The Ultimate Biography of The Bee Gees

by Hector Cook

  It seemed less of a joke, as Barry told the story in 1979. “Robin was still doing speed, still on the way down,” he recalled. “We arrived in Greensboro, North Carolina one night. The next morning, I walked past Robin’s room and the door was slightly open. My father was standing in the middle of the room, and Robin was lying out on the middle of the bed. He’d collapsed. The stress of overwork combined with the pills was too much for him.”

  That evening’s concert was cancelled. Barry continued, “Robin spent a few days in the hospital, taking it easy … Five or six days later, he appeared on stage with us again. He was a very weak person, and he could hardly sing a note. But the fact was that he was on stage! Molly flew over from England when she heard all about it, and she was with him on tour from then onwards. He started putting on weight slowly, and he’s mellowed out over the years, and now he’s fine. He became a normal human being again.”

  Barry had a hospital visit of his own on the tour, when a dive into the hotel swimming pool resulted in a broken nose. Tom Kennedy recalled that he appeared on stage with his nose taped but didn’t miss a show.

  Barry had been scheduled to play the part of a murderer in his friend Peter Wyngarde’s series, The World Of Jason King, but his actor’s equity card ran out just as he was about to start filming and couldn’t be renewed in time.

  It was frustrating after cherishing the idea of an acting career for so long. “I had the script at home and everything. I needed a scooter for the part and had arranged to have my own brought from England. It was a big disappointment, but there might be a next time.”

  The tour came to a close and The Bee Gees returned to Britain and a well-deserved break in October. “It was the longest tour we’ve done,” Maurice said. “We did 37 shows and, initially, it was going to be a longer tour, but we cut it down to five weeks. By that time, we all had funny nervous things happening to us anyway. Never again! It was exhausting, very trying and I had a nervous collapse. It was hard to do and not worth it when you get to the stage where you break down. So the most we’ll do for a tour is two weeks now.”

  “There’s still a demand for open-air concerts [in the United States],” Barry explained, “and we did a couple of those as well as concert halls and universities. But people go out there to see big [American] football matches, and they want somewhere like the open-air concerts to go to.”

  Returning to one of his favourite themes, Maurice added, “If we had another hit we would probably do another tour of England but at the moment it’s not really worth the audience coming to see us, because they would be living on memories of each song, and they’d be coming to see what we did. I’m sure we would draw an audience though.”

  Since ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’ topped the American charts, it obviously pleased people far beyond the small group of dedicated Bee Gees fans in America. However, the single bombed in Britain where, unlike ‘Lonely Days’ which had at least made number 33, it completely failed to chart.

  Its lack of success still niggled, but Barry tried to look on the bright side. “Everything is going just as before – we’ve only had two singles out since we last made the charts,” he pointed out. “We were never conscious of what we were going to record until we got to the studio. All the songs were written there, while we thought about the arrangements at the same time.”

  Even though the British public remained cool, their success in other countries was undiminished. In Germany Bravo magazine awarded them yet another Golden Otto award, while “In the US, we’re regarded as a heavy band,” Barry asserted. “Soft rock. We’ve had a Grammy nomination [in the category of “Best Vocal Performance by a duo, group or chorus”] for ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’ along with George Harrison’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ – the only two British bands nominated. What we do it isn’t just a product; some companies forget that. Underground people think com-merciality means where we’re only in it for the money; they hate capitalism. But this is not true of us and it’s a very pretentious attitude, anyway. We’ve struggled for so long that we just enjoy people appreciating us. There are other sides to the profession though, like Jonathan King. He has his finger in a lot of pies and it just brings you down to talk about it.

  “Of course, there are the number ones in other countries – like the two gold singles for ‘Lonely Days’ and ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’ in the States. And there are number one records which have been taken off our albums and released in places like Israel without us even knowing.”

  In fact, 1971 had seen the single release of ‘When The Swallows Fly’, from their 1968 Idea album, reach number 18 on the charts in Holland. Additionally, ‘Melody Fair’ and ‘In The Morning’, both plundered from the Melody soundtrack, were successful singles in Japan.

  Following the group’s July tour of Australia, in spite of Maurice’s then hopes for an extended holiday, The Bee Gees made a whistle-stop tour of Israel, performing a few shows. In a cute piece of marketing, Polydor had placed ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’ on the B-side of its single release there, promoting another track from the forthcoming album to the plug-side. ‘Israel’ became the A-side in its namesake country but unfortunately, failed to make any impact in the local chart.

  However, when released in January of the following year in Belgium and Holland, backed with ‘Dearest’, it made a creditable showing as a single, reaching number 22 in the Dutch Top 30.

  After the quick work of 2 Years On, the reunited Brothers Gibb had worked on the follow-up that became Trafalgar, which was recorded between January and April 1971, interrupted only by their American jaunt. Although available in the USA in September, to coincide with their autumn tour there, its release in the British Isles was delayed until November, perhaps with the Christmas market in mind.

  They have admitted that it took time for them to learn to work together again. While Maurice is clearly playing instruments on all songs, Robin had decided to concentrate entirely on his vocal contributions. On the writing side, only one song is credited to all three brothers; the vocals on each number seem to be done almost solely by the writer or writers, thereby effectively leaving Robin out of half the album.

  Trafalgar now officially marked the inclusion of Geoff Bridgeford as the fourth member of The Bee Gees, although his name was misspelled “Joeff” on the sleeve of the American release. The album also noted the first appearance of Alan Kendall on lead guitar, credited by name although he really has little to do on this particular album. Alan had been in the RSO band Toe Fat (who toured the US as the support act for Eric Clapton’s new band, Derek & The Dominoes), until they disbanded at the end of 1970, and he was transferred to The Bee Gees sometime early in 1971. This would be the first of many appearances by Alan Kendall, and in recent years, Maurice has taken to introducing him at concerts as “the man who’s been with us longer than we have.”

  “I had obviously been aware of their music,” Alan said. “I enjoy melody and they are possibly the most melodic of all writers, so it’s a perfect match. In fact, working with them for so long has given me a real curiosity about music theory and composition.”

  The sound is distinctly their own, but as Geoff Bridgeford pointed out, “We could record any song and it would sound [like The] Bee Gees, but they’ve been doing rock’n’roll type of things all the times anyway. It’s just a tag someone put on music in the Fifties.”

  The sound on this album, recorded once again at IBC, was a great leap forward in clarity over previous recordings. It was probably chosen for a special gold CD reissue because it sounded so good – that, and because it contains a best-selling US single. The well thought out arrangements should probably be credited to Maurice as much as to Bill Shepherd (who definitely scored the orchestral parts), and all three brothers are in fine voice.

  But in 1971 The Bee Gees were being marginalised as artists, especially in the United States where more performance-oriented artists were winning critical attention. It may seem odd that the Gibb brothers were
not classed as singer-songwriters, but their focus on recordings and supporting musicians, and having pop standards as part of their inspiration instead of mainly rock and folk, set them apart from a movement of which they should have been part. This manifested itself in the fact that while their singles sold well, the merits of their albums tended to be ignored. Some of the blame could be attached to a song like ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’ which did little to suggest the livelier music to be found in the album.

  Written the same day as ‘Lonely Days’, ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’ has often been mentioned when the brothers discuss their method of songwriting. “We might imitate somebody in our own privacy like you sit around and imitate a certain group,” Barry explained. “Later on, the group will pick up on the song and say that suits us. When we were writing ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’, we thought of Andy Williams. So we did it in that feel and he cut it.” Soul singer Al Green subsequently recorded a delicately expressive version of the song that became a highlight of his emotive concert performances.

  The B-side was a lively Maurice song, perhaps assisted by Billy Lawrie, which did not appear on the album. ‘Country Woman’ seems to have been cooked up separately from his brothers with Bridgeford and Shepherd on hand to complete it.

  The album’s cover is Pocock’s painting The Battle Of Trafalgar, and its gatefold sleeve opens to reveal the group’s enactment of the famous ‘Death Of Nelson’ scene, with Barry taking the starring role, comforted by a newly bearded Robin. As Geoff Bridgeford rather incongruously reads The Beezer comic, Maurice and Hugh Gibb gaze down on the dying Barry. Hugh’s part in the picture was unplanned, according to Tom Kennedy. “He was just there at the time,” he recalled. “[The photo shoot] was actually done on a barge on the Thames. The photographer needed someone and thought Hugh will do.”

  Maurice recalled that there was “a great deal of giggling about Nelson’s purported last words and who was kissing who,” during that photo shoot, and revealed that the album’s cover might lead to some confusion about the songs’ actual subject matter. “ ‘Trafalgar’ is a song about a very lonely guy who lives in London and spends a lot of his time feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square. In fact, a lot of people are going to think that the album has a general historical theme running through it because, apart from ‘Trafalgar’, there are other titles like ‘Walking Back To Waterloo’. I’m afraid that it’s slightly misleading because none of them have any bearing on history at all.

  “What I will say though is that this is our best ever album. 2 Years On, which we made just after we got back together again, was just an experiment to find out whether all of the tensions which had caused the original break-up had gone, so we were all a bit wary about giving our best on that album. Gradually, throughout the session, the tensions and hang-ups disappeared and, as a result, the whole scene’s back together again as it should be.”

  “2 Years On was a hesitant album,” Barry agreed. “We were just getting used to each other again … Our new LP Trafalgar was made up virtually as we went along and we’ve got a whole lot of good songs on it. Some of them are fairly old like ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’, but the actual album wasn’t finished until two or three months ago. It doesn’t really matter when the material was written – The Beatles are releasing stuff they wrote at school.”

  * * *

  January 1972 saw the release of the latest Bee Gees single. “It’s called ‘My World’,” Barry said, “and it’s not from the album.” The song, written backstage at ITV’s The Golden Shot, followed along some of the same musical ideas as ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’, with the same arrangement of Barry’s guitar, Maurice’s piano and bass, Geoff Bridgeford on drums, and Bill Shepherd’s string section. The Tin Pan Alley-style verse lyrics sound almost meaningful compared to the invariant chorus of “My world is your world and your world is my world” and so on. Undeniably catchy, the song had little foundation and seemed like a holding action.

  “Whether something is a soft ballad or an up-tempo thing, we would record it if we thought it was going to make a good single,” Maurice said.

  “When you’ve been writing for so long, you know you’ve improved, and after years most artists get better, they don’t get worse,” Barry reasoned. “If they do, it’s something that happens to the person inside, not musically. People said Cat Stevens was deteriorating, and he came back and showed them.

  “[Our older songs are] not as good as the stuff we do now,” Robin added. “Even last year’s recordings aren’t as good as this year’s.”

  The B-side of the single was a contrasting Maurice “solo” number, ‘On Time’. A tune from the time which he described as his “Swamp period,” it was a choppy electric guitar number with Maurice playing lead guitar among other things.

  ‘My World’ was a minor hit in the United States, but although it reached number 16 on the other side of the Atlantic, the British public appeared indifferent to the group. Well, if the British public wanted to ignore The Bee Gees, The Bee Gees could very well ignore the British public. Their plans for the New Year called for the group to tour Japan, the United States and Australia (where ‘My World’ had been a top four record) and play selected dates elsewhere.

  On their arrival down under, Maurice announced, “Basically we’re here because of great demand. Everyone looks forward to coming here but not the journey. We said, ‘Oh great, we’re going back to Australia,’ then, oh that flight! It’s a letdown in a way, but once you’ve done it you know what to expect. The first time we were out of our heads, we wanted to kill each other! We’d seen each other for twenty hours, but I’m sure when Concorde gets in, it’ll be about the same flying time as from London to New York.”

  He revealed that Lulu wasn’t travelling with the group. “She’s rehearsing for a musical in England called Vanity Fair. It’s about to start in March. She plays Becky Sharp and it’s a demanding role so she’s pretty busy. Mind you, I wouldn’t like to take her on a trip to Australia because it’s such a trip. Especially for a girl, it’d just knock her out,” he added with artless chauvinism.

  For the Australian leg of the tour, The Bee Gees were travelling light, having reduced the size of the orchestra to 16 musicians. “Expenses are so high coming to Australia,” Barry explained. “We carry four roadies, a lighting man, a musical director and so on. The air fares alone are huge. We can make more by whipping over to Germany for a gig, but we wanted to come to Australia again because the demand has been great and it’s another chance to promote our records.”

  Once again, the Australian tour passed by lightning fast, with seven concerts in eight days. Geoff Bridgeford remembered that, “It was a buzz to come back to a sell-out tour.”

  Barry revealed that, after the Australian tour, “we go back for a week and then we go to Holland for the Special European Gala which The Beach Boys are doing and The Carpenters, Johnny Cash, there are a lot of people flying in. Then we have another week off, then we do a Japanese tour, which should be fun.”

  And for all those Go-Set readers breathlessly waiting for news of the World Domination League, Robin divulged, “Since I spoke about it last, [it] has blossomed into a very prosperous organisation. We have dominated about 50 new members since, we hope to dominate another 100 people in 1972. It’s going to be a big year for us, 1972. [As for future plans], this is something I have to speak with the directors about.”

  He refused to disclose the identities of the directors as “they’re all silent!” but he promised that he would “be doing a bit of dominating while I’m here.”

  On March 19, 1972, The Bee Gees played their first ever concert in Hong Kong, arriving at the airport to mob scenes reminiscent of their early German tours, as police tried to hold back their ardent teenage fans.

  The concert drew even more enthusiastic response. “After more than six months of negotiations, The Bee Gees, the darlings of the pop fans, came, saw and conquered a 16,000 strong audience of screaming
fans,” the Hong Kong Star reported after the show at the Government Football Stadium in Sokonpo. The Standard raved, “Memories of those hazy crazy days of the Sixties and Beatlemania were revived last night when The Bee Gees, by sheer professional talent, captivated and won the 16,000 fans (the largest ever to attend a pop concert in Hong Kong) at the Government Stadium.”

  Geoff Bridgeford’s term with the band was drawing to a close. “My last concert [with The Bee Gees] was at the Pallazzo de Sports in Rome,” he recalled. “It was a wild concert – almost a riot with chairs being thrown about.”

  Geoff admitted that being with The Bee Gees had been everything he wanted in the beginning. “They were successful, having two huge records in the States. I was staying at the best places like the Waldorf Astoria and getting well paid. But looking back, I can see it was unsettling, but an important time for both myself and the brothers. We were young, successful, famous, wealthy and fully involved in the early Seventies music business of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. The brothers were still getting used to being back together after the break-up and at the same time achieving greater success than they had before.

  “And with that came more, new and different business and personal concerns that subtly affected the situation. I had been going through some problems with my marriage, and there was an extreme amount of substance abuse which was taking its toll on everyone in its own way,” he added. “As you do in life, I simply found it was time to move on, time to make a change.”

  Mindful of the problems that personnel changes had caused in the past, Robert Stigwood tried desperately to persuade Geoff to change his mind. “I left just before the tour of … Japan with the brothers,” Geoff said. “That’s when Robert Stigwood called me in to try and convince me to stay because they had the tour all planned … While I was with The Bee Gees, I was on a weekly retainer and a substantially larger wage when on tour. I was never included in The Bee Gees royalty situation, but when I was leaving the band Robert did get together with me to offer a royalty deal at the time.”