by Hector Cook
Robin and Molly had cause for celebration when their daughter, Melissa Jane, was born at 5.00 a.m. on June 17. Newspaper reports at the time dubbed the new baby ‘Little Miss Natural’ as a nod to the group’s album.
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Two months later her father and uncles were back on the road, beginning the group’s most extensive tour of Canada with a concert in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on August 21. “My brothers and I wanted to come back,” Maurice said. “It’s like one of those ideas you have as a kid. When I used to think of Canada, I would picture lumberjacks and that sort of thing. When we finally played there and saw the actual things, it was mind-boggling.”
He added that the audience response from the previous Canadian concerts they had played had been “terrific, and we’ve never fully worked Canada. This time we’ll also be working places we’ve always wanted to see — places like Moneton, Saint John, Winnipeg …”
While the group planned to draw heavily from the Mr. Natural album, Maurice reassured fans that the old favourites wouldn’t be neglected. “We have to do the tunes like ‘To Love Somebody’ and ‘Massachusetts’ because people expect to hear them, especially in places we’ve never worked before.” The group opened with a rock set supported only by guitar, drums and piano, with a drastically rearranged ‘Marley Purt Drive’ as the only “early” Bee Gees number, before adding the orchestra for their hits.
The Bee Gees played to sold out houses all over Canada, finishing off with a show at the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg, Manitoba with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra on August 31. After the concert, the group went to Eaton’s Warehouse for a party to celebrate Barry’s birthday. Although it started a few hours early, the party went on until 2.00 a.m., by which time his birthday had actually arrived.
The group went on from Canada to do a short tour of the United States, then jetted off to New Zealand, but with so many concerts in such a short space of time, Tom Kennedy recalled that The Bee Gees and their crew were of ten unsure of where they were on any given date. “In Canada they have these halls which are virtually identical,” he explained. “In conditions like that where it’s car to hotel, hotel to venue, day after day after day — it starts to look just like the place you were yesterday.
“Barry used to walk on stage and say, ‘Where are we tonight?’ Still some nights he would say, ‘It’s nice to be in Cincinnati’ and we were in Boston. The audience thought it was some sort of joke — they hear someone saying something like that, it’s got to be a joke because it’s not in their make-up to be nasty.”
Even the best organised tours can run into problems and keeping up with the gruelling schedule can be difficult. “On one occasion,” Tom said, “we flew to Los Angeles, missed our connection so we had to stay overnight there. Went on to Honolulu the next day, get to Honolulu and the plane breaks down, so we were there for 10 hours getting shipped to hotels while they fixed the plane.
“So we arrived in Auckland the day of the concert. Once again, down to the hall, set up, they come in for sound check. They’re tired and jet-lagged as well so they go back to the hotel, come back and do the show, and then it’s back to the hotel and straight to bed because they’ve been up for about 48 hours.”
The hectic pace continued, as the group made their way to Australia. They were greeted at the Sydney airport by Andy Gibb before a press conference. It was Yvonne Spenceley’s first time in the spotlight as Maurice’s girlfriend, as the smiling couple were photographed arm in arm.
The first show of the Australian tour was September 21 at Brisbane’s Festival Hall, with Mr George as the support act. For their Melbourne concerts nine days later, Maurice’s protégés Soliloquy opened the shows.
As with their July 1971 show, Melbourne TV filmed sufficient footage to make up a one hour colour special. This time Channel 7 made a heavy financial investment, and when it aired, one reviewer noted that “with the aid of brilliant television production and direction, The Bee Gees stamped themselves in that one programme as masters in their field. They played, sang and clowned their way through all their hits, and when the visual action slowed, outdoor shots of the group were delicately cut in. Seven Network obviously gave its producers full rein on resources and allowed a sizeable budget.”
The outdoor scenes were filmed in the picturesque countryside at Yarra Glen, an hour away from Melbourne, as the lads also took time out from touring for riding horses and being pulled along in an ancient horse and cart. The group was pictured lunching on spit roasted meat at The Winery, a low-beamed wooden restaurant which, true to its name, was renowned for its own wine.
The Australian leg of the tour ended in Perth, and the group flew on to Kuala Lumpur, The Philippines and Hong Kong, followed by 15 dates in Japan, where The Bee Gees’ popularity had never waned.
The last Japanese show of the tour was at Sapporo Koseinenkin Kaikan, Hokkaido, and Lynda Gibb recalled that, “Dennis, Barry and I all decided we were going to do something silly because it was the last night of the tour.” The three made up hundreds of “bombs” of rice and flour tied up in paper towels with elastic bands. Alan Kendall found out about the conspiracy and made his own supply.
When the support act, a Japanese group, took the stage, the “silliness” began. “While they were singing ‘It Never Rains In Southern California’, we went on stage,” Lynda confessed. “Dennis had one drum, somebody else had a triangle and I had a tambourine. We went on singing, and they thought we were nutters.”
The beleaguered Japanese group struggled on with their act, only to be interrupted when, Lynda said, “we dressed up like stagehands and started hammering on stage while they were singing.”
The Bee Gees began their set with Robin dressed entirely in black, centre stage as usual. As the stage lights heated up, he picked up his towel from its usual place by the drum kit to blot the perspiration from his face, never suspecting that his mischievous sister-in-law had carefully massaged flour into its folds. “When Robin opened [the towel] up that night, the flour went all over him. Everyone was hysterical on stage. The Japanese didn’t know what was going on; they thought we were loonies. And Robin said, ‘What are you laughing at?’ and then he saw himself.”
Unfortunately, he jumped to the wrong conclusion. Assuming that this was payback from the support act for the earlier disruptions to their set, Robin sought revenge. “[He] thought it must have been them that played a trick on The Bee Gees. He ran off stage, chasing this Japanese group all around,” Lynda laughed.
It was then that the first flour bomb was fired and then pandemonium. “They were going in every direction. Barry was singing ‘Words’ and Dennis was behind him, firing the bombs and drumsticks. And as Barry sings, ‘It’s only words’ he ducks his head and a rubber arrow sails over his head and into the audience, then he stands up and sings ‘And words are all I have …’
“Robin wouldn’t go back on stage. Dick had to talk to him for at least two or three numbers before he finally talked him back on stage. By then, the flour bombs died down a bit. We were running out,” she added.
Robin wasn’t the only member of The Bee Gees’ entourage to fall victim to a practical joke that evening. Yvonne’s quiet nature made her an ideal subject for a prank. “We were trying to get her to climb in a box,” Lynda said, “and at the medley in the show, come out and throw confetti all over Maurice … We told her we were just going to push her across the stage to the other side, and we’d tap on the box when it was time to come out.”
Instead of pushing the box to the other side, she was left in the middle of the stage, and of course, no one tapped on the box. “And she sat in there,” Lynda continued. “Finally, she came out, and she was so embarrassed because she was such a shy girl.”
The Bee Gees arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, for the final show of the tour somewhat less encumbered than they would have liked. “The pilot said, ‘Welcome to Alaska, ladies and gentlemen. The bad news is your bags are still in Japan.’ So we all just stood there in the
clothes we were stood up in,” Tom Kennedy recalled. Their bags and all the equipment had to come in the following day on a later flight. It may seem a strange choice to finish a Far East tour with the northernmost State, but as Tom explained, “Anchorage is halfway between England and Japan so it makes sense in that way — it just breaks the journey up.”
24
A MANX TALE
THE GIBB FAMILY’S relocation to the Isle of Man was not easy for Andy. Although Barry, whom he idolised, had a home on the island as well, The Bee Gees’ intense touring schedule of the early Seventies meant that he was rarely there.
Talk of Andy joining his brothers as a member of the Bee Gees had died down. “I almost joined the group a couple of times,” he said. “Over the past few years we’ve made plans for me to join them, had shows worked out and been ready to go.
“But somewhere along the line negotiations have always fallen through. The boys are travelling so much that it’s hard to pin them down long enough to finalise anything. The only way I think I’d get to join now is if one of the group left,” he added wistfully. “I’m a sort of ready-made understudy. I can do any of their voices and sound just like them, particularly if I do their material.”
But waiting around for another Bee Gees split was hardly Andy’s idea of fun. “The boys were all away [on tour] and Andy wasn’t seeing anybody,” Barbara Gibb recalled. “All his friends were in Spain.” Nine-year-old Beri was, of course, at St. Francis School in Douglas so Andy’s days passed slowly.
“One night he was really crying,” Barbara continued. “So I said, ‘Look, love, in the morning we’ll go out and buy some amplifiers and get some good players and we’ll start our own group.’ And we did exactly that. His father came home and got him a job at one of the local hotels for the season and that was that.”
It does seem to have been exactly that simple for 16-year-old Andy Gibb to form his first band.
His first recruit was drummer John Stringer, formerly of Bootlegged, who joined Andy on February 13, 1974. John was born on June 1, 1954 in Cyprus, where his father was stationed in the Army, later moving with his family to the Isle of Man.
“I can remember exactly how I got involved [with Andy] because my mother went to collect my cymbals which I’d ordered,” John explained, “and when she came back, she said, ‘Terry [Clough, who owned a recording studio in Douglas] said that there’s a guy called Andy looking for a drummer,’ and I thought ah, it was Wednesday, I couldn’t really be bothered — I was watching the telly or something. But she kept nagging at me to go down to Douglas to this place, Rose Villa, Alexander Drive.
“When I went there, I just walked in, and he said, ‘There’s the drum kit’ and I sat on it and played a bit. He strummed along a few chords, and I drummed along a bit, and he said, ‘Right, you’ll do.’ Only then did I start finding out who he was when he started showing me all these LPs and said, ‘They’re my brothers, The Bee Gees.’ ”
A few days later, Andy and John Stringer were joined by lead guitarist John Alderson who, like Andy’s brothers, came into the world at the Jane Crookall Maternity Home in Douglas. Born on March 29, 1948, Alderson was a familiar face on the island’s musical scene, formerly playing with local outfit, Jygsaw.*
For Alderson, “This was the sort of opportunity that only comes along once so you take it. There were no guarantees, of course, but I’d do it again given the same set of circumstances.” By coincidence, John had also played in The Ray Norman Combo alongside Dougie Davidson, who had occasionally played in the same band as Hugh at the start of his career.
In 1964, Britain’s first casino opened at the Castle Mona Hotel but fell foul of the law and was forced to close two years later. However, towards the end of 1966, Sean Connery performed the official ceremony when the Casino reopened next door in the Palace Hotel. The band that night, and every night for the next nine years, were The Ray Norman Combo. Towards the end of their residency at the Palace Hotel Casino, John Alderson joined the band as their lead guitarist. The Combo went on to release an album, which marked the recording débuts of both Davidson and Alderson.
The group set up their equipment in Terry Clough’s recording studio in Duke Street in Douglas to rehearse and audition new members. Over the next few weeks several other guitarists tried out for the group. John Stringer’s friend Michael Craine rehearsed with the boys for a while, but by the end of the month, Andy wanted him out of the group. Dicky Caine from Roadhouse and then Stan Hughes of The Ray Norman Combo had brief stints as bassists, but were later replaced by Jerry Callaghan, then working as a croupier at the Casino but formerly of the local group Nelson Sound.
Barbara Gibb christened the group Melody Fayre, a variation on The Bee Gees’ song title, ‘Melody Fair’. According to Alderson and Stringer, the name was not one they would have chosen for themselves. “We didn’t exactly … I thought, ‘I’ve got to live here in the island — Melody Fayre, what a soppy name!’ “ Stringer laughed. “I remember saying that there was a group called Vanity Fair. She said, ‘Well, Melody Fayre’s different’ and we thought, ‘Well, it isn’t -not really.’ ”
Barbara put her foot down. There was to be no further discussion.
On March 1 an article about the Gibb family appeared in a Manx newspaper, describing Hugh and Barbara’s purchase of the Central Stores and Post Office in Union Mills on the island. It went on to say that Hugh would be leaving to accompany The Bee Gees on an extensive tour of North America and carried on a family tradition started in Australia of adding an extra year to ages. “Not to be outdone, the Gibbs’ youngest son Andy, nearly 17 and living with his parents, has just formed his own group and will be recording later in the year. He plays guitar lead and also sings.” It was Andy’s first mention in the press on the island, and he was just four days away from his sixteenth birthday.
These were heady times for the young band. For the impressionable young men from the Isle of Man, it was quite exciting “that we were actually with someone who we knew had very important, famous brothers”. The group moved their equipment to the Palace Lido in Douglas and rehearsed there on a daily basis, adding such standards as Mud’s ‘Tiger Feet’, Paul McCartney & Wings’ ‘Helen Wheels’ and The Bee Gees’ ‘Every Second Every Minute’ and ‘Down The Road’ to their repertoire.
The group jetted off to London and hired a red Avenger to drive around for the day. John Alderson recalled, “We all went off to be measured in Carnaby Street” at Barry’s friend John Stephen’s boutique for their new stage suits. While there, Andy and John Alderson had their hair cut at Smiles Hair Salon where they were awed to see Michael Parkinson and Paul Jones being styled at the same time.
Andy’s decision on the colour of the band’s suits caused some mild friction in the group, although it never became a full-blown argument. “Andy wasn’t an arguer,” John Stringer recalled. “He would sulk, sometimes, if he didn’t get his own way, but he never argued.” Andy had decided that as front man for the group, he should stand out from the rest.
“We all wanted white — well, we wanted white with him,” Stringer said, “but he said, ‘No, I’ve got to be different — I’m wearing white, you two have red’ — well, us three, ’cause Jerry didn’t come with us because he had to work every evening as a croupier so we knew roughly what size he was. It was a take it or leave it job for him. So we got measured up properly and then we went to Cranborne House, Barry Gibb’s home in Windsor,” where Lynda’s parents, George and May Gray, made them a lunch of eggs, chips and bacon.
While in England, the three lads set about seeing the sights of London. They had a couple of pints in a strip club (“Andy paid!” Stringer noted in his diary) and went around Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. They drove to Gerrard’s Cross to see Andy’s old house there, and just made it back to the airport in time for their 7.15 flight back to the Isle of Man.
The suits arrived by the end of April, and on May 2 the group posed for their promotional photos; Stringer, Alderson and Call
aghan in the despised red and Andy in dazzling white.
On May 5 and 6, 1974, Melody Fayre recorded their first demos at Island Music Centre with Terry Clough as engineer. The Bee Gees’ ‘Wouldn’t I Be Someone’, ‘The Most Beautiful Girl’ and a song called ‘Whiskey’, which John Stringer remembered as being mooted as a likely début single. The Bee Gees’ song ‘Dogs’ from their Mr. Natural album was also considered a possible candidate. The group were interviewed on Manx Radio by Alan Jackson on May 28, and their demos were broadcast.
The group found a new rehearsal spot, Marown Riding School, later that month and added new songs, The Everly Brothers’ classic, ‘Bye Bye Love’, Neil Diamond’s ‘Song Sung Blue’ and a song called ‘Never Going Back’ to their burgeoning set list. “ ‘Never Going Back’, that was done as a demo by Maurice for Lulu, that little demo record he had,” Stringer said. The Beatles’ ‘Norwegian Wood’ and ‘The Long And Winding Road’ were of ten rehearsed as well.
‘Crunchy Granola Suite’ and ‘Sweet Caroline’ were other favourites of Andy’s. “That’s right — he went through a phase of Neil Diamond, didn’t he?” Stringer reminisced. “Plus Neil Sedaka — he had a craze on him as well.”
On May 26, the group was featured in the local newspaper. “Here’s a unique opportunity for you to be at the début of an island formed pop group already poised on the brink of fame. Melody Fayre is a group that is going places,” wrote Penny Black. “They’ve been together only four months, but they are already booked for a four week tour of Britain to be followed by a six months extensive tour of South Africa … Their music, which is melodic harmony, features Andy’s very distinctive vibrato vocals backed by highly capable instrumental work. Material is already afoot for their first LP and due for recording now is their maiden single, ‘Dogs’.