The Ultimate Biography of The Bee Gees

by Hector Cook

  Robin Gibb was equally effusive about The Robert Stigwood Orchestra compilation. “Barry, Maurice and myself are completely thrilled by this LP, a life-long ambition has been fulfilled to hear our music played by a full orchestra. They have done it splendidly and I shall cherish it always and I hope it will be the first of many such albums.” In actual fact, The Robert Stigwood Orchestra did not exist; it was simply an assembly of top musicians, specially brought together for the album.

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  On September 12, The Bee Gees flew to Brussels and spent the next two weeks recording a television spectacular with Jean Christophe Averti to promote the Idea album on French television. The resulting hour long special featured guest appearances by The Brian Auger Trinity with Julie Driscoll and Swedish pop singer Lill Lindfors, who performed her version of ‘Words’ in her native language. Compared to today’s music videos, the programme looks simplistic and at times rather comical, with the group performing songs from Horizontal and Idea against pop art backdrops. There were even fairly primitive special effects used in ‘Indian Gin And Whisky Dry’ to make it appear that the boys are bouncing up and down in their respective shot glasses and floating question marks during ‘I Started A Joke’.

  At one point during their stay in Brussels, the Belgian Police would not allow The Bee Gees’ limousine to stop outside their hotel, The Metropole, due to a fashion show being held there by the French pop star Johnny Halliday’s wife, Sylvie Vartan. Maurice’s leg was injured as he attempted to get out of the car, leading to a formal complaint being filed with the Chief of Police by Robert Stigwood.

  Back in Britain, Vince Melouney announced, “In future I intend to have much more to say and do because people think that Colin and I have the least talent in the group, and I’m out to prove them wrong. Both outside and inside the group I want to prove that I am capable of doing successful things as well. I came over to England because of the lack of appreciation in Australia. I used to practise a hell of a lot, and the more I did the less musical respect I’ve got. It was either going back to playing simple stuff or come to England. We Australians, you see, looked up to England like Buddha.

  “Certainly I get frustrated,” he added. “Everybody does, whatever they do. But to have the initiative to keep going you must get uptight about things. If everything was rosy all the time it would be a bit of a drag. I honestly enjoy being in the group. I get as much of a kick out of being in The Bee Gees as I would being in a blues group. And because I have different musical ideas to the Gibb brothers, it’s fine. If we had all the same ideas it would become a drag. Being different makes it all the more interesting.”

  Colin Petersen also spoke out about the pop scene. “There are many people in groups who take it upon themselves to make social comments, which is stupid,” he said. “One minute you work at the butcher’s, the next minute you’re a pop star and asked to make social comments. What has made you any the more intelligent? Of course there are exceptions, but there’s a lot of rubbish spoken.

  “I do try and write songs, but it’s no good competing against the brothers. Maurice and I try and write something, and in the meantime Barry’s written 53 songs. So you can see what I mean! I write but my songs are very Dylanish and country inspired. Very odd lyrics in fact. Some turn out very ambiguous. ‘Everything That Came From Mother Goose’ is the best we’ve done and Manfred’s Klaus Voormann is knocked out with it. Before joining The Bee Gees last year I had various offers of films. I nearly got a part in Round The Mulberry Bush in fact; although I couldn’t tell you whether it was the starring role that Barrie Evans landed. You see, I came over to England to get back into films. I had no intention of joining The Bee Gees. But their success hasn’t surprised me. They were the only group in Australia, apart from Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs when Vince was with them, who I thought capable of making it internationally.”

  Maurice explained his own role in the group in Disc & Music Echo, saying, “I do less singing, of course. I only come in on high harmonies. I’m more of the musician, playing the piano, bass, mellotron or organ on records, which saves money on hiring musicians, for one thing. It’s the same when it comes to writing. I write the music, because I cannot really write lyrics. But I can write chords like Robin’s never heard of. So I provide the music for them to write the lyrics to. It’s the same as on stage – when we write we complement each other. To prove that, we wrote six songs, Barry and I, while Robin was ill during the American tour, and they were terrible until Robin came back, and then everything worked out. It’s very hard to write a song alone, and it’s only by jamming that you can get a song together. That’s the way we do it. At the same time, I’ve never liked many of our records. I positively hated ‘Massachusetts’ and ‘Message’, and yet they have been two of our biggest hits.”

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  Barry’s girlfriend Lynda Gray had been receiving harassing calls at the couple’s penthouse flat in Ave Maria Lane near St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The mysterious caller made another appearance when Barry was at home with Lynda on October 20, and Barry, armed with a pistol, ran to the door.

  “When I opened the front door, this man was still speaking on the intercom,” Barry related. “He was a big guy – aged about 35. I asked if he was the person who had kept calling at the flat. He said he was. Then he started running down the street. I chased him and fired a blank from my .38 in the air. At that point the police arrived. We both went to the police station and were questioned. I don’t know what will happen now.”

  No charges were filed against the unnamed Edinburgh man, aged 34, but Barry was charged with possessing both the .38 pistol and a German Luger without a firearms licence. He was ordered to appear in court on December 3, where he was fined £25 on the firearms violation. In an amusing footnote to the affair, the chairman at London’s Guildhall Court commented after the hearing, “Besides possessing two pistols, about the only thing I can see Mr Gibb has done wrong is wearing a white suit to court.” Barry had also been guilty of ignoring good advice – his own, from three years earlier, when he had sworn “to be more careful with guns in future”.

  Meanwhile Robin was also making headlines in the music papers for a non-musical reason: his ever-lengthening hair, which one writer noted was beginning to resemble that of the eccentric American pop star, Tiny Tim. From America, where he was supervising Cream’s farewell tour, Robert Stigwood issued the order to Robin, “Get your hair cut before I return from America in a week’s time or there will be trouble!”

  “I have no intention of getting my hair cut,” Robin hotly retorted, as the group left for Amsterdam for the first leg of the European tour. “I like it the way it is. After all, even Jesus had long hair. If they don’t like me for what I am, then that’s their choice. But if they are going to knock me just for my hair, I don’t want to know them. The length of a person’s hair should not have anything to do with his capabilities as a singer. The rest of the group haven’t complained to me. They don’t mind at all. If my hair was dirty and full of grease, then they could knock me. But I shampoo it twice a week; in fact, I’m a fanatic on showers and baths. I really don’t know why Robert is so insistent about this, and I don’t know what he means about trouble!”

  Barry discussed his recalcitrant younger brother with the New Musical Express’ Nick Logan, “He won’t talk about it. He’s just got this mental block on the whole subject. Yet he’s conservative in other ways. He wouldn’t dream of stepping out of his front door without his suit and tie and the whole bit. Yet he will not get his hair cut, and I don’t think anyone in the business should criticise him for it.”

  Robin’s fiancée Molly refused to become embroiled in the great hair debate. “It looks nice long, besides which I wouldn’t try to influence him,” she said. “He is very stubborn and when his mind’s made up, nobody can change it.”

  Robin had also come under fire for his stage presence. Standing perfectly still in the spotlight with his right hand cupped to his ear, his left ar
m outstretched, he looked, according to one writer, “like a gawkish village bobby on point duty”.

  “My concentration is fully on a) my voice and b) my audience, which is why I don’t prance around on stage,” he explained defensively. “I can’t be something I’m not. I’m a songwriter and a singer but not a performer. It’s not within my character to move about. My confidence is not in my body but in my voice. I feel very embarrassed if I try to move about a bit. That’s for Barry to do, not me.”

  The proposed European tour had run into problems in Germany where The Bee Gees were turned down by 31 hotels. The country’s innkeepers evidently feared a repeat of the fan riots which had dogged the group when they toured the country earlier in the year. In an attempt to find a solution, Robert Stigwood announced plans to rent a “complete portable hotel” for the group and staff, with each Bee Gee having his own luxury portable caravan suite, and 10 more mobile homes to house the staff. Protection for the group would be provided by 100 security men.

  On his return to Britain the following week, Stigwood conceded defeat in the battle of the haircut. “I have given up,” he said. “If he feels so strongly about it, then okay, let him keep his hair as it is.”

  His attempts to keep the three members of Cream together were no more successful, but he intended to keep trying, as he told Disc & Music Echo. “I have not made any progress as yet in my attempts to prevent the Cream from splitting, so their current American tour can still be regarded as their farewell tour, but I am going back shortly to discuss it again with them.”

  Stigwood also abandoned his plans to hire the caravan convoy for The Bee Gees’ tour of Germany in November, announcing that the group and security men would travel and sleep in the train used by the Queen and The Beatles during their visits to Germany.

  The grandiose plans raised some eyebrows, but Stigwood fended off the criticism, saying, “England seems to be on such a very self-destructive kick these days. In the beat boom everyone was proud – the press, the DJs, the public – but now everyone is a bit cynical. Yet The Bee Gees have sold 10 million singles and three million LPs which is an unparalleled achievement and selling records is what it’s all about. I suppose on their current sales rate, The Bee Gees could be millionaires in two more years, but they live like such already which causes a little bitterness with other groups because so few of the others happen on an international level. I make The Bee Gees live on the level they can afford and I’m very tough with them.”

  Next it was Vince Melouney’s turn for the headlines when, after protesting how content he was as a member of The Bee Gees the previous month, he suddenly announced that he would leave the group at the close of the tour. “The talent I had didn’t come up to the talent of the Gibb brothers,” he explained. “I realised that my ideas, within the context of what they were doing, didn’t augment their ideas.

  “I learned one thing in Australia and that was that if I was in a group that didn’t appear to be progressing, I always left it even if they were earning big money, because I would feel I was letting myself down as a musician. I’m leaving The Bee Gees because now is the time I feel I must try my own musical policies. I feel I can express myself a lot more outside The Bee Gees than within them. There are certainly no bad feelings between us, we’ve all been good friends for years and I’m sure will remain so. It’s the simple question of all groups having to or needing to break up sooner or later, either for musical or personal reasons. For me, it’s the music, and the right time, I feel, just happens to be now.”

  With Cream on the verge of splitting and the precociously talented Steve Winwood having left the successful Spencer Davis Group, it certainly wasn’t uncommon for groups to fragment. Indeed, it was quite the fashion to either go solo or join up with evacuees from other bands. Vince’s need for musical independence was inspired by a visit by Tony Ashton & Roy Dyke, formerly of The Remo Four, and Kim Gardner, formerly with The Creation, to a Bee Gees recording session. Vince became friendly with them and offered to lend an ear to their own output.

  “I heard the tracks they were doing, said to them that I’d like to produce their discs, and this they let me do. We got a lot of stuff recorded. The more I got involved with them, the more I appreciated what they were about and what they were trying to do. I just felt that I wanted to join in with them because I felt strongly about what they were playing.

  “Of course being with The Bee Gees gave me a very safe and secure feeling. I know it will be a great financial risk to leave such a great money making group. But this really doesn’t matter, because I’m sure we are going to be successful. We’re all convinced. Let’s face it, nothing in pop is easy. It’s all a great big gamble. I feel musically that we have something great to give the public, something which they will appreciate and understand and like.

  “The Bee Gees were and are a very happy group even though Colin is my best friend and I see more of him than the others. I don’t foresee the end of the group in the near future. Barry has said that in two years The Bee Gees will have a rethink about what they’re doing. My decision was nothing to do with the fact that Barry, really the musical mainstay of the group, would possibly leave them eventually. Colin is staying, I believe, despite all the rumours. I think they will carry on as a foursome and just manage without a new lead guitarist.”

  For his part, Colin was quick to pay tribute to his departing compatriot claiming that his role in the band was underrated. “ ‘World’ would have been nothing without Vince’s guitar,” he stated. For all that Robin didn’t share Vince’s love of blues music, Colin felt that Robin’s “beautiful soulful voice went hand in glove” with Vince’s unique sound.

  Barry was philosophical about Vince’s announcement. “We will go on, of course, but eventually The Bee Gees must come to an end – the Gibb Brothers will always exist but The Bee Gees were formed with the intention of a short-term future. Get in, get some money and get out. Vince has been a big blues fan since we started. He felt stifled because the rest of us are only interested in commercial numbers and it’s no good having somebody in the group who’s not really with you in spirit. Obviously he will be a great loss to us, but our loss will be someone else’s gain because he’s a brilliant guitarist. I don’t think he realises just how good he is himself yet.”

  Following a concert at Houtrust Hall, The Hague, where they topped a bill featuring Riggich, The Sharons and The Motions, and television dates in Sweden, Denmark and three shows in Austria with The Marbles, it was on to Germany.

  For the tour, the group was joined by a young man who would become a lifelong friend and a loyal employee for many years. Thomas Patrick Kennedy first met Dick Ashby when Dick was working as road manager for The Birds and kept up the acquaintance. “I used to fix the van for Dick, and that’s basically how I got into [working for The Bee Gees],” Tom said. “I did a few bits and pieces in the studio with the boys, and then I started off with the German tour. I was going to be there for six weeks, and it just went on for 20-odd years!”

  He enjoyed those years on the road with the group. “They’re easy people to work with, and you have to like the music as well … I did like their music before I worked for them … Vince Melouney was a nice guy – I used to play chess with him back in the hotel after the gigs. Colin was quite nice – they were all very nice. I suppose in those days Barry was the most reclusive … Maurice was the fun-loving type. Robin, of course, was a law unto himself and still is today.

  “I’ve always believed, and I can honestly say this, that Barry decided to get famous, and everybody got sucked along with him. The support Robin and Maurice gave him was invaluable, and he probably couldn’t have done it without them, so although he may be seen as the leader, it doesn’t diminish the part that the twins played. As a triumvirate, they work well together. There is something almost telepathic between them.”

  After the shows, Barry would often play his guitar and sing rather than going out. Tom remembers these impromptu concerts fondly, e
specially his own particular request. “Much to Barry’s chagrin, one of my favourites was ‘Jumbo’,” he said, “and when he used to get his guitar out, I’d always say, “Come on, Skip, play ‘Jumbo’ for us” and, under duress, he used to play it. I always thought it was a lovely song. It’s one of my personal favourites. He’s got total recall – you could shout out songs and he could play and sing every one of them.” Barry’s nickname, Tom said, was short for ‘Skipper’ because he was always the group’s unofficial captain.

  The German leg of the tour opened in Bremen on October 31. The country’s young fans couldn’t do enough to show their appreciation for their heroes, sometimes carrying their adulation to a riotous extreme. At the Bremen airport, excited fans trampled over barriers and police, with several people, including Robin, injured in the fracas. When they arrived in Hamburg, fans had strewn the airport with flower petals. In Frankfurt they were greeted by 7,000 replicas of themselves with the fans wearing Bee Gees masks. In Cologne they were met by a sea of orange-clad fans, who were somehow under the impression that it was the group’s favourite colour.

  Nor was the tumult confined to the group’s comings and goings. Hugh Gibb recalled, “One time the boys had to pull me on stage when the fans trampled the barriers. We had to have police escorts all the time just to get away from the hotels.”

  The riotous German tour came to a premature halt after the group’s concert at Munich Deutches Museum when both Barry and Robin were taken ill with acute tonsillitis, forcing the cancellation of the remaining dates. Vince’s days as a Bee Gee ended with a whimper instead of a bang.

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