later, fans are still waiting for Part Two.

  Jon met The Bee Gees while they were doing Countdown, a TV show which he hosted in his native Queensland; an entirely different show from the one that Molly Meldrum hosted in the Seventies. “They liked my voice and invited me down to record a song in Sydney on the Leedon label (which he thinks was owned by Johnny O’Keefe at the time) and which they had an ‘arrangement’ with. They also asked me to stay at their house in Maroubra for a period of three weeks. They may have written ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ for me, but they were working on ‘Town Of Tuxley Toymaker’ while they were recording the TV show back in Brisbane.” Legend has it that this backstage composition took them just ten minutes to finish.

  “I also toured with them a couple of times in Queensland,” Jon added, “and not always to a good response. I remember once in particular where Robin had an egg thrown at him in Toowoomba in Queensland, and he let the egg stain remain for the whole tour. I was also at the studio when they were recording ‘Spicks And Specks’, and while they were waiting for the brass section from the nearby Oceanic Hotel to arrive, Barry wrote ‘Coalman’.” At least something good came out of that incident – the brass section’s recording remained unused.

  Living in the Gibb household obviously allowed Jon to gain a better perspective of the family than most. “They were a very different sort of people. You got the impression you couldn’t get close to them. They had a very ‘us against the world’ attitude, that they were very determined to make it. They were totally driven.”

  Another example of their extrovert behaviour was forthcoming from Jon. “The Gibbs took full advantage of their Myers – a huge department store – credit arrangement before they returned to the UK, buying things they would need [for] when they [got there]. They then paid it back when they returned four years later!

  “I saw them off on the boat,” he continued, “and Barry was very supportive of me to the end, telling me I had the necessary talent to make it, and to stick at it.” Despite this good advice, Jon ceased singing after he got married in 1971 and is now into management, with several bands on his books.

  Trevor Hales, a New Zealand male solo singer of British origin, released his own rendition of ‘Town Of Tuxley Toymaker, Part One’ as a single on the obscure Zodiac label shortly after Blanchfield’s version. Formerly a member of The Aussie Pleazers, who folded after completing a three month contract working the Auckland club circuit and who should not be confused with The Pleasers, Trevor used ‘Tuxley’ to launch his solo career as Shane; the highlight of which was a huge hit in August, 1969, called ‘Saint Paul’. Shane continues to be involved in the music industry to this day.

  Another visitor to Ossie’s studio was Jenene Watson, and she too, in what was quickly becoming a trend, was only referred to by her Christian name on her Spin release. Again the label made a reasonable effort to promote this up-and-coming artist, described as “star of ABC’s television programme Crackerjack, accomplished singer, dancer, versatile entertainer, a trouper in Australia and overseas.” The formula of a Maurice and Nat song on the A-side, and a Barry one on the reverse, was once again repeated on ‘So Long Boy’/‘Don’t Say No’, the songs being described by Spin’s release sheet as “a novelty, semi R&B” and “a big ballad” respectively.

  Barry remained as prolific as ever, quickly churning out four more songs. Adelaide formed but Melbourne based band, The Twilights, included ‘Long Life’ on their self-titled album for Columbia, a song which bass guitarist John Bywater recalls that Barry wrote for them while they were recording their own ‘Come Back Baby’ at Hurstville, when Barry was in the back room of the studio.

  John De Jong was born in Indonesia, but he grew upon his parents’ farm in Kalamunda in Western Australia, later making live appearances with The Nomads. By 1965 he had become the host of local television pop show Club 17, and within a year he had signed to Clarion and formed Kompany. Within months they had a massive number one hit in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne with The Easybeats’ penned ‘Step Back’ and suddenly, Johnny Young was the hottest name in the land. After another big hit in January 1967, Johnny left to pursue a solo career and used The Nomads – now renamed The Strangers – on his recording of Barry’s ‘Lady’, a single that was also issued on the Decca label in Britain. In fact, within weeks, he had travelled to London where he recorded three songs already released by The Bee Gees themselves. Returning to Australia in January 1968, Young neglected his own singing career to concentrate on writing hits for other artists.

  Fellow Indonesian Marty Rhone also had the good fortune to work with the Gibbs. The Spin artist recorded ‘She Is Mine’ / ‘Village Tapestry’ at Ossie Byrne’s studio and the brothers provided guest backing vocals for both songs.

  In September, Noeleen Batley released the fourth song written for her by Barry, and ‘The Wishing Song’ became the second of the quartet to be issued as an A-side. “We laughed a lot and had so much enjoyment,” she recalled. “My friendship is still close, and they are like my brothers to me.” This is hardly surprising when you consider that they’ve been friends for almost 40 years now.

  Country singer Johnny Ashcroft’s career took off as the result of even more uplifting emotions. He is best known in Australia for his 1960 release, ‘Little Boy Lost’, which tells the true story of a young boy who survived a number of days lost in the Australian bush, and which was co-written by him with Sydney DJ, Tony Withers. It was also released in the USA by Capitol, as well as being covered in the UK by Tommy Steele.

  Whenever Johnny was recording, he was on the lookout for new local material. The fourth in this batch of Barry’s songs was given to him by his record company Columbia/EMI, but Johnny is unsure of whether this was prompted in any way by Barry. “I had previously worked with The Bee Gees on Bandstand,” Johnny explained, “and had performed with them on a show in a Sydney club. I chose ‘Don’t Forget Me Ida’ from a heap of material submitted by various music publishers, on the basis that it is a lovely song, not simply because it is a Barry Gibb song.” The late Eric Dunn was the producer, but the Gibbs were not present.

  Even when they didn’t have time to write, the brothers were always prepared to lend support, and the trio can be clearly heard accompanying Festival’s Ray Brown & The Whispers (originally called The Nocturnes) on ‘Too Late To Come Home’, located on the flipside of ‘Respect’. Lead singer Ray Brown died of a heart attack in 1996, but former Whispers’ members, guitarist Laurie Barclay and bass player John Manners were prepared to go “on record” in July 1998 about the problems besetting the band at the time of recording. Firstly, they wanted to concentrate on the recording itself. They said that the Gibbs’ appearance came about simply because they were Festival label mates. They can recall that the song sounded pretty average before the brothers came in and did their overdubs. The recordings took place in August, 1966 with Joe Halford as the producer, and Barry Neagle as the engineer.

  John Manners spoke very highly of Bill Shepherd, who was the producer of most of The Whispers’ previous recordings and called him a “lovely guy”. He said Shepherd was a brilliant musician and a very patient producer. In contrast, he remembers Robert Iredale as being somewhat arrogant and intimidating at first, appearing to be disinterested in them until they had some success. Manners also said that The Bee Gees had great respect from their peers, and at the time, fellow musicians couldn’t understand their lack of commercial success.
However, when presented with cute kids’ ditties such as ‘My Old Man’s A Dustman’, it may have been hard for record buyers to accept them as a legitimate rock or pop act. Relations between the band and Ray Brown were not good, and in fact the song was recorded at three sessions, one where the music was recorded and then separately when Ray, and then the Gibbs, recorded their vocals.

  Although Ray died in August of 1996, he had remained good friends with the Gibbs and met up with them during a visit to the USA in the early Nineties. Indicative of the affection that the brothers held for their contemporary was their offer of their own studios for the comeback album Ray had been planning.

  It had taken eight long years for the MPD Ltd’s bass player, the late Pete Watson who died in 1972 following a long illness, to finally team up with his fellow “10 pound tourists” from that fateful August 1958 voyage. ‘Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder’ and ‘I Am What I Am’, released on the Go! label, are two more songs that contain some very recognisable vocals or instrumentation. Guitarist Mike Brady, another English immigrant, said he could never forget one moment in particular from yet another Hurstville session. He related how, on ‘Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder,’ Maurice sort of played piano with a plectrum in an attempt to create a unique sound, while stamping the pedals with his foot. Mike went on to become Australia’s most successful advertising jingle writer. The group took its moniker from the Christian names of its members; drummer Danny Finley completing the line-up.