by Hector Cook
Having once more scaled the heights of their profession, no one could possibly have predicted the demise of the group within 18 months, let alone the tragic circumstances which would bring a premature end to the fifth most successful recording act of all time.
On the recording front, things were to quickly change. The plan for a second single from This Is Where I Came In was abandoned, thus denying fans the chance to hear the bonus tracks ‘Sensuality’ and ‘The Bridge’. The Bee Gees and Polydor had reached a mutual agreement to bring their contractual obligations to each other to an early conclusion by the rush release of a new hits compilation in time for the Christmas market, a year earlier than originally anticipated. Their Greatest Hits – The Record was released in November as a two CD set and contained 40 of the group’s most famous songs, although regional variations saw different bonus tracks added to take the final number of songs up to 42.
The four main attractions were supposed to be the Gibbs’ own studio versions of ‘Emotion’, ‘Heartbreaker’, ‘Islands In The Stream’ and ‘Immortality’, all released here for the very first time. However, there was another unexpected bonus.
In an almost farcical error, Polydor had used the wrong master of ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’ and substituted an earlier demo of the same song featuring vocal and piano tracks that they later replaced. On this version, Barry sang the opening lines instead of Robin. Not only had all of Polydor’s representatives and The Bee Gees’ management team, but also the Gibbs themselves, failed to spot this mistake from advance pressing copies, thus leading to delighted fans quickly snapping up the initial batch of British copies which, understandably, Polydor were none too keen to recall. Unaffected or perhaps boosted by the initial pressing problems, The Record quickly reached number two in Australia and number five in the UK, although it just scraped into the American Top 50 at number 49.
A few months prior to the release of The Record, the group’s plans to tour during 2002 to promote This Is Where I Came In had been changed slightly so that it would be billed as the For The Record tour. However, all such thoughts came to an abrupt halt following the terrorist attacks on the US of September 11, when, along with so many others around the world, Barry in particular suffered an increased nervousness about flying.
Barry’s family had suffered a blow when George Gray, Linda’s father, had died the previous month. Barry, who had been particularly close to his father-in-law, was also deeply affected by the loss and was moved to write a poem in tribute, ‘I Once Knew A Man’, which he read out at the funeral.* Barry’s melancholia would last several months and perhaps even play a part in his decision in March to purchase his childhood home at 51 Keppel Road, which led to speculation that he might convert it at a later stage from a family dwelling into a sort of Bee Gees’ museum. It seemed to mark the beginning of a change in Barry. The former workaholic, whose inability to stop perfecting a track led to producer David Foster laughingly describing him as wanting to follow the song all the way to the record shop, now appeared content to live life at a slower pace.
Even if This Is Where I Came In had failed to yield another number one on the singles charts, there were still plenty of opportunities for the Gibbs to hit the top spot as writers in the UK for an incredible five consecutive decades, a feat no other songwriting team has been able to achieve.
Hopes had been high that either ‘Emotion’ by Destiny’s Child or ‘Chain Reaction’ by Steps would make the breakthrough, but these just missed out by reaching number three and number two respectively. Whilst Steps proved to be a UK only phenomenon, the Destiny’s Child single also reached the Top 10 in the USA. Another serious attempt was made in December, 2002 by Pop Rivals boy band One True Voice with ‘Sacred Trust’. Robin even lent his support for the single, appearing with One True Voice and veteran producer Pete Waterman on the UK television show This Morning to promote it. Again though, almost tantalisingly, it also could “only” reach number two.
Although not released as a single, fans could also hear ‘Angel Of Mercy’, a B., R. & M. Gibb composition recorded as a demo by The China Dolls (featuring Samantha Gibb) in 1995, which appeared on Swedish songstress Carola’s My Show CD in her native country in November, 2001. This represented a significant departure from previous practice as, historically, the brothers had always preferred to write new material specifically tailored to the artist, rather than offering something written for someone else.
In February 2003 it was rumoured that legendary British singer Sir Cliff Richard had requested some Gibb songs and had received ‘Love Is Blind’ (originally written by all three brothers for Deana Carter in 1998), ‘I Cannot Give You My Love’ (Barry’s first collaboration with his son Ashley), and ‘How Many Sleeps’ (another Barry collaboration but this time with David English).
That same month, Barry appeared on disc, providing backing vocals on ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’ for Canadian singer Michael Bublé’s eponymous album.
The recent past had also seen the discovery of two rare acetates. One of Inception/Nostalgia included The Bee Gees’ versions of The Beatles’ ‘If I Needed Someone’ with Robin on lead vocals, and ‘Another Tear Falls’ by The Walker Brothers with Barry to the fore whilst, soon afterwards, one of Robin’s Reign was found to include a track identified only as ‘Moon Anthem’. However, on listening, this turned out to be his lost paean to the Apollo moon landing, ‘To Heaven And Back’. Even more intriguing was the 12 minutes 19 seconds epic ‘Hudson’s Fallen Wind’, a dark and disturbing masterpiece of which the released version of ‘Farmer Ferdinand Hudson’ formed only a small part.
Then, in February 2003, former Australian heart-throb Marty Rhone came across a tape from the mid-Sixties of himself and Maurice singing The Beatles’ ‘Rain’ and The Troggs’ ‘Wild Thing’. No doubt there are further lost treasures still waiting to be unearthed.
* * *
2002 began on a high note for the whole Gibb family, with the announcement in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List that Barry, Robin and Maurice were to be awarded prestigious CBEs (Commander of the British Empire) in recognition of their service to music. While the brothers issued the dignified official statement, “We are overwhelmed, deeply honoured and very proud to be British. God save the Queen,” Maurice was ebullient in an interview with the BBC’s Richard Dallyn.
“It’s just unbelievable, I mean I can’t believe it, I really can’t!” he exclaimed. “None of us can. We’ve been on the phone all day, going, ‘Is this really happening?’ You don’t know what chance you have of getting something as prestigious as this.”
He also confessed that he had been rehearsing his autograph to reflect his new status. “I’ve been practising me name!” he chuckled. “It looks really good, but I don’t know if the C and the B and the E should be as large as my own letters, but it’s quite a thrill.”
Maurice, formerly Captain Mo of his paintball team, immediately became Commander Mo to his team-mates. Paintballing had become both Maurice’s passion and his therapy since his introduction to the sport by friends from Alcoholics Anonymous. His AA group was called Little River for a canal in Miami, and those achieving a year’s sobriety received a silver “Little River Rat” pin, upgraded to a gold pin upon completion of five years. Maurice and his friends, proud possessors of golden rats, christened their team The Royal Rat Rangers.
The team had grown to include mainly players from outside the AA group, and Maurice’s enthusiasm for the sport grew with it. “It makes me feel like being a kid again, like playing Cowboys and Indians,” he explained. Regular games every weekend and competition in tournaments in the US and Britain gave his life a structure during quiet periods of The Bee Gees’ career. He made plans to hold his own tournament, The Commander’s Cup, in the Bahamas, and in June he would even open his own Commander Mo’s Paintball Shop in North Miami Beach.
On February 23, Barry and Maurice took to the stage for the 28th Love & Hope Ball at Miami’s Fountainebleu Hotel. For the conc
ert in aid of the Diabetes Research Institute, they performed a selection of their favourite songs, including The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ and ‘Lady Madonna’; Roy Orbison’s ‘Candy Man’, ‘Shahdaroba’ and ‘Love Hurts’; Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, The Everly Brothers’ ‘Bye Bye Love’, and John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, before dedicating ‘Words’ to Linda Gibb and to Maurice’s entire family.
A surprise appearance by Robin followed, and the group performed a 20-minute set of ‘Lonely Days’, ‘To Love Somebody’, ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart’ and ‘Jive Talkin’ ’ before a delighted audience who were unaware that they were witnessing an historic event – the last ever Bee Gees concert.
Close on the heels of this, plans were made for a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall in April – to be their first concert in nearly three decades to feature a full orchestra. There were tantalising hints of the first ever live performance of the group’s 1969 classic ‘Odessa’ and the promise of a DVD of the event. Contracts were even signed before it was realised that due to the release of their Live By Request special on DVD in January, they were obligated to wait more than a year before releasing another. It was to be a lost opportunity for what would have been a magical event.
In May, Britain’s ITV aired An Audience With Lulu. Whilst many of the tracks from her recent album of duets with celebrity partners were performed live, the highlight of the show was one not included on the CD. Lulu had asked her former husband Maurice to participate, and he was eager to co-operate, initially proposing that they perform ‘Islands In The Stream’. In the end, Lulu’s choice was a song that they had sung together when they were married and, although nervous at first, the pair performed a touching version of The Bee Gees’ ‘First Of May’ which left the audience visibly moved.
There were other moving events later that year too. Stephen Gibb married Gloria Levas in a small ceremony in Miami on November 7 before, two days later, his brother Ashley tied the knot with his fiancée Therese Hallman. On December 27, there was further cause for celebration when Stephen’s wife Gloria gave birth to the first Bee Gee grandchild, a daughter named Nina Lyn Levas Gibb.
Although Maurice continued to offer recording advice and assistance to his children, Robin steered clear of fatherly intervention. “They all have their own roads to follow,” he explained. “They do it their own way and I don’t get involved.”
While Barry appeared content to keep a low profile, in direct contrast Robin now took on the mantle of the most prominent Gibb, co-ordinating his own musical project, his first solo work in 17 years. Although a new Bee Gees’ album was planned for 2003, the lack of activity seemed to be making him restless. “I’m not happy doing nothing,” he explained. “I’m one of these people [who] have to be active. A lot of people don’t understand that – even my family doesn’t understand that … but I do like to work … It keeps me sane.”
He admitted that the album wasn’t something that he had especially planned. “I just woke up one morning and thought, ‘Well, I’ll go into the studio and make a solo album.’” He added, “It’s not that I’m looking particularly for a solo career, it’s just that I’ve got a lot of energy to do other things and this is just another way of expressing myself.”
Initial press kits and retail packs advertised that the first single was coming “from the forthcoming album robin”. However, he had a last minute change of heart and opted instead for the name Magnet. “I like the word,” Robin explained. “It can work on many levels. It can work in music, it can work in relationships, being interrelated to all the forces in life being drawn towards something. To me it puts everything together on the album.”
The project also marked the first time since the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band soundtrack that one of The Bee Gees would record an album largely consisting of tracks by other composers. The decision to use other writers was not one he took lightly. Despairing that the current music scene “has been turned into a bit of a beauty contest,” he added, “I really want to get attention to new young songwriters today which aren’t getting the encouragement and development from record companies as they should, and as they used to do.”
Having signed with the independent German label SPV, Robin then set out to find a producer, and among those applying for the post were two young producers/songwriters who epitomised the soulful urban sound that Robin wanted for his project: American Deconzo ‘Deacon’ Smith and Michael Graves. “I was listening to potential producers on tapes to do the album and I heard them highlight some of their songs in order to get their production capabilities across,” Robin explained. “I really wanted to do them myself in order to get some exposure … and also to get them known as writers, too.”
The tracks that Robin did with Peter John Vettesse for This Is Where I Came In had made quite an impact with his powerful vocals and sure command of pop record making and left fans hungry for more, so the prospect of a new solo album was welcomed. The early news that some of the songs would not be Robin’s own compositions only slightly dampened the anticipation, but some fans would ultimately be disappointed to find that he had collaborated on just the one new song, ‘Inseparable’.
The Gibb songwriting quota was slightly augmented by the inclusion of a contemporary version of ‘Another Lonely Night In New York’ and a substantial rewrite of The Bee Gees’ ‘Wish You Were Here’. This latter track was the song that the trio had originally written about the death of their brother Andy nearly 15 years earlier, and it was initially scheduled to be the second single although that would later change to remixes of ‘Wait Forever’ instead. Intriguingly though, it was the last song on the album which Robin chose to perform on more than one occasion during promotion for the album. ‘Love Hurts’, the classic Boudleaux Bryant composition made famous by the Everly Brothers, was produced by Michael Graves, and allowed Robin to pay homage to Roy Orbison who also recorded the song.
The first single was typically the first track on the album, and one of the new songs by outside writers. ‘Please’, also produced by Graves, was co-written by him with Errol Reid, the former China Black singer briefly turned television presenter. Merging Robin’s distinctive vibrato with Reid’s whispered rap backing vocal, ‘Please’ sounds almost like one of Robin’s own compositions, a slow ballad with the big hook chorus. A stylish video by Carolyn Corben and Harvey Bertram Brown, who have also worked with such artists as Enya, Prince and Elton John, helped promote the single, which débuted at number 23 in the UK.
All but one of the other songs were produced by Deacon, who wrote many of them. Robin’s interest in current musical styles is very real, and his continued willingness to experiment is commendable, but occasionally the lyrics don’t seem to fit the man; lines such as “Going out on the town, Trying to get my freak on” sound incongruous coming from a 53-year-old Englishman. The finished result was an album that disappointed some longtime fans, but of which MOJO magazine raved, “The balance of beats, earthquake bass lines, string washes and swirls of harmony sweeps two-steppers and romancers along to equal effect. A veteran leopard changes his spots. The cleverness of it all makes you smile.”
While Robin spent the autumn occupied with recording in Britain, Barry resurfaced to open negotiations for a new publishing deal. The final signed contract gave Warner/Chappell exclusive rights to license his compositions for film, television and advertising, as well as the print music media. Then after stating that The Bee Gees were taking a brief hiatus “to find ourselves as individuals,” Barry began collaborating with Michael Jackson on new material. At the time of writing, no song titles have been confirmed; however, one track – an anti-war song – has been heard by fans who frequent The Bee Gees’ Middle Ear Studio.
In November Robin set off on a hectic advance promotional tour encompassing Europe and the UK. In Britain, he taped national programmes as well as appearances on regional television and radio shows across the country. On every occasion, he took pains to make it clear that althoug
h he was promoting his solo project, The Bee Gees would be recording a new album and touring in the new year. But it was not to be.
* * *
Please tell me how I’ll ever get over you
Though I know you’re gone, can’t believe that it’s true …
These haunting lyrics from Robin’s début single from Magnet, ‘Please’, released in Germany on December 9, took on a new poignancy when on January 12, 2003, there came the announcement that millions of well-wishers around the world had been praying would not come. Maurice Gibb, aged just 53, had lost his battle for life at Miami’s Mount Sinai Medical Center.
A statement from the family read, “His love and enthusiasm and energy for life remain an inspiration to all of us. We will all deeply miss him.”
Just hours after Maurice’s death, Barry and Robin spoke to the BBC’s Fergal Parkinson of their grief and anger over what they believed to be hospital negligence resulting in the unnecessary death of their brother. In an emotional interview, Barry vowed that the surviving brothers would pursue “every factor, every element, every second of the timeline of the final hours of Maurice’s life. We will pursue that relentlessly. That will be our quest from now on.”
Citing patient confidentiality, hospital officials declined to comment on Maurice’s treatment, and due to the unresolved nature of the Gibb family’s allegations, the full story has yet to be revealed.
It appears that four days earlier Maurice had complained of stomach pains to a friend over lunch. Later that afternoon, the pains became so severe that he collapsed at home. Paramedics, responding to a frantic 911 phone call, rushed to Maurice’s Miami Beach home and found him unable to walk or stand. They hurriedly lifted him onto a stretcher and into the waiting ambulance for the journey, arriving at Mount Sinai Medical Center’s emergency room at about 5.30 p.m.