The Ultimate Biography of The Bee Gees

by Hector Cook

  “Show business is one of the biggest destroyers of a marriage there is … After we arrived in Britain, I was working most nights and she would hardly ever see me … but show business is my life. I am in love with my career and I mean in love. I would come home at three and then we would fight until six and then I had to be back in the studio again.

  “It went on until I didn’t know what day it was and I was falling asleep at the piano. There would be arguing as to where I had been. It was destroying me physically. Destroying me because I could not sleep,” he continued.

  “On tours, I couldn’t take my wife, and we were spending lengthy spells in America. We were incompatible as regards horoscopes and stars and I believe in those things. It took just a year to come to a head.

  “I really think we were both unaware of what marriage would mean to us. I told her what it could be like, but she didn’t know that she wouldn’t be able to go around with me. I couldn’t take her with me because she made me nervous.”

  The stress of trying to live in a marriage he increasingly viewed as a mistake had evidently become intolerable for him. “I had a mental, not a nervous breakdown,” he said. “I couldn’t take any more. When people start throwing things around and shouting at each other … it got so I would lie awake at night. My hair was falling out and my head was falling off. She was the same.

  “We were in the flat, and I think I had just come back from America. She would question me. She mistrusted me, with good reasons. I didn’t do things like that, but I was a pop artist, and pop artists are notorious for that kind of thing because there are so many groupies around. On the final row, I was bursting for freedom and I just walked out. I left her but I did not desert her,” he admitted.

  “The marriage lasted just over a year. I think we were just too young. The parting was mutual. We will just wait a couple of years and then get divorced. It is all unfortunate.”

  Despite Barry’s protestations of innocence regarding groupies, Maureen may have had good reason to distrust him. While his relationship with Lynda turned out to be a lasting one, Lynda recalled that at one point their relationship almost broke down because of previous dalliances with groupies. “After I was living with him, the girls used to come to the door, and they were all engaged! One time, Barry was doing this TV thing. I was at home cleaning the flat, so I’m in a scruffy old dress, no make-up. Just how you generally are doing housework. The doorbell rings. It was the penthouse apartment, and the door wouldn’t open unless I buzzed the person in. You could look through this eye and see who it was. I saw this chick there and thought, ‘Oh?’ because she looked as if she was expected. I opened the door and said, ‘Can I help you?’ So she says [in a Swedish accent], ‘Oh yes, I have come to see Barry.’ I knew there was some press expected that afternoon so I said, ‘Come on in, he won’t be long.’ ”

  According to Lynda, the girl made herself at home, tossing her coat over a chair, lying back and saying, “Barry and I, we are so in love.”

  Lynda was seething but managed to ask levelly, “Oh really?” only to be told, “Oh, we had such a wonderful time at the Top Of The Pops.”

  “I said, ‘Oh, you did, did you?’ … She said, ‘Are you the girl who answers the phone and does things for Barry?’ I said, ‘Well, you could say that.’ She says, ‘How long have you worked for Barry?’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve just stopped,’ ” Lynda recounted.

  Lesley’s husband was at that time working for Barry as his personal assistant, so he took the call when Lynda phoned to speak to Barry. “Keith … said, ‘Lynda, you sound a bit upset.’ ‘Who is this girl?’ I screamed. ‘What are you talking about?’ he says. I say, ‘The girl who had such a wonderful time with Barry last night.’ He says, ‘Oh no. Are you upset?’ I said, screaming,

  ‘Am I upset?’ ”

  She told Keith that she was packing her bags to leave when Barry came to the phone. “I said, ‘Barry, there’s some Swedish girl telling me about you and her last night.’ He says, ’Oh, she arrived at Top Of The Pops last night. It wasn’t my fault. It had happened on a tour before you were around. I said, like I usually said, ‘When you come to England, come to see me.’ I said, ‘I don’t believe you.’”

  Lynda went back to her packing, as Barry and Keith rushed to the penthouse flat. “After that incident,” Lynda said, “Barry started taking me on tour. He said, ‘You’re coming on tour; then you can’t get misled that there’s anything going on.’ I said okay and unpacked my bags.”

  From then on, Lynda became a fixture of The Bee Gees’ tours.

  * * *

  Julie Barrett won’t forget the NEMS office Christmas party of 1967 in a hurry. “I remember Maurice drinking quite a lot. He had his cousin Chris who was his chauffeur at the time, and Maurice volunteered that I could have a lift home. We were going from Brook Street, and Maurice had this Rolls-Royce and we drove along, and obviously they decided that we couldn’t go all the way to Wandsworth, which is where I lived at the time. So they stopped at a bus stop, and I had to get out of this big posh car, and then stand and wait for a bus.”

  Not one to bear a grudge, Julie looks back on the memory of this lack of consideration with fondness. “I liked Maurice,” she confirmed, citing the group’s sudden rise to fame as a factor. “When I look back on it now, they had far too much to contend with, they were very young.”

  After all the stresses of their personal and professional lives, it seems little wonder that later that month both Barry and Robin collapsed from nervous exhaustion on a flight from Australia to Turkey.

  The two brothers had left England for Australia on December 23, “But due to the time difference we arrived on Christmas Day,” Barry explained. “We missed Christmas Eve altogether!”

  With Robert Stigwood’s promotional flair, there was no way that the boys would slip quietly into the country, unnoticed by the media. “It was supposed to be a holiday,” Barry said, “but there were people waiting for us to arrive – press and television people were wanting us all the time. Not that we mind the interviews – it’s great that somebody is taking an interest.”

  The boys did manage to celebrate Christmas with Robert Stigwood’s family, but the Australian pop journalists continued to focus attention on the returning pop heroes. “We went on to Sydney,” Barry continued, “where it was just press and photographers morning, noon and night. We were beginning to get very tired and weary, but we were loving every minute of it … When we left Australia, we had had barely any sleep.”

  Nor would they find any relaxation on their return flight, as both were tense passengers. “We just cannot sleep on planes. Robin is as nervous as a kitten. You hear of so many crashes … I know that you can say there is more chance of a crash on the roads, but it can happen in the air, too. Or on a train, like Robin in the Hither Green tragedy. He could well have been killed.

  “I hate flying. It just worries me because it’s not a natural thing to do. We were due to stop in Istanbul, anyway, but we had been flying for 28 hours solid, and we were really fagged out. About an hour or so before we got there, we just couldn’t keep awake any longer.

  “Robert advised that we should go to hospital for a check-up. They told us there that we were suffering from mental and physical exhaustion. So we decided to rest up. There wasn’t anything else we could do.”

  Maurice, on the other hand, was ebullient. His relationship with pop star Lulu had become public knowledge, and the pair seemed to be the perfect show business couple. “Lulu and I met on the Top Of The Pops TV show three months ago, and then at the Saville Theatre in London last month,” he told Disc. “We got on very well and that evening went with a crowd of people to the Speakeasy Club. Lulu admired a ring I was wearing and I gave it to her to try on. Then she couldn’t get it off, so I thought, ‘Might as well get her phone number to arrange for the return of the ring …’

  “We’ve been seeing one another nearly every night since then. It’s difficult because we’re both working so hard. It
means grabbing a few hours when we can. Marriage? I think we are a bit young for that.”

  The Bee Gees finished the year off with their Christmas Eve special How On Earth? filmed by ABC TV ten days earlier at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. The programme, broadcast at 6.35 p.m., featured special seasonal material such as their own composition ‘Thank You (For Christmas)’ – recorded in the studio on December 1 – as well as their own arrangements of the traditional Christmas carols ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Hark The Herald Angels Sing’. The English folk group The Settlers were also part of the proceedings which were conducted by The Very Reverend Edward H. Patey, Dean of the Cathedral.

  Before the concert, the TV crew took background footage including some where children walked into the main hall, miming to some music. One of the boys, Dave Wyatt, remembers that during a break in filming, he and a friend, John Davies, decided to explore the building and wandered down some steps where they encountered two of the Gibbs having a cup of tea. They chatted for a couple of minutes. Later that evening, after the performance, Dave recalled thinking that this new group were good singers but “would never be as good as The Beatles”.

  Perhaps unseen by the group, the progressive nature of Patey’s service attracted considerable hostility both before and after the event. Not only did it feature one of the top pop groups of the day, it also had DJ Kenny Everett reading the Gospel in scouse,* and pictures of teenage girls dancing and screaming in front of their idols, and embracing their boyfriends. There were also reports of beer drinking and smoking.

  Although the show was considered controversial at the time, the Dean should now be thought of more as saint than sinner for his innovative ideas, as many religious programmes nowadays use rock music as part of their format. Indeed, it would be a good few years again until groups like The Resurrection Band and Petra became accepted as part of Christian music as a whole. The Gibbs themselves probably got it just about right when they sang … “Every Christian lion-hearted man will show you”.

  *Dialect of inhabitants of the Liverpool region.

  12

  HORIZONTAL

  JANUARY 1968 began with a promotional trip to the United States. Los Angeles Police Department were on alert in anticipation of a Beatles-type reception, and special security arrangements were being put in place even as the group boarded their plane for the long flight, with bodyguards waiting for them on their arrival. Police were there in their dozens to hold back the anticipated crowds, and police cars were standing by to convoy them to their hotel and to public appearances. Thankfully things went according to plan and, on this occasion, there were no noteworthy incidents.

  Shortly afterwards, The Bee Gees made their first ever appearance on American television on The Smothers Brothers Show on CBS. Tommy Smothers had first encountered The Bee Gees on a trip to London and immediately became a friend as well as a fan. On the show that evening, Tommy wore a shirt which Maurice had bought for him at The Beatles’ Apple boutique.

  In an interview around that time, Colin Petersen spoke of the contrasting dispositions of the brothers, saying, “They have totally different personalities. Robin is a very temperamental and very highly strung person. His music is his whole life and he is highly sensitive to criticism. Barry is a very easy-going and receptive type. He adapts himself to the situations he finds himself in at the time. He is very interested in the potential acting possibilities of the group. I think he would like to be a film star more than a singer. Maurice is closer to my attitudes and ideas. He has the same kind of humour as I have. We have other common interests like playing chess. He’s the kind of guy who will come over and give you a hand washing the car. As brothers, they really have very little in common, except the feeling that they are living for the day.”

  Barry agreed with Colin about the differences between him and his brothers. “Although I write songs with Robin, I’m the complete opposite of him in a way,” he said. “I can take life seriously and as a joke, because I believe that the moment we’re born, we’re dying, and there’s no use going through it looking miserable! If you think you can do better, then fight like hell to do it! But don’t let yourself be dragged down by your own moods – just enjoy what you’ve got.

  “ ‘Mattress-back’ Gibb, which is Robin, is currently getting out of bed. Probably got his second sock on by now … I wouldn’t say he’s slow – I’d just say he was dead. Actually, he’s probably halfway dressed and having some breakfast, and then he’s coming straight in here, which at this point you’ll be amazed! This is typical – it happens every morning. And night.”

  On the other hand, Barry felt that he and Maurice had a little more in common, adding, “Maurice is a Gay Young Blade … Maurice likes going out and having fun. Which is like I am – I like to go out and have a lot of fun … Maurice likes to have a good time too … I’m not the raver Maurice is – Maurice would stay out all night every night if it were humanly possible. But it’s not, so he doesn’t.”

  The rest of the Gibb family added their comments to Barry’s summary. “Maurice just lives for today,” said Hugh Gibb. “He’s the one of the three of them that likes a bit of night life now and again. He likes to have a good time, and he doesn’t worry about anything. He’s everybody’s friend – he’s got a super sense of humour, and he’s so talkative. Barry and Robin are the two artistic ones, Maurice is much more practical – he takes after me more … If I had something important to be done, I’d ask Maurice because he is reliable – the other two are dreamers.”

  “As soon as you meet Maurice, you know him,” Barbara added. “He’s a very outward person. He doesn’t have a care in the world. Maurice spends his money, whereas Robin hoards it. Maurice will spend until he’s told to stop. Maurice is the only one to have a drink now and again.”

  Ten-year-old Andy came right to the point, saying, “Maurice is … most friendly and plays with me when he comes home. I don’t like Robin – he doesn’t talk to me.”

  Elder sister Lesley described Robin as “very difficult to get to know … very reserved. We went to Rome and he only came out of his room once. It isn’t that he’s unsociable – he’s just like that. You have to be content to do what he wants to do, otherwise you have to do things on your own.”

  “He’s a fanatic about his food,” Barbara said. “He always inspects his knife and fork to make sure they’re clean; many’s the time he’s sent a fork back to me because he thinks it’s dirty. He’s more artistic than the others in every way. He has got beautiful hands and really looks after them. His nails are long and slender, and in general he’s very particular about his person. He uses his hands to express himself; if you cut them off he couldn’t talk. He wears suits all the time; he’ll never wear anything casual even in hot weather.”

  “He’s basically lazy, but not with his music,” Hugh asserted. “When it comes to anything physical, he can’t be bothered. If there was a wallet on the ground with £100 in it, he’d walk over it rather than bend down to pick it up. He’s a bit of a hypochondriac too. He worries about his health and if he gets a little pain, he thinks it’s the beginning of something awful.

  “Another thing about him, he always thinks he’s right. It’s just his generation, I think, although the other boys aren’t like it. Maybe he’ll secretly know he’s wrong, but he’s just so stubborn he won’t give in …”

  While in the US The Bee Gees made an appearance on NBC’s Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, and on January 27 they played two concerts at the Anaheim Convention Center in Orange County, California, each to an appreciative audience of around 8,000. The fee was $25,000, an astonishing amount at that time.

  Ann Moses, editor of Tiger Beat and LA correspondent for New Musical Express, wrote, “The Bee Gees gave Los Angeles the greatest pop show it has ever witnessed! The LA audience, which is usually rudely blasé (to the point of booing Jimi Hendrix on The Mamas and Papas concert last summer), showed their appreciation and complete admiration by giving The Bee Gees a standing ovation at the
close of their second show.

  “The Bee Gees followed the same format as at their Saville show and worked beautifully with the 30-piece orchestra, with whom they had only rehearsed twice. The audience couldn’t resist clapping wildly at the intro of each familiar tune.”

  The concert was noticeable for the inclusion of their version of ‘Gilbert Green’, a song which they never released themselves, but which would crop up in occasional performances during the following year.

  Barry explained their decision to play in Los Angeles alone, rather than doing a full concert tour. “Our manager thinks we should limit our appearances here. I think this is not to overexpose ourselves. We have been very lucky that the Americans have accepted our records, and the fastest way to spoil this would be to come into America and work all over the country for about six weeks. Then they’d say, ‘Oh yes, we’ve seen them. We’re not interested.’ ”

  The trip was arranged to coincide with the release of their latest single, ‘Words’, written especially for the soundtrack to a movie called The Mini

  Mob.

  Georgie Fame had a starring role in the Robert Amran directed film, but it never actually gained release. “It might not have been good enough!” he speculated. “I don’t know whether it was edited, I never saw a completed version of it. It was all rather embarrassing – most of it was shot by the river at Maidenhead, I think. We were meant to be kidnapped on a boat.”

  Turning to The Bee Gees’ music for the aborted project, Georgie Fame considered, “I think they did write about half a dozen tunes. At that time it was considered a good move to try and get into movies. I always liked their harmonising, their vocals, and Barry Gibb’s written a lot of good tunes. It wasn’t my kind of music, but I admired them, especially the high voices. They had a very distinctive sound which is important if you want to make inroads. You could always tell The Bee Gees apart from anybody else because of their own individual sound.”