by Hector Cook
In the immediate future, he had no plans to take his new songs on the road. “There’s no point in touring solo until I’ve built a solo base,” he said. “Otherwise, people just expect Bee Gees songs.”
Robin revealed that he and Barry both had plans for another solo albumin January, 1985, with the next Bee Gees album planned for the following autumn. “It will be different,” he claimed. “Adventuresome. Something that will bury the disco business. We have deliberately done other things because we felt our image needed a rest. We needed to rebuild our credibility.”
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In August, 1983, Barry had signed a recording and film deal with Irving Azoff of MCA in New York, with plans for a “visual album”.
“It’s something I always wanted to do,” Barry revealed, “but I never quite felt comfortable enough to do it. The man who really made me think seriously about it was Irving Azoff, who convinced me that there was possibly a market out there for me.”
Reflecting back over his career, Barry said, “You tend to know a lot more people over the years. The ones that thought you were very green in the first place now treat you with a little more respect, and I think length of time really helps your career. The fact that people know you’ve been around a long time, give you just a little more attention than they would if you’d just come on the scene, you know. It’s interesting, we’ve been very lucky in that respect because we’re a group that went up, down and then up again, and it’s very like an education when that happens to you because you really find out about who your friends are … We were lucky. We hit the bottom and all the people that hung around when we were successful at first disappeared, and people like our personal manager, Richard Ashby, and our original road manager, Tom Kennedy, who’ve been with us now for 14 years are still with us. So they went through the bad times too, and all the people that were no use have now disappeared. So we had success again, and we’re all together, and the people who really care — and the people we really care about — are still with us.”
Barry recorded his first solo album with Karl Richardson but not Albhy Galuten. He co-wrote most of the songs with George Bitzer and some with Maurice, with Robin contributing to one. He again used the house band, “the same musicians that I have used for many years now,” to make the recordings, as well as Jimmie Haskell’s arrangement skills. “George Bitzer, who is a co-writer on this album, is a very fine pianist and he helped me to broaden some of my scope with my chord progressions,” Barry explained. “Albhy went to live in California so he is not involved in this project.” It was the first sign that all was not well with the production team who had worked together so successfully.
“I would have loved to have worked on it,” Albhy asserted, “if he would have done it in the way that I thought … But what I had said to Barry when he was looking to do the new album, there were incredible musicians that he loved working with. I said, ‘Your ability to write songs is great, let’s book a Broadway theatre, some nice sounding theatre in New York for a week or two week’s worth of shows, and rehearse a band … You love working with The Sweet Inspirations, and Steve Gadd, Richard Tee, Randy Brecker, David Sanborne, Harold the bass player, George Terry the guitar player, Cornell Dupree …’
“We could have put together the ideal band, even string section, the whole nine yards,” he continued, “written about 15 songs, more than enough for an album, and record it, like seven shows, and put together a live album of solo Barry Gibb. I said, ‘This would be great, it would so much more stimulating and inspiring than sitting in a room by ourselves for nine months with a click track.’ And he just said, ‘I can’t do it, man.’ And I said, ‘Well, I just can’t stay and do another one of these records.’ ”
Although they would do one more project together, the relationship was never the same. “We haven’t really spoken since,” Albhy said. “I know he was very hurt by my leaving.”
Albhy still muses over the album that he had dreamed of. “At that point, it would have been so unbelievable,” he said. “His ability to sing is great, and we would have had background singers. And with seven or eight versions of each song, we could have had unbelievable takes. At that point, the technology was such that you could repair anything in a live take you wanted to. We could have had guest appearances by people coming in and singing verses. It would have been an amazing record.”
So Albhy left for California and Karl Richardson stayed behind. “Karl never wanted to leave Florida,” he explained. “Florida was a one band town. I wasn’t Latin so I wasn’t in the Gloria Estefan circle … Nobody came and stayed in Florida and had a great career: The Bee Gees and that was it. So, Karl didn’t want to leave.”
To this point, Barry’s traditional strength had been short, catchy pop tunes, but here he was striving for something more substantial than that, and he built up the songs into a longer form with extended lyrics and additional sections of melody. It’s a denser album than one might have expected, and the experiment does not always work, but some of the songs are rewarding. Unfortunately, the direction he was taking worked against mass popularity.
Now Voyager was named after one of Barry’s favourite films, starring Bette Davis, although the album has nothing to do with the 1942 classic. There was no song of that title on the album, although an instrumental written by Barry called ’Theme From Now Voyager was heard on the feature length video released in conjunction with the album.
The “video album” version of Now Voyager has a storyline loosely connecting videos for most of the songs. The protagonist, played by Barry, is plunged into a limbo, and made to reflect on his life, which is shown through the songs. Playing the role of part conscience/part guardian angel was the distinguished British actor, Sir Michael Hordern.
The videos for the album were filmed on location in Tallahassee and St. Petersburg, Florida; Chester, Norfolk, London, Manchester and Sidmouth.
The filming was not an altogether pleasant experience for him. He shaved off his beard for the first time in years — something he described as “absolute hell”. He explained, “I did it because I thought it was important. I hate myself without my beard.”
For the segments filmed at Manchester’s Victoria Baths, not too far from the Gibbs’ old home in Chorlton, Barry claimed, “We worked virtually on a sea of cockroaches. They were all in my shoes, you know, and they were everywhere we were working, especially in bare feet. I can’t be objective about it … It was a nightmare to do.
“I definitely think that acting is hard work. I like the idea of being hungry. When I’m not hungry, I don’t work as well, I don’t work or create the kind of stuff that really works for me. You have to keep working, keep rolling. You can’t sit on your laurels,” he added.
While shaving, cockroaches and acting proved to be something less than pleasant for Barry, a stunt during the filming nearly proved fatal for the stuntman, Ken Shepherd. The car he was driving was meant to plunge off the bridge and into the river, landing flat on the water and sinking slowly, giving him enough time to release his seatbelt, put on a breathing apparatus and escape from the car. Instead, weights inside the car shifted, causing the vehicle to go into a nose-dive into nine feet of water at Wretton, Norfolk, sinking immediately. The stuntman was rescued and taken to hospital.
“Ken is an amazing guy,” Barry marvelled. “When I spoke to him in the ambulance, he wanted to know if the director was happy and would he need to shoot it again.”
The first single from the album, ‘Shine Shine’, was released in August, 1984. The first impression of the track, written by Barry, Maurice, and George Bitzer, is its very fast beat and Caribbean feel, and the chorus was catchy enough to crack the American Top 40, coming in at number 37. It was less successful in the UK, where it only reached 95, and in Germany, where it achieved number 45.
The album was released in September, one month after the first single and Barry described the making of Now Voyager as a lonely time for him. “I don’t mean it in the unhappy sense o
f the word,” he explained, “but I do miss working with Maurice and Robin. It’s mutual, all three of us need some time to work as individuals, but it doesn’t mean we don’t miss working together. I believe that, with the album, I have gone out of my way to create something for everybody.”
In fact, that is one of the main problems of the album — the sense that Barry was trying to appeal to every market, to be all things to all people. The change from calypso to rap, from easy listening to funk, give the album a slightly disjointed feel. Four years earlier, Barry Gibb was the hottest songwriter on the planet and had this album been released then, it would have been hugely successful with just his name on the cover. The album certainly deserved better chart success than it received, but by mid-1984 with the Fever backlash still in overdrive, particularly in the US, the album was bound to struggle. Whilst credit should be given to Barry for not taking the easy road and releasing an album of very commercial Bee Gees-style songs, this was not the great Barry Gibb solo album anticipated by fans.
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Maurice’s first solo single in 14 years was ‘Hold Her In Your Hand’ from the soundtrack of A Breed Apart. For him, the project was something of a dream come true.
“I always wanted to write film scores,” he explained. “I always have since Saturday Night Fever. I’ve been so over the moon about making a certain picture with the music, help it and make a great marriage of music and movie. I’m doing another score called Ghost Soldiers.”
Since Maurice, like all his brothers, cannot read or write music, he enlisted the expert assistance of Jimmie Haskell, with whom he had worked on the unreleased Misunderstood soundtrack and The Bee Gees’ similarly ill-fated A Kick In The Head Is Worth Eight In The Pants.
Haskell rated the experience as a great pleasure. “I went to Miami to work with Maurice during the preliminary stages of scoring the film,” he recalled. “Maurice is an accomplished composer and plays synthesizer very well. He created the entire music score on synthesizer and even played the arrangements which were needed to enhance the music.
“My job was essentially to orchestrate his music and then conduct for the recordings. We recorded with a real orchestra of symphonic size in Hollywood. I wrote Maurice’s synthesizer recordings as readable music and assigned each portion of the various notes he played to the instruments which I knew would play those notes with the best sound and meaningful character so as to best enhance the scene being scored.”
The visit to Miami was not confined strictly to the business of the A Breed Apart soundtrack. He also worked with Barry on his solo LP as well as finding time for some socialising with the brothers and their families. “The Bee Gees’ wives are all lovely, and they and their children are all matter of fact, down to earth, charming, fun-loving (without being overly boisterous) people,” he said. “If you didn’t already know they are stars, you would not suspect it from their manner.”
Maurice’s brooding and atmospheric instrumental music created the dark mood that the film required. “The film is about a rare breed of eagle that nests on this man’s island in the Carolinas,” he explained, “and it’s basically about a rich man’s desire to get this bird’s eggs. He’s a mad avid egg collector. I did the eagle sounds. You can make up any kind of sounds if you have the working knowledge of your synthesizer.” A Breed Apart was described as a “picturesque but illogical, uninvolving tale” upon its premiere in December.
In January, Maurice had began scoring the film Ghost Soldiers, which later became The Supernaturals. The film featured Nichelle Nicholls, best known as Star Trek’s Uhura, and also a cameo appearance by Maurice himself as a Civil War Yankee soldier. In the end, Maurice’s music wasn’t used in the film, but video copies of The Supernaturals have turned up with his original film score.
It wasn’t to be his last flirtation with the film world. In March, 1985, plans were made for him to appear in a film with Omar Sharif, and later he was rumoured to be writing the music for Two By Forsyth.
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On December 1, 1984, Barry’s family had cause for a double celebration. Not only was it their eldest son Stevie’s eleventh birthday, but at 6.03 that morning, Linda gave birth to the couple’s fourth son at Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami. The baby weighed seven pounds eight ounces and was named Michael David.
Just five days later, Barry played host to what would be the first of a series of Love & Hope Tennis Festivals, to benefit Miami’s Diabetes Research Institute. Celebrities and socialites mingled with Bee Gees’ fans at the celebrity tennis tournament at the Doral Country Club in Miami. Andy joined Barry to play tennis and helped to entertain the guests at a gala dinner and ball in the evening.
It wasn’t the only charity function to involve the Gibbs. On April 25, 1985, Maurice was the guest of honour at the National Police Athletic League dinner, where he received a plaque “in recognition of his outstanding service and contribution to the youth of our nation”.
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After being together for nearly five years, Robin and Dwina were married in Wheatley in Hampshire on July 31, 1985, with Robin’s unique wedding gift for his bride a 1910 gypsy caravan. Their wedding date was carefully chosen by Dwina — it’s the eve of Lughnasad, a Druid festival marking the turning of the year.
While Druidism was nothing new to Dwina — she traces her interest in it back to her childhood — marriage was something she had never previously considered. “If Robin hadn’t come along, I would never have married. Definitely not,” she said firmly.
“We weren’t really that interested in the idea of being married,” Robin agreed. “We didn’t even contemplate it, let alone expect it.”
The idea of marriage grew slowly, as their commitment to each other became stronger. Their new home also played a part, according to Robin. “Since we’ve been here our relationship has got better and better. I never want to leave the place when I’m here. It’s where my roots are. This place and the family, they’re my world.
“I never expected all this. I never expected to end up with three wonderful kids and a woman like Dwina. But I thank God every single day that I did, and I thank God we found The Prebendal,” he added fervently.
Former ‘Marmalade’ band member, Pat Fairley, had remained with RSO for many years and was on the invitation list to Robin and Dwina’s ceremony. However, as he explained, the joyful occasion was a source of some embarrassment for him. “When I went to Robin’s wedding, I hadn’t got round to getting a present and when we got to his house, there were pressies everywhere. All the cards had been knocked off. Anyway, a week later I got a card thanking me for my lovely gift. Still owe you, Robin,” he apologised.
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The last of the Barry-Albhy-Karl projects was the album for Diana Ross that they had begun talking about a few years earlier. The magic was almost gone by this time and the result had few high points. The songs are as usual mostly by all three Gibb brothers, with Andy collaborating on two, and Albhy, George Bitzer, and Michael Jackson on one each. Of the brothers, only Barry worked on the recording sessions. For the first time, the team also worked with a different engineer. After Albhy’s return to California, he had begun working with Jack Puig. “We used him on the Diana Ross stuff along with Karl … Karl is an excellent engineer, but there are some engineers who are brilliant, like Bob Clearmountain certainly, Bill Schnee, who are another order of magnitude. Karl did the engineering, but we went to do the mixing with Jack,” Albhy explained.
Diana Ross has long been rumoured to play the diva, but Albhy claimed that although they had heard the tales, the project was completed without incident. “Now she was a piece of work,” he added, “not particularly troublesome for us, because we got along fine, but the stories about her are legion. I know a lot of people who’ve worked for her, and she is an unbelievable piece of work. Makes everybody call her Miss Ross. But we did fine.”
Barry revealed some problems during the recording, saying, “It’s only difficult because she’s very much in c
ontrol of her own destiny and it’s very difficult to work with an artist who is very single-minded like that,” although he admitted that he, too, could be accused of single-mindedness. “That’s why there’s a clash,” he acknowledged.
Comparing Diana Ross to his first major production, he explained, “Barbra was totally focused and studying the songs and learning the songs. Being a record producer, when you put the other hat on, it’s very frustrating to see that the artist doesn’t always learn the songs when they’re supposed to be recording them.”
The lead single was ‘Eaten Alive’, a song by Barry and Maurice reworked with them by Michael Jackson and produced with him. It’s not a bad song, but neither is it the something special one might hope for with all the famous names involved.
Albhy recalled how the Michael Jackson connection first came about. “It’s so funny, when he first called me, the first time, I was at home … I got the phone call, and I thought it was someone pulling my leg, because he has that characteristic voice. He’d been able to get my number but not Barry’s number,” he explained, “and he’d never met Barry before then, but he’d always wanted to.”
Michael Jackson became a co-producer on the song, but Albhy said, “Even though I spent a week sitting between Michael and Barry … Michael never let his barrier down. He was very much — I guess control freak is the right [term] — but certainly emotionally challenged.”
Albhy calls ‘Eaten Alive’ “the most amazing track we cut,” adding, “Now there is another record where if you were to ask Barry a song that you thought should have been a hit but wasn’t, it might have been ‘Eaten Alive’.”
Barry agreed. “ ‘Eaten Alive’ … should have been the big hit off that album, but incidentally just wasn’t. Michael was lovely, he’s a very shy person. He came along one day to the house we were renting in LA, and he heard the songs from the Diana Ross album… He heard part of ‘Eaten Alive’, which was unfinished, and it was just the verses, you know. And he just said that there should be something else in this song, there should be another place to go to. And I was cheeky enough to say, ‘Well … Michael, if you feel like there’s somewhere, something else to put in there … If you have any thoughts, you let me know because we’d be delighted to share the song with you if you want to do that.’ So he said, ‘Well, give me a cassette of … the piece of the song,’ and he went away and in a few days later he came back with the chorus area.”