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BEE GEES

BEE GEES
I

BEE GEES
IN

BEE GEES
IN O

BEE GEES
IN OU

BEE GEES
IN OUR

BEE GEES
IN OUR O

BEE GEES
IN OUR OW

BEE GEES
IN OUR OWN

BEE GEES
IN OUR OWN T

BEE GEES
IN OUR OWN TI

BEE GEES
IN OUR OWN TIM

BEE GEES
IN OUR OWN TIME

I just think we were intensely affected
by the beginning of rock 'n' roll,

by Elvis Presley and Lonnie Donegan,

Tommy Steele,
the Don Lang Five...

But I really felt the love, the real love of it

is when I heard Wake Up Little Susie
by the Everly Brothers.

And I kept on playing it over and over again,

and I kept on hearing these harmonies.

So, when we heard
any Everly Brothers songs,

the three of us would just add a third
harmony, so it would be three-part.

We perfected it from listening
to those guys and Neil Sedaka,

where he'd actually triple with himself.

So, these three-part harmony songs,
anything like that, we could sing.

We just wanted to get up and play.

Yeah. We just wanted to have fun.

In that degree, it was a hobby.

When did you first get together
and discover you could harmonize?

The first time I remember,

Robin and I were about six,
Barry was nine,

and we sat in the little lounge room

and Barry'd got his first guitar
for his birthday

and the first thing we sang was Lollipop.

- Lollipop.
- The mudlarks sort of thing. It was...

We just automatically harmonized.

Don't ask me where we got Lollipop,

but it was the only one
that helped us harmonize.

Can you remember it?

We would just sing songs like Lollipop.

We would just sing them
and just try and get them better.

I remember Dad coming in and saying,
''I thought you had the radio on.''

That was the beginning of the harmonies.

They became instinctive for us
because we loved the oldies.

It's incredible, considering
how young we were.

I was about nine
and maurice and Robin were about six.

We often thought
we were triplets at one time

because we all had the same goal,
the ultimate goal ofjust singing together.

I would say we'd be more three brothers
than twins and an older brother.

musical creativity
ran right through our family.

Our father was a band leader
during the war,

and he then led the band on the ferry

between Liverpool and the Isle of man.

Work was pretty difficult in the late '50s
for my dad to come up with.

He needed a fresh start, and he was
still young enough to do that.

And he had a responsibility for us, so we...

It was a natural move, to Australia.

He was a very ambitious man
and I liked that.

And we all went. And it was like
a six-week trip across the world.

For us, it was an adventure.
We didn't know where we were going.

We got on a ship called The Fairsea with
our parents, and baby Andy, and our sister,

and traveled for five weeks to Australia,
with very little money.

We had a ball. We were singing every day
on the front of the boat in the sun.

- And you crossed the Indian Ocean...
- We went on the Fairsea.

..went through the Suez Canal,
the Red Sea,

and you saw things children our age would...

- It was great!
- ..never have seen.

Where we settled was Brisbane,
which is quite tropical,

passion fruit on the streets
and banana trees in everybody's garden.

And then we started working.
We found different places to go and sing.

We got the opportunity
to sing in a racing arena.

We got to know a driver called Bill Goode.
He said, ''You can come and sing.''

We sang at the Redcliffe speedway
on the back of a flatbed truck

and collected about
14 pounds off the track.

People threw money on the track.

That was our first public engagement.

The racing driver who got us the gig
knew a disc jockey called Bill Gates,

and he told him about us.

And he came, he heard us sing,
and he invited us to the station.

He was a drive-time DJ.

He christened us the Bee Gees
as a sort of temporary name,

his initials, Brothers Gibb, Barry.

And he asked us to go into his radio station
and record some songs,

original compositions Barry had written.

It was Let me Love You,

Time Is Passing By,
and The Echo Of Your Love.

And he recorded these on acetate.

In those days, the acetates were the thing.
They didn't have tape...

He played it on his drive-time show
for a while.

We didn't have a recording contract,
but we were on the radio.

We were only kids and we got the bug,
and we wanted to keep going.

my father then got an agent because we
were getting work in the pubs in Brisbane.

And our lives changed, I think, at that point,

because we worked
and did two to three shows per night.

It sustained our family,
but we never thought we'd get rich doing it.

- You all sing together, right?
- Right.

And your brother Barry plays.
Come on up here.

Our first television shows,

I had become very lanky,
very tall and lanky and thin,

and maurice and Robin
were still the same height.

So, what they decided to do
was to get two tea chests

and put Robin and maurice
on each tea chest,

so we'd be the same height
for the camera.

You're going to stand up on the higher level.
That's the thing.

Now, is it true you write
your own pieces, Barry?

Yes, that's true, Desmond.

- And what was the song we sang?
- Time Is Passing By.

So, we stood there. I remember...

Robin and I were stood like this with our
hands behind our backs going like this.

We didn't know
what to do with our hands.

And just standing there going...
and singing away.

We used to do all these pop shows,

but they were very live, and there
was no such thing as taping shows.

We did various songs we'd either written
or heard, songs that were hits at the time.

There was Lollipop, of course,
and songs that people sang in harmony.

We were quite regulars on those shows
for a while as kids,

but we weren't by any means
a really professional act.

And it was great experience
because you were on the spot.

Nothing was pre-recorded.

You picked up your guitar, and you went on,
and you played, and you sang.

Between 1960 and 1965
was the era of rock-'n'-roll in Australia.

With its own environment,
its own TV stars,

its own pop stars, rock stars,
totally unknown to the rest of the world.

We were on an adventure together,
loving everything we were doing.

We were just hoping
we could get more recognition,

but I don't think it was till the Beatles
came along that we realized

how much we wanted
to have the approval they had.

When the Beatles came to Sydney,
the magic was unbelievable.

The whole city was,
like, in this mood of Beatlemania.

I'd never seen anything like this before.

I remember going down Pitt Street
and getting a Beatle Fan Club book,

and looking through what gear they'd got,

what boots they were wearing,
what outfits, what clothes,

the amps, the guitars,
the recording session pictures, all this stuff.

I was mesmerized by them
because they were doing something

that we loved to do
and they were successful at it.

So we began to believe in ourselves.
We began to believe,

''OK, if they can do it, then
we should be able to have a go at doing it.''

It was not born out of arrogance,
but it was just a blind belief that,

- ''Hey, you know...''
- ''Why can't we have a shot at that?''

So, we felt a little bit left out
of the Mersey boom.

We wanted to be a part of that.

There was so much energy
and so much excitement about it.

That was our world. We wanted...

We're from manchester.
As far as we knew,

we knew we were Isle of Man born,
but brought up as kids in manchester,

and we were Northern,
just like the Beatles.

''What are we doing here?''

- Righto, chaps, let's have a check. Flaps?
- Check.

- Rudder.
- Right.

You have to remember,
this was an era where the UK

was dictating what happened in the world...

What happened in the world.
Culturally, musically.

And we had to be where the action was.
London was the hub.

As much as we loved Australia,

we'd had 13 records in a row
not doing that well at all, record-wise.

So we released our last record,
Spicks And Specks, in Australia,

and we decided to go back to England.

We didn't want to miss out
on the mersey boom.

We didn't know it was coming to an end.

We were going to make a shock.

- I was about 18.
- maurice and I were 16.

- Yeah.
- We told our mother and father that.

We remember that night
as being fairly turbulent.

They weren't completely in agreement
or in disagreement.

So it was very difficult
for mum and Dad to think,

''Hang on, we're going
to have to give up making a living

''in order to take this chance...

''To get back on a ship
and sail five more weeks

''back across the world to England

''on the chance that our three sons think

''they can be stars or be famous.''

But we told them, ''This is what
we're going to do, mum and Dad.''

''This is what we're going to do.
And you've got to go with us.

''You've got to do this with us.''

We left, but a week out we found out

that Spicks And Specks had gone
to number one in Australia.

It just blew us away,
and we're a week out now.

We're thinking, ''Great.''

The only people who knew it
were the rest of the Australians on board,

going, ''Great, nice one,
you got a number one.''

''Yeah, great for us now.''

So we ended up going back.
So we came back to England,

and kissed the docks
of Southampton when we got off.

There was a pop group
standing on the docks

dressed like the Beatles
were dressed in Help!

And they said to us,
''Don't go any further, go back to Australia.''

''Go back. Groups are dead. Clapton lives.''

- ''Groups are out...''
- ''Groups are out.''

And that became the main... the mantra
that we heard no matter where we went,

''Groups are out.
You haven't got a chance.''

We ended up in Hendon, in February
of 1967, sleeping on floorboards

with the dream of
somebody discovering us.

We'd been round to managers
and they were all saying,

''Groups are out. It's all solo artists now.''

The comment that was made to us was,
''It's all Eric Clapton now.''

So, we got home and mum had said,
''A Mr. Stigweed called.''

We'd never heard of mr. Stigweed.

When Dad returned the call,
it was NEMS,

which was Brian Epstein's organization.

We sent tapes and records
to the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein

and his partner Robert Stigwood.

We didn't know whether
or not they would hear them.

Robert Stigwood spoke to us.
He had heard the tapes and he wanted...

Brian had played the songs to him
that we'd sent from Australia.

He said, ''You write your own songs.
I like what I hear. Can we do business?''

So, we go to the Saville Theatre in London.

Robert came in
supported by two gentlemen.

He looked a bit weary-for-wear,
and he'd had a late night, obviously.

And we were still performing
our nightclub act...

Even the Peter, Paul And mary section.

We did this whole act, and he said,
''Right, be in my office at five.''

Got up and staggered out.

So we thought,
''OK... I wonder if he liked us?''

So, that afternoon we went in

and then he offered us a five-year contract
to be signed to NEMS.

And I remember walking in there
and we saw Ringo for the first time.

We weren't full-fledged rock stars.

We were a pop group
and there was only three of us,

so it wasn't really a band,

and Robert Stigwood brought in
Vince melouney and Colin Petersen

to help us become a band.

Two months after that, we were in
the American Top 20 and the British Top 20

with our first single,
New York mining Disaster.

Robert Stigwood
was actually the champion in...

and the jewel in our crown
as far as our career goes,

because if we hadn't met Robert
at that particular time,

I don't know which way we'd have gone.

I remember doing the demo first
of New York Mining Disaster.

Robert thought it'd be a good idea before
we actually go in and make the album,

''If you've got any more songs to write,
go in and use the studio.''

To see what we'd written
since what he had heard.

And we came up with
about eight to ten songs,

and there was still that missing song
that he thought he could turn into a hit.

All of a sudden there was a blackout.
We had no power.

So we went outside, and while we were
waiting for the power to come back on,

in the area where
the elevator goes down,

there were steps on either side,
we just sat on the steps

and Barry was playing his guitar,
and this was so echoey,

a wonderful echo in this place,
and it was like being in a mine.

And the premise was
the Aberfan mining disaster.

It had broken everyone's heart.

It was only six months
before we wrote the song.

Years later, we found out
there was a New York mining disaster,

in 1939, I think, in the state of New York.

But that was just the title.
A lot of people referred to it as mr. Jones.

''Have you seen my wife, mr. Jones?''

But that was the birth of that,
the total echo effect, the hauntingness of it.

But it also started us writing about drama

and pulled us away from the Beatles
Me To You syndrome.

And, like them,
we started writing in abstraction,

we started writing
about situations and characters.

We were working at IBC Studios,

which was the place
where the Beatles used to record,

- I believe, up to Abbey Road.
- Yeah.

And, on its own stage,
there was the mellotron.

And for the first time in our lives,
we'd ever seen a Mellotron.

Well, Maurice, of course,
was immediately on the mellotron

and the song Every Christian Lion
Hearted man came from that sound,

and that was on the Bee Gees' first album.

But we were in the same studio
and we were in the same space.

Robert allowed us to do
what we wanted to do.

He put us in the studio
with great engineers,

knowing our voices, and knowing
what we liked to do and knowing our level,

where we'd reached experimentally,
where we were gonna move from there.

And we would do that,
and Robert allowed us to do that.

And at the end of a week,
he would come into the studio

and listen to what we'd done.

He wouldn't say, ''Do this'' or ''Do that.''

He would just listen to what we'd done.

And his opinion would be,

''Yes, OK, but maybe this needs that
or this needs that.''

Or the opposing opinion would be,
''Stupendous.''

But he was always right.

We remember a time at 2am,

Robert had come in
and To Love Somebody was playing,

and he would call up New York

and play it in the speaker to Ahmet Ertegun,
the head of Atlantic Records.

Down the phone. ''Listen to this.
This is their next single.''

And that's how it was done.

It was very organic, it was very gut instincts.

It's so different
to the way things are done now.

What was really fantastic
about that first year

is that New York mining Disaster
and then To Love Somebody

were charting in the American Top 20,
which, you know...

which was very unusual
even by today's standards

for first-time records and British artists.

That was due to Robert Stigwood
and Ahmet Ertegun working together.

We had the NEMS team.
We had the Beatles' team behind us.

That's what kicked it all off for us.

To crack America was the ultimate dream.

You've got to remember,
when you're from that generation of kids

growing up in Liverpool
or manchester, or wherever,

America's pavements are gold.

Everything is two cars per family,
huge houses.

I mean, television like, five, ten channels,
you know? We had two.

To Love Somebody
started with Otis Redding.

Barry and Robin wrote that with Otis in mind

in hope that we could
get it to him to record.

We were going to do it anyway,
but we felt like,

''Wouldn't it be great
if Otis Redding could sing this?''

We were influenced a lot in our writing
in those days, even today sometimes,

by the artists that were around us,
of, ''Who could do this song?''

We'd write the Beatles' new record,
the Rolling Stones' new record,

the Hollies' new record,
whatever groups that were out there.

''What would they release?''
And we'd sing it and it would be us.

I think our career's built
out of jealousy and envy.

''We gotta beat that.'' It's not a bad thing.

It was a sense of desperate need
to be acknowledged.

And when anyone rejected
what we were doing,

that would make us work harder.

Because we felt
that we could do something better.

''Let's try and beat that one.''

Tonight, massachusetts f rom the Bee Gees!

I remember doing Top Of The Pops
for the first time.

It was a great dream,
because that's the show to do.

You're made if you do Top Of The Pops.

There became
a melodramatic element in our songs

as opposed to
an up, celebration type record.

massachusetts was like that.

We began to love melodrama,
and we began to love

what the Beatles
were doing with orchestras.

We began to recognize that a f ull orchestra

was just as important to rock-'n'-roll
as an electric guitar was.

It was the f irst time we'd ever had
a number one record.

I remember being told
massachusetts was number one.

We did such a bad show that night.

We were in one of those places
up north where they had the...

the turning stage that goes around,
the revolving stage.

We're on the other side getting ready,
plugging in and getting set up.

Dick runs up and goes, ''massachusetts
has just gone to number one.''

''What?''
And we all looked at each other.

''Oh, my God, it's number one.''
And just as that happened,

the stage started going round,
and we weren't all plugged in or set up.

We just started the show and we sang what
the hell we wanted to. We couldn't believe it.

We were so over the moon,
we thought we could get away with murder.

To have a number one in England,

you have no idea how much
we'd dreamed of this in Australia,

to have a number one in the UK charts.

We felt like we'd arrived.

The Bee Gees, the most exciting
sound in the world.

We were very, very ambitious and we were
very anxious to make our mark.

If it was a choice between partying
and being in the studio,

it was definitely gonna be the studio.

It wasn't about having a good time,

a good time to us was being in the studio.

- A good time to us was a good woman.
- Yes.

And in those days the idea
of women crept into our lives.

- And... up to that point...
- Still is.

Yeah, and...

Up to that point, women had not.

It began in Australia just before we left,

that women became a sort of ...

music, women.

So women became a conf liction
between the two subjects.

It was going out with a girl
or writing a song

or it was being a group
or going out with a girl.

So we began to f all in love.
We began to have girlf riends.

Actually, you need that to be an artist,
to get that extra sentiment.

So, suddenly, we were no longer kids.

There was a lot of hits in that short time.
All the things were happening.

There was a lot of money all of a sudden,
and cars,

and girlf riends, and love interests
were happening,

and jealousies were happening,
so, the drink came more.

The money became more.

And when you're 18, 19 years of age,

and after all the work we had done,
through clubs and everything,

I felt grown up,
I felt like I'd been through the mill.

In 1967 we became members
of a club called the Speakeasy

which was an underground club

which was only f or the Beatles
and the Stones and the Who

and Otis Redding and Sam & Dave...

Yeah, Ahmet Ertegun
and Robert and Brian Epstein.

It was virtually a closed club.

You went downstairs and there was a coffin,

and if you were allowed in,

if you were somebody they knew
and you were supposed to go in,

the wall would turn round
and the coffin would turn round.

And in you would go, and there'd be
George Best playing the machines

and the Stones would be lying
around all over the place.

- And...
- Great days.

It was one of those days
that I met John Lennon f rom the back.

I never met John Lennon f rom the f ront.

It was Pete Townshend
who introduced me to John Lennon

and what I remember is,
''Barry, I'd like you to meet John Lennon.''

''John Lennon, pleased to meet you.''

And carried on talking to somebody else.

So I thought to myself,
''Well, I've met John Lennon.''

I had John Lennon's black-windowed
mini Cooper S. I bought that car off him.

And so I was involved, I became part
of the inner circle of all those guys,

and I was going to parties and
the magical mystery Tour and...

it was like a wild world f or me.

When you think that f ive months
before all this was going on,

I was in Pitt Street buying
the Beatle Fan Club book,

the same time, and now here I am
partying with these guys, my heroes.

Let's have a wonderfully warm reception

f or the attractive Bee Gees
and soloist Barry Gibb.

- We did Ed Sullivan.
- Dick Cavett and mike Douglas.

- Merv Griffin.
- Johnny Carson.

We did eleven Johnny Carson shows
over the years.

There wasn't any decisive point
where we moved to America,

because it was an international scene
f rom 1967 onwards.

Wherever you were based,
you had to go to America.

- It was England or America.
- Yeah.

It had to be one of the two.

No other country in the world
could give you international f ame.

It's hard to speak about Odessa
in any coherent way,

because it wasn't actually a planned album,
it was just a collection of songs.

We thought we were going to do
a concept album...

Yeah. Because of Tommy

and because of Robert's connection
to these types of things,

he wanted us to do a rock opera.

And we wanted to put it on the stage.

And instead of writing a rock opera,
we just came up with a mish-mash.

We just came up with a bunch of songs

that we thought we were
going somewhere with,

but I think we were extremely weary.

I think even at such a young age,

we'd been through
quite a number of albums very quickly.

We could no longer deal with each other,
could no longer deal with each other.

And...the three of us drifted apart.

In f act, I'd say the f our of us drifted apart,
including Robert.

- Robert went off to make his movies...
- There were distractions.

All the distractions that success brings
for someone like him.

And so, we...we let that lie.

That album never really got f inished,
never really got f inished.

Everyone was doing real well,
and there was the jealousy thing going on.

What happened is First Of may, the record,

was coming out, and everybody
went f or First Of may

as the A-side,
and Barry was singing the lead on that.

On the other side was Lamplight,
with Robin singing lead,

and everybody
thought Lamplight should be the single.

Robert chose First Of May and,
thinking he was biased towards Barry,

Robin said, ''I've had it.''
He thought it was done on purpose.

And f ollowing that, I think we went through

about two or three years
of being unable to communicate,

being unable to be brothers
or friends or...unable.

We've heard rumors
that the group is splitting up.

Would you like to verify those rumors?

If I were to say that was true,
then I would be the premier of Russia.

Then Robin decided to leave, while we were
doing the Cucumber Castle f ilm.

Then Barry left after that
and I was all of a sudden The Bee Gee.

But it was all part and parcel, that part of it,
we had to go through all that crap

'cause, you must remember,
we'd been together f or so long

by the time we were 19, 20, 21 ,
it's like, ''We need a break.''

We'd been together
since Robin and I were f ive, singing.

I don't think there was actually a design
in the breakup in itself .

We just wandered off and...
It was a crazy period.

We didn't know what we were each doing
unless we read the trades.

We sort of tried to get together,
but every time we tried,

we knew it was the wrong time.

It was inevitable that this would happen,

it was something that was growing anyway.

But being young,
you don't know how to handle it.

We were excited. We were very high on
ourselves, and it was a dream come true.

Yeah. I mean, I had seven Aston martins

and six Rolls-Royces before I was 21 .

I don't know where they are now,
but that's how crazy it was.

The ''f irst-fame'' syndrome, we call it,
when you go through that,

and if you survive it, it's great.

We had the f oresight and strength to say,
''This is stupid, let's get back together.''

The f irst time we got together after the
breakup was Addison Road in Kensington.

How Can You mend A Broken Heart
and Lonely Days.

That, basically, is the story,

because How Can You mend A Broken
Heart really does reflect how we felt.

Yeah.

We had about 15 months apart.

I ended up doing a musical,
but it was a very strange situation.

Barry had left and the group was over.

But what happened is that Robin had called
him and said, ''Let's get together and talk.''

We eventually did.

I remember the time that Robert Stigwood's
company was going public,

and the three of us were in this room,

I had my lawyer, Robin had his lawyer,
Barry had his lawyer,

and all we were talking about
is what we can do together,

when the lawyers were thinking about,

''I represent my client privately
and separately f rom the others.''

And the three of us
were planning our next album.

And no one knew about it, in the room.

It was nervous working together again

and getting used to each other again,
the writing process.

Lonely Days was an instrumental
I was playing on the piano.

Barry and Robin came round,
and we started singing it,

and before we knew it,
the song was taking shape.

So, those f irst times together,
we knew it was inevitable.

Look what we've done in these
few days we've been together.

I felt like we'd never done it before.

We were like new. It was, like, f resh.

The energy that each one had on
expressing what they'd learnt by being apart,

it all came out in that week.

And it was brilliant.
It was a wonderful session, wonderful.

Thank you all very much
and good evening.

How does a song get written?

It's usually one person who will walk
into the studio or the room and say,

''I've got an idea f or a song.''

And any one of us would play that idea,

and if everyone looked
at each other and went,

''OK, this can go somewhere,
this could be something...''

Many times,
Barry will have an idea f or a song,

and I'll have an idea for song,
and we'll put them together and marry them.

- And marry the two songs.
- And it'll become one song.

So, Run To Me
was a f orm of two songs.

So, we would play that kind of game,
that two songs can become one,

and that collaboration is
what creates a great song.

One person writing a song, on their own,

is a tremendously lonely game.

We all become one mind.

That's what we automatically all do.

And we've been doing that f or years.

So I don't know how we do it,
but it just happens that way.

I call it the greatest f orm
of meditation you could ever have,

when the three of us are in the room,
when we're doing the music,

and I'm playing, and we usually write
the lyrics after we write the melody

and we have the mics on
and we just sit there and create.

You're not concentrating
on anything else

but what's happening right now,
and that's a trip on its own.

It's wonderful when you hear it taking shape.

And I may go somewhere, and Barry,
''Yes, yes, go play there, go there.''

And I go, ''Yes, go there.''

We'll wake each other's little instincts up
and the melodies come.

Maurice was either guitar, piano
and some f orm of stimulating sound.

I'm Mr. Fix-It. Still comes from
where I've always been in the middle

of some discrepancy
between Barry and Robin

or if we're gonna make a decision,
''What does maurice think?''

I become the deciding vote, if you like.

After Run To me, we went into a valley,
totally. Our career was in a valley.

No record company wanted us,
management didn't want us, nothing.

At the end of every decade,
there's a tendency

that the business tries to reject artists
from the last decade.

So, you know, you're either
the artist of the '60s,

or an artist of the '70s,
or an artist of the '80s.

And it still goes on now.

And so, we were suddenly out of f avor
by the beginning of the '70s.

You think it's gonna last f orever
and it doesn't.

And that's when the s****
hits the proverbial fan.

Because all of a sudden, you turn
to maybe drinking a bit with your f riends.

''Oh, you'll do it again.''
Then you turn to drugs.

Before you know it, you're on
a collision course with death. That's it.

And to us, we thought,
''Well, maybe that's it.

''maybe that was our career.''

Oh, yeah. I mean your ego
is deflated enormously.

But that was meant to be too.
I mean, it wasn't good stuff. It was OK.

We were trying to be very experimental.

Sly And The Family Stone
were huge with hits and...

It was a different kind of period,
it was like early disco, or something,

there was something going on
that was really strange.

And we just were off the mark.

We were so off the mark we released
an album, To Whom It May Concern,

because we didn't know
who the hell was gonna buy it.

I mean, that's how totally,
''Where are we going?''

We needed to have bigger records
than we were having.

We weren't moving that well at all.

Robert had become acquainted
with Arif Mardin,

who had done some
of the Aretha Franklin early records,

and suggested that we explore those roots,

which is how we ended up
doing mr. Natural with Arif .

Arif was so instrumental
in producing black artists.

He produced a lot of people,
and we wanted that input.

- We always loved black music.
- Yeah.

Always, even in the '60s,
it was just ways of ...

- Sam Cooke and Otis Redding
- Otis Redding, Wilson Picket.

The inf luences had been there,
we just explored them more.

We felt it was a time we needed,
and Arif was the ideal tool.

He encouraged, more so.

That's when, as I said, f or To Whom
It May Concern we had no direction.

Arif went, ''This is the way you go.''

Yes, we'd given up on the psychedelia.

We'd given up on, ''Everyone has to be
like the Beatles in order to succeed.''

We thought we were on the right track,
we thought we were doing the right things.

We were moving into that R&B vein,

but we weren't really succeeding.

mr. Natural was a total disaster,

but it was like a rehearsal f or main Course,
working with Arif f or the f irst time.

Fortunately f or us, Arif said,

''Well, this was a good start,
let's do another album.''

And we didn't expect that, and...

That was the opening
of 461 Ocean Boulevard, isn't it?

And that's when Eric Clapton said,

''I've just done this album called
461 Ocean Boulevard.

''Why don't you go and rent the same house

''and record in America instead of England

''and see what that does f or you spiritually?''

He said, ''It really worked f or me.
I feel like a totally different artist

''having moved away f rom
that whole English syndrome.''

When we got to Miami,
all of a sudden, sunshine.

This is paradise
compared to where we just came f rom.

And we got Arif Mardin because
we wanted Arif after mr. Natural.

When we worked with him
on main Course, he knew us,

and he brought out
the best in every one of us.

He taught me bass I didn't know I could play.
That's how much I admire that man.

He wouldn't play himself . Brilliant pianist.

But he didn't believe
in playing on his own records.

He would come up with these little things,
suggest them to the band...

He was like a little boy, wasn't he?
His enthusiasm.

Working with the band.

Arif knew exactly
where we needed to go.

He taught us everything we know
about production.

He'd been a great teacher, great mentor.

We spent about three or f our weeks writing
about three or four songs that were...

three of which were rejected

and one which was accepted,
which was called Wind Of Change.

When it came to dubbing the bass
on Wind of Change, I came in,

and Arif said ''OK?'' I said, ''Yep.''
So, we started the track

and I did one take,
and he went, ''Wonderful,''

without changing a part, and I said,
''You don't want to change this?''

He said, ''No, that was brilliant. Wonderful.''

And I knew I'd made it in his eyes,

because he never told me
to change anything.

Because of what he taught me, f rom all
the previous tracks I'd played bass on,

I was with him,
I was behind the beat.

He was going, ''Great, great.''

And I was chuffed.
I went home laughing my head off.

I couldn't believe it.
I'd played the way he loved it.

The next thing after Wind Of Change

was Nights On Broadway,
'cause Ahmet said, ''I want more like that.''

And so, Nights On Broadway,
or rather Lights On Broadway,

which is what it was called in the f irst place,

became the second accepted track,

and it just moved on f rom there.

Jive Talkin' happened during
the middle of the sessions

when we were driving home
one night over a bridge.

I just remember going in the car
and hearing this...

every time we crossed this bridge.

And Barry had noticed it
and he was going...

Thinking of the dance.
''You dance with your eyes.''

That's all he had.
And we were going...

At exactly 35 miles an hour,
that's what we got.

We played it to Arif , and he went,

''Do you know what jive talkin' means?''

And we said, ''Well, yeah.
It's, you know, you're dancing.''

He says, ''No.'' I'm putting on this Turkish
accent because this is how he talks.

And he says, ''No.
It's a black expression f or bull****ing''

And we went, ''Oh, really?''

''Jive talkin', you're telling me lies...''
and changed it.

But he gave us the groove, the tempo,
everything. He said, ''This is your groove.''

Because we were English,
we were less self -conscious

about exploring the no-go areas

that a lot of American artists
and groups would have done.

Especially white ones.
They were always saying,

''Don't go in the black area.
You've got to be, you know...''

If you were white, you just stayed out.

People were scared that, if they did,
they would make f ools of themselves.

But we did it because
we were serious about it.

We didn't think that there was
any no-go areas. It was music.

Robert Stigwood
wanted Jive Talkin' as the f irst single

and Jerry Greenberg at Atlantic
and Ahmet Ertegun said,

''We think Nights On Broadway,
because we don't think people

''will actually accept this
f rom the Bee Gees

''because, f irst of all, you haven't
done anything like this before,

''and secondly, it's very black,
it's not something that would be accepted.''

Robert said, ''That's exactly why
I want this to be the f irst single.''

When Jive Talkin' came out,
everybody went, ''Who?''

''The Bee Gees 'Broken Heart' Bee Gees?
Are you kidding?

''You mean, the same group that did...
Whoa.'' Nobody knew.

And that changed our whole career.

And it became a number one record.

And we knew that was the start of the...

our black music inf luences
with Arif Mardin

being expressed to its f ull potential.

We were completing Nights On Broadway,

we'd just done most of the vocal tracks
and all the harmonies and stuff,

and usually,
at the end you have some ad libs

to take us away f rom the original melody
and have some fun.

Arif wanted us to sort of sing,

or try to scream like Paul McCartney
would sometimes scream in f alsetto.

So, Barry said, ''I'll have a go.''

So, he did the ''blaming it alls'' ad lib
on the end of Nights On Broadway.

He screamed, and it's the f irst time I've
heard him scream in tune with the melody.

And in doing so,
I discovered I had a f alsetto voice.

I knew it was back there somewhere,
because we'd tried things like that early on.

And we thought, ''That's brilliant.''

So, after that, actually,
we wrote Fanny Be Tender

'cause we wanted
to do a whole song in f alsetto.

'Cause we loved the Stylistics,

we loved the Spinners, the Delf onics.

They were coming out
with these records like...

They were all f alsetto lead singers.

And that was black, R&B, at the time,
that's what they called it at the time.

We were into all that stuff.

Fanny Be Tender, I think, convinced us

that we were now recording
the kind of music

that was going to take us to the next plateau.

For the first time also, apart from
going onto the Billboard Pop Charts,

we were actually on the black charts as well

where there were no white acts,
and that was telling us something,

that we were in an area
we would never have gone into before.

We just felt tremendously happy.

We were just so knocked out
that we had an audience again,

and to have that success,
'cause even before that

we weren't even looking f or a thing
like a Fever, or anything like that,

we were just making music.

And Children Of The World,
which f ollowed that,

we had You Should Be Dancing, which is
the only obvious dance song we ever wrote,

and Love So Right
were two number ones off that.

They were, like, triple platinum.
We were just coasting along here.

''We're having a ball. This is great.''

We were having a great time,
and it's only till the Fever thing happened,

that's when everything exploded,

when the world just went crazy.

We had a phone call f rom Robert

saying Paramount was making a movie
and he was producing.

He told us it was about this guy who works
in a paint shop in Brooklyn,

he blows his wages every Saturday night
in a club and wins a dance competition.

We thought, ''Nice one, Rob.''

John Travolta was dancing in the f ilm
to You Should Be Dancing,

which had been a hit off
Children Of The World, the previous album.

And Robert wanted to know
if we had anything,

or if we could write more songs f or the f ilm.

We went OK, so we had Staying Alive,

How Deep Is Your Love,
and If I Can't Have You,

were the f irst three ones that he heard.

And he said, ''Great, this is f antastic.''

And to us, this was most likely
to be our new album.

So he came back about a month later
and asked for some more.

''Our album's gone now.''

So we ended up with about eight
of our songs in the f ilm.

But in those days, you thought,

''God, you'd pay people
to put your songs in a f ilm.

''It's a great promotion.''

There was a suggestion that...Stayin' Alive
should be called Saturday Night,

and Robert said,
''No, you should keep it.''

''Stayin' Alive? It's like buried alive.''
No, the opposite.

It's actually staying alive.

And Robert dug his heels in,

because they thought it was
a very sophisticated title f or a popular song,

but we wouldn't budge, because there are
so many songs called Saturday Night.

But we did have a song called Night Fever,
and the compromise was

that we suggested the title of the f ilm
should be Saturday Night Fever,

but we would have the song Night Fever
on the album without Saturday on it.

So we stayed on the path
that we'd always stayed on,

and that is, ''Let's just make
what we believe is a great record.''

And we continued with that
f or about six or seven songs,

never really knowing whether or not
they were going to be used in the movie.

We didn't go near the f ilm. The only time
we went near the f ilm was the premiere

where we stood
at the back of the theatre listening,

and at least being able to say to Robert,

''It's wonderful, but when you're in a club,

''you can't hear people dancing.''

- That's right.
- The music was too soft.

And if you're in a club,
you don't hear people going like...

- You don't hear their feet.
- You don't hear all this stuff.

Robert got the point,
pumped the music up,

took out all the noises of the feet,
and that's what you have now.

Being in miami,
you're in a sort of goldf ish bowl.

You don't see much
of what's going on out there.

When we were here
writing f or the Spirits album,

we didn't think about what Fever was doing,
we didn't really know that much.

We were locked away f or about a month
before How Deep Is Your Love came out,

and that was a number one
before the f ilm came out.

I remember everyone saying,
''What a great R&B ballad.''

And as soon as the film came out
they said, ''What a great disco ballad.''

It was so opposite, it was so f unny.

The one thing that still affects us
is How Deep Is Your Love.

No matter how it's sung,
it's still a beautiful song.

So it wasn't all what you would call
dance music.

But then of course we became
the biggest disco band around,

which totally amazed us,

because we always thought KC
was the disco thing, and Donna Summer.

It was all great f un stuff, it was party music,
but we never regarded ourselves as that.

All I know is when
we were recording these songs,

we didn't think about dancing,
we were just thinking about songs.

We didn't even know
the word disco music existed.

It was coined after the film,
because of the f ilm's success.

None of us expected
the success that Fever had.

And the album started doing
a million a week.

This was pretty shocking f or us.

We couldn't even look at those numbers,
we couldn't understand it.

Such a phenomenon,
other record companies were printing it,

our record company
couldn't keep up the pace.

It was an incredible feeling,
it was like being in the eye of a storm.

You didn't have a real sense
of what was going on around you.

You couldn't answer your phone and you
had people climbing over your walls.

So, it was extremely crazy
and something we weren't used to

because we'd never experienced
that kind of f ame or good f ortune.

It actually has affected, in many ways,

the culture in a very
sort of subconscious way

that very few vehicles have.

And that's an amazing thing
is it still gets played,

and we don't even understand that.

We just... we're bewildered by it.

There's something magical
about when something happens,

you just don't know where this is,

where this captures the imagination
of millions of people at the same time.

It goes beyond being just a hit album.

Disco is a bad word

if you're not the group
that disco is built around.

And we're the group
that disco was built around.

And so, based on that,
we're very, very happy with the word disco.

Absolutely.

It was an amazing experience
in the recording industry.

There was no radio station that wasn't
playing back-to-back Gibb brothers songs.

And of course, the record business
was pretty angry

'cause they couldn't get records
on the playlist.

It was number one on the Billboard Chart
for six months unbroken.

Fever did around 30 to 35 million.

Thriller did approximately 50 million

and we're quite happy
to be second to michael

and we've had a lot of giggles about that.

Ladies and gentleman, our brother Andy!

The door was always open f or Andy.
It was not like ever closed off.

Andy wanted to be one of us,
always wanted to be part of us,

and the difference in the age
was quite radical.

So, it never quite worked out.

As time went on, Andy watching,
listening, witnessing what we were doing,

began to feel this was something
he could do too as an individual.

And that's really how it came about.
The f irst time I ever saw Andy perform

in the way that we had performed
was onstage in Ibiza.

We were living in Ibiza at the time
and f requenting a certain club,

and Andy would get up
on stage and sing.

And we'd also strum a lot at home

and sing old mills Brothers songs
and all that stuff.

And I began to realize that Andy was doing
what the three of us were doing.

And realizing that herein is another
young artist waiting to come out.

Any resemblance between this next fella

and the Bee Gees is purely intentional -
it's their younger brother Andy.

Andy Gibb and his debut single release,
already a hit in America,

called I Just Wanna Be Your Everything.

We were like twins. His voice was
very much like mine. It was uncanny.

We had almost the same kind of voice.

Robin's voice, much higher than mine
or Andy's, but we were very much alike.

We even had the same birthmarks,
which we could never f igure out.

We were alike in so many ways,
it was unbelievable.

We were the only two brothers
who loved tennis,

and we shared all the same ideals,
all the same opinions about things.

We never differed on anything.

I made sure Robert heard
what Andy had been doing.

Andy invited Robert and I to Bermuda.

We'd convinced Andy
to get together with me

to see if we could come up
with something.

The f irst thing was
I Just Want To Be Your Everything,

the second was
Thicker Than Water,

and the third was something all f our of us
wrote together called Shadow Dancing.

He started writing more
and he was getting better.

He was doing very well in terms of
number ones and consecutive singles.

If it was an artist today,
it would be loud and proud.

Andy had great strife in life,
not unlike maurice's.

And perhaps, perhaps not,
that's what ended his life.

But with the drugs and the cocaine abuse

that he had done in LA
and stuff over his young life,

he had been involved
with a lot of people who were doing drugs.

So, about six months before he died,

he went back to England
to stay at Robin's house.

Then we'd heard he was hitting
the liquor store,

and he did it f or 48 hours, I believe, he was
drinking, when he was taken into hospital.

The day before was his 30th birthday.
I called to wish him happy birthday

and Robin said ''He can't come
to the phone, he's out of his skull.''

And I said, ''Oh, well, tell him to sod off.

''Go away.'' And I put the phone down,
and I got very angry.

And I thought, ''When will he learn?''

And it was three days after that.
Ken, who works f or Robin,

called us about six in the morning,
seven in the morning,

and said that Andy had passed away,
and I just dropped the phone.

The last thing that happened between me
and Andy was an argument,

which is devastating for me,
because I have to live with that all my life.

There was a phone call
between him and me.

I was saying, ''You've got
to get your act together, this is no good.''

Instead of being gentle about it,
I was angry,

because someone
had said to me at some point,

''Tough love is the answer.''

So for me it wasn't, because
that was the last conversation we had.

That's my regret, that's what I live with.

We approached him
to be a Bee Gee,

we would've loved him
to have been a Bee Gee.

I think if he had've been,

he may still be with us,
but then, we don't know.

michael Jackson, f or instance,
I think if people had said

all the nice things they did
on the day he died,

when he was alive,
he may still have been alive.

That's just the irony, but some people
need to hear it when they're alive.

We had to go in the studio
the week after.

We thought, maybe if we got back to work
we can get re-centered, or something.

And I had to...

I was playing the strings,
and it was very beautif ul.

Barry and Robin just started crying,
and I just started crying. I said, ''I can't play.''

We went home, and about
a month later we came back in

and then we did
Wish You Were Here f or Andy.

And that was difficult to sing,
very difficult,

but we wanted to sing it,
we wanted to do it.

But there was such a hauntingness on
the sound I was getting on the keyboards,

it was so pretty.

And I was just playing these chords
that just went into beautif ul melodies

and Barry and Robin just...
''maybe next week,'' and we left.

- No.
- Hang on.

- It's too slow.
- The way we rehearsed it last night.

We'll go straight again.

- Go on, now.
- Go on, now.

- No, hold it. Hold it.
- One more.

It would be nice if we could f ind
a bigger sound f or that solo.

- Great.
- Bigger, rounder. All right.

Yeah, just like that, yeah, beautiful.

Let's do it again,
second half of the chorus,

but bring that sound in, that's great.

Yeah. OK.
One, two, three, f our...

When somebody stops singing something
really interesting, as soon as he stops,

an instrument takes over doing something
that's equally interesting.

When that instrument stops
and the voice comes back,

the voice has to be equally interesting
as the instrumental before it.

So, anywhere there's a space,
you make an interesting situation happen.

When we were doing Tragedy, f or instance,
we wanted the sound of an explosion

to come at a certain point,
to accentuate the track.

So we all gathered in the control booth,
and listened to the track back.

- It might work.
- Now, listen.

- Right in that slot there.
- An explosion.

- Perhaps a little earlier.
- You will f ind it?

- That's the place you always sang it.
- What might work...

Yeah, just like I did then,
just go to the mic and go...

- maybe we can turn it into an explosion.
- Let's try overloading it.

Try it f irst, just so we find the place,
see if you can f ind that beat.

- What about a real explosion?
- The air f orce base?

- Where do we find one?
- max has got some dynamite in his office.

- Let's go.
- Let me give it a go...

- before we go to get the dynamite.
- OK.

- This will be interesting.
- Hope everything comes out all right.

- See if he f inds it.
- Yeah. He's got to get it in the right spot.

Feed me some track. Let's give it a shot.

Sorry about that.

I think... Barry, loosen your shirt.

It was a prank.

maybe you should just close your eyes
and really concentrate on the meter.

- I'll be counting.
- OK. I'll be counting.

I'll be counting!

- Yeah, that was it.
- Yeah.

- Thank you. Great.
- Fabulous.

That was a hair early
but I think when we're all together...

- Let's hear it back.
- It's gonna work with three of them together,

and maybe you could do something
soundwise with them

- ..that's gonna make them work as well.
- Shut up and get in here.

Where was I? Yeah...
You know that guy...

- Let's hear it back.
- You told me about him.

Was he still the same guy
as he was before? Really?

- There you go. Fantastic.
- Very nice. Very nice.

In retrospect, we could've
actually waited another year or so

before Spirits came out
because it was...

Saturday Night Fever was still in the top ten
even when we brought Spirits out.

Well, that was the ''30-Ton Tour'', I call it.

A lot of gear.

We had, like, six semi-trailers,
and we had the 707 plane.

It was huge. I mean,
Dodger Stadium, places like that.

We used to dream of this.

Having people in the audience
like Barbra Streisand

watching your show and loving it.

I mean, these are f antasies.
These are all dreams.

And to have a 707,
black with red bottom

and our three heads
on the tail and all this.

You're going, ''Whoa!''

Even getting bomb threats,
it was great,

because if you weren't important
they wouldn't bomb you.

It was a great tour
and Andyjoined us on that tour

in a few shows, even John Travolta.

It was just a f abulous experience.

To go on stage and see the audience...

'Cause I love... That's the only way you can
say thank you, really, by going on stage live,

f or putting you there.

That was our way of thanking people
because that's the only way you can do it.

Because if it wasn't f or the audience,
we wouldn't have been up there.

The 50-city tour that we did f or Spirits

was really the beginning
of maurice's alcohol problems...

But, you see, I was always very protected.

I didn't get all the arrests
that people would have got arrested,

'cause I was always protected
by people looking after me, so...

''Oh, he's just having a good time.''
And they'd take me up to my room.

I wouldn't worry about getting to bed,
because they would take me to bed.

So we had security and people
looking after us and roadies and things...

Saved me from a lot of driving and
speeding f ines and drunk-driving tickets.

The only time I got the real f irst one
was in the Isle of Man

because I was the only guy
in a blue Rolls-Royce

driving around the Isle of man drunk.

I sort of stuck out like a sore thumb.

It was more of a question of denial.

It was more, ''Let's keep writing,
moe will be OK.''

And the reason
that the Streisand Guilty album

doesn't really involve maurice
on more than one song,

which is Guilty,
was because at that very point,

maurice had reached the razor's edge,
he really needed to be in rehab.

And so this was really the whole f amily

coming to the same conclusion.

Robin and I
conf ronting maurice at his home,

with Yvonne, his wife,

basically having to lay down a law
which we did not want to lay down,

which was, ''moe, it ends now,
or it ends forever.''

And at that point moe went into rehab
and took the step.

And Robin and I waited f or about six months
f or him to come back around.

Then we went back
in the studio together

and carried on as we had before.

We weren't f unctioning
as a group in the '80s.

We were concentrating on songwriting.

The whole ''It's time to kill Fever,
it's time to kill disco'' period came in,

so we just sort of took a back seat.

The saturation point was ridiculous.
That's why we had to sit back,

and produce other people
and write f or other people.

When we heard they were having
''Bee Gee-free weekends'' in Chicago

and places like that,
it was scary stuff.

We thought, ''We'd better take the
Bee Gees on the back burner f or a while

''until this dies down or something.''

So we couldn't do anything
as the Bee Gees at all.

We didn't make an album till '87.

We'd done so much in the studio,
over so few years

that I think it all caught up with us.

Personally, I thought, ''This will give us
a chance to write for other artists.''

We got offered Barbra.

I called Neil Diamond and I said,
''What's Barbra like to work with?''

He said, ''She's f antastic, just go for it.''

I remember me and Barry
writing in his bedroom.

We'd do a song each day
and then the f ollowing week

we'd do the lyrics to the respective song
that we'd written.

And we sent the seven songs that we'd
f inished at that point to Barbra Streisand.

We had an immediate yes,
she wanted to start right away.

So that was a very enjoyable experience.

From then, it was
like Dionne Warwick's album,

Kenny Rogers and Dolly,
we all worked together and wrote.

I did solo stuff with Robin, which was great.
So everybody was doing something.

We were all sort of scattered at that point.

We all wanted some time away.

Robin wanted to live
in New York f or a little bit,

maurice was having back surgery,

and all of these opportunities opened up,
we had nothing else to do.

That led to the Diana Ross album
Chain Reaction

and the Kenny Rogers album with
Dolly Parton and Islands In The Stream.

Islands In The Stream
started out as a soul song.

We came up with Islands In The Stream
in our writing room upstairs.

We all looked at each other,
we knew we had a monster song,

we just didn't know
who was going to record it...

We viewed it as an R&B song
and not a country song.

And in the end it just came to show

that those two types of music
are very close together.

And Islands In The Stream
became a country song.

Really, we're talking about two careers
here, composers and artists.

And the two go together,
but then they're separate as well.

They are both very, very meaningf ul
to us in their own way.

We see ourselves as composers f irst
and artists second because we...

You can't have
the second without the f irst.

We've always enjoyed
writing f or other people.

The greatest thing
about being a writer, a songwriter,

is when you write a song with
someone in mind that you really love,

and then that person ends up singing it,
there's no reward like it.

We wrote a song f or Celine Dion,
called Immortality,

she inspired the song,
she inspires us,

probably the f inest
female pop singer in the world.

It was a dream that she might
sing one of our songs one day.

And the dream came true.

We wrote Immortality f or
the Saturday Night Fever musical

and they wanted one big song at the end,

so the guy could come out...
do the whole thing.

There was a guy that sang it in the show,

but we wrote it with Celine totally in mind.

When we write f or girls, Barry sings it
in f alsetto, because that's the girls' range,

so when they play the demo they
can sing along and it'll be in their range.

When you hear the demo,
you can hear Celine.

Then she said she wanted
to record it. Blew me away.

When we f irst heard Celine sing it,
we burst into tears.

- Tissues were going everywhere.
- It just destroyed us.

And that's how we left the building,
completely in tears,

that this girl had done this with this song.

I always keep
a little Dictaphone next to the bed.

About four in the morning,
I woke up with this melody which was...

And that was it.
I thought, ''If I lose this...

''it'll be gone f orever,'' because
the next day it's gone, it's just gone.

So I checked the machine,
there was no cassette in it.

It's always the same.

So I was running round the house
trying to find a cassette.

I f ound a cassette, got whatever I could
down, and played it to Robin the next day.

It was f unny. Unf ortunately
the record was never released here.

You Win Again, when it came out in 1987,

we'd just signed with Warners
f or a new deal

and this was the f irst record
and everybody went gung ho on it.

And really did well.

And I remember
we had these stomps put on it.

It was something in my studio,
my garage that we'd come up with

and got it all together,
there's no drums on there at all,

it's all just sounds that we made.

And Arif was producing the album with us,

and he said,
''Great, when you come out to New York

''we'll do You Win Again again.''

'Cause we'd done the demo in my garage.

We got to New York and I'm thinking,
''They're gonna do the whole thing again.

''Where do we start?''

We had some programmers
in there and he went,

''Have you got the stomps?''
And I went, ''No.

''I thought we were gonna do
the whole thing again.

''No, you've gotta get the stomps,
the stomps are what makes the record.

''The sound is part of the backtrack,
we've got to have that.''

So I had to get them sampled on my drum
machine in miami and the disc sent up...

We got it and then we embellished on it
a bit more in the studio

and everybody at the record company
wanted them off.

And we went, ''No.''

''Well, can you take them off the intro?''
''No.''

''Can you turn them down a bit in the mix?''
''No.''

''It's as it is, that's the record.''

And they didn't like that.
They weren't too happy about that.

And now everyone says,

''As soon as that record starts on the radio,
you know it's the Bee Gees.''

That was such a great signal. It signaled
to everybody that this song's coming.

It became Princess Diana's f avorite song,

it was just amazing,
the success that record had.

I knew I'd made it in the sampling

when Phil Collins
came up to me at the airport and said,

''Can you give me a copy of the stomps?''

I think the Bee Gee sound...
I don't know how to describe it.

I guess it's just a mixture. It's us.

You've got to remember,
we come f rom an era where

everybody was experimenting with sounds

and it was almost a rite of passage.

So it's a real mixed bag, and I think we were
very fortunate it wasn't just one lead singer.

We could all alternate, and sometimes
sing the same song together.

When we sing songs like...

It's Barry and Robin singing in unison.
But it sounds like one guy.

''Bit more Robin, bit more Barry.
Are you sure? Which one is it?''

But it's a sound of the two.

Then the three of us
go into harmony on the...

And it's...

It's just Barry and Robin.

But they mesh together so well,
that it sounds like one voice.

But it's a different voice
f rom them separately.

To us it was like the Beatles,
it was having that alternative lead

and being able to mix it up.

I think people today in the world of music

are f ar, f ar more conservative
in what they do,

they don't use harmonies like they should,

it's because they're just too lazy.

It's hard work.
Because there's no technology

that can create a human voice in harmony.

Or even a machine
that can create a melody.

You've got to do that yourself .

Those are the basic vehicles
of all popular music.

That's what's gonna make music what it is
and the songs what they are.

And there's still no technology f or those,

and those are the principal ones,
and thank God there isn't.

That blend has been used quite a lot.

With harmonies, we bank them underneath
with doubles and falsettos on top

so you get the f ull richness of the harmony,
which is what I love to do.

I love to arrange and get the records all...
this with that there and...

Paint the picture, you know, add the colors.

And they're like our children, we send them
out in the world, we hope they do well.

I think people will always love songs
about human relationships and melody.

These are the songs that will reach out
over the decades to the unborn.

Because they are perennial as the grass,
human emotion.

It is not ego that makes you write
a great song,

it's the belief that you can't
that makes you do it.

Sometimes even envy and jealousy.

You hear a great song
on the radio and think,

''I wish I could write a song like that.''

I think you need things to motivate you,

but also there's that belief
that you can as well.

- Damn the torpedoes.
- Yeah.

Robert said to us in 1967,

He said, ''Write f or 40 years f rom now,
don't just write for now.''

In other words, ''Don't write f or trends.''

Which we tried not to do.
That's the one thing I remember him saying.

''Write f or the f uture.''

Every single award
or every single citation or achievement

that's given to you
has a different feel to it.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
was to us everything.

Please stand and welcome Barry, Robin
and maurice Gibb into the Hall of Fame.

The Bee Gees!

Being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
was just a dream f or us.

But not only getting inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,

but being inducted by Brian Wilson
to me was a knockout.

That blew my night.

We are in f act the enigma with the stigma.

We know this. We're aware of it.

We hear it every day.
We live with it. We have suffered.

But tonight I think we've come home

and we thank you very much f or this honor.

So, every single award you get

has a different kind
of intense emotional experience f or you.

The BRIT Awards, it's been a long time

since we've been even involved
in anything like that,

but to get the Lifetime Achievement Award
was a wonderful honor.

Beautif ul Quincy Jones giving us that award

in the American music Awards,
which was wonderful again.

Quincy I've known f or a lot of years.
It's so sweet that he could do that.

Gentlemen,

let me just sum it up with this phrase
on your International Award.

Their recordings have sold well over
100 million copies worldwide,

making them one...

making them one the top f ive
most successful artists ever.

Congratulations and good luck
on your upcoming world tour.

- Barry!
- Thank you, Quincy!

How times change.

Ten, f ifteen years ago you wouldn't
have put on a Bee Gees record.

Now, it's sort of OK.

We stopped touring basically to concentrate
more on the writing and songs

and the work that was involved in that.

And if we did tour,
we wanted it to be special.

But we certainly didn't want to go out
and do a nostalgia tour.

Just doing the old songs and saying,
''Thank you very much. Cheers.''

We wanted to at least have a good success
under our belt before we go out again.

One Night Only was, only became a concept
after we did the one show at the MGM.

It came about f rom back surgery.

Long-term, every-two-nights
or every-one-night tours

were no longer really feasible.

The pain was f ar too much f or me,
my back has set into a place where,

if I did that every night,
nobody was going to insure us to do that.

And when you sing falsetto,
it's a hell of a high raise to go to,

that back needs... you need your back.

And it's agony when you do it, 'cause...

You feel it before
you've even taken half a breath.

So, Barry was going through all that stuff.

I don't know how he did it
but he didn't want to do a bad show.

So, we all made up our minds that

maybe it was a good idea
to do six shows worldwide

and put a price on each one of those shows,

and that way, people would travel
to places that we'd never been before.

And let my back settle.

So we did one almost every two weeks,
three weeks.

I've seen him do shows
when his back's been in agony.

I know 'cause I've had back surgery too,
and I know exactly what he went through.

And he's persevered through
a whole two-hour show in agony.

And nobody would have known it.

We knew it 'cause he'd be singing and
he'd turn around and look at us and go...

Like this and go...
And back out again.

But all the time in agony.

This Is Where I Came In
takes me back to our Beatle period.

We sort of went back to the way
we recorded in the late '60s.

We sort of went back to that stage

where it's the acoustics, the piano,
the bass, the drums, whatever...

A lot of live drums on this album.
We wanted that live feel.

Particularly on the opening track.
We just wanted to rock a bit more.

But This Is Where I Came In
is the harmony thing.

We just wanted the three of us around
one mic, singing the harmony on this song.

And that's what we did.
And that was two takes. The whole song.

The whole record. For the vocals.

''OK. That's f inished. Next.''

And it was like, ''Whoa!
This is good stuff. This is great f un!''

We were recording just like we used to.

I loved it. I still do. I don't like
the long hours in the studio anymore

because there's so much going on outside

and I don't have the attention span.

If I can make a record in two days,
then I'll do that. I'll do it in two days.

But I couldn't sit there f or 12 hours a day
f or three months like we used to.

Not with f ive children.
Not reality anymore.

But I love it. And I love the results of it.

When something sounds amazing
and you don't know how you got there.

Yeah, we love that.
We love that song.

It's... It's maurice's turn now.
Brother Moe over here.

Maurice has done a lot more
individual music on this album.

It's really about himself , the song.

The song is called man In The middle.
We hope you like it.

Yeah, I've sort of been
the man in the middle.

It still comes f rom that business

where I've always been in the middle
of things between Barry and Robin...

At different times we've all been
the man in the middle.

Robin and I hardly ever
see eye-to-eye,

and yet, we gravitate towards
each other no matter what.

And moe was always the sort of ,

''Break it up, you guys. Don't argue.''

moe would always be that guy
that would take the middle ground

or calm things down if things got...

To that extent, yes, he was.

But I think over the years,
we've all done that.

maurice Gibb, one third of the Bee Gees,
has died, age 53.

Here's Tamzin Sylvester
with tonight's Liquid Lead.

maurice collapsed at his beachf ront house
in Miami on Thursday

with severe stomach pains.

He was rushed
to the nearby mount Sinai hospital

but had a heart attack
during emergency surgery.

His twin brother, Robin, spoke to the media
on Friday, saying he was on the mend

but then maurice slipped into a coma.

He died in the early hours of this morning

with his wife, children
and brothers Gibb at his bedside.

It was shattering to both of us,
shattering to both of us

in countless ways, countless ways.

And the speed
at which it happened as well.

I mean, so unexpected
because he was quite young,

and he'd never really been ill,

and it happened in such...
in a matter of hours.

And it still...

It's mind-blowing, f rom a Wednesday night
to the Saturday when he died...

It's just like nothing could stop it.

And the idea of us going on without moe

became something that was,

''Oh, we could do that.''
''But no, we couldn't.''

''Yes, we could.''
''No, we couldn't.''

Well, we were in shock.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
the 2003 Legend Award recipients,

Barry and Robin Gibb.

The Legend in the 2003 Awards
was bittersweet in the Grammys

because it was...
maurice wasn't there.

And you've got to remember
that maurice died on January 12th.

Well, this was, I think,
sometime in January...

And his f amily were there.

And so it became more of
everybody really dwelling on moe

and the sadness of it, and the f act
that we'd lost him at such an early age.

And it was incredible to receive it,
but we were sort of numb, you know.

We'd just come to terms with the f act
that, ''Maurice has just died.''

We were talking about hours, days.

And so, it was...
It came right in the middle.

Our equilibrium
was completely out of whack,

and if it had been another time,
we would have enjoyed it more.

And if moe had been there with us,

it would've been the cream on the cake,
you know.

But the idea that
he wasn't there to share it...

was equally important
but in a very sad way.

Even the most ardent f ans will always know
a different maurice than I do.

There's a personality and a whole history
that I know about maurice

that people will never know,
and that's the person I miss.

But I... The music is there...
He lives on with music,

and on the radio, when I hear a song
with him, that's... he's still alive.

- Robin and I love music so much...
- Yes.

..and it's so ingrained in our souls

that we don't know
how to move away f rom it.

I think it's important, also, f or maurice's
memory, his legacy, just as much.

The legacy of the Bee Gees
must go on, one way or the other.

It's been a few years
since we've heard our voices together.

Maurice's death left a kind of
emotional vacuum between the two of us

because Barry had a way of dealing with it,
I have my way of dealing with it.

A few years have passed now, we're able
to see each other in a different way.

We're beginning to behave
the way we always did, before moe died.

Because of what happened with maurice...

Barry had a way of expressing his way...

I was pulverized.

I had no passion or interest
in continuing at all.

Robin went the opposite direction
and had to keep moving.

I wanted to keep the Bee Gees
as the three of us.

I wanted that to be
the only thing anyone ever saw again.

We still have a lot of music in us,

because we've already written
one song together this week.

I now know inside that
what we will do will be good.

It's time f or us now to move on
without ever letting go of Moe.

The blend of the voices is great.
Even I get nostalgic.

I feel more every day as I go,

f ortunate to be born into a f amily
where Barry is my brother

because I get to work with him.

I mean, one of the greatest
pop writers of all time.

I mean, there's no... In all the billions
of f amilies that are born in the world,

I got to be born in the f amily with him.

How good can it get?

- I mean that's...that's real.
- Well, it gets...what it gets is mutual.

What it gets is mutual.

What you draw f rom me,
I draw f rom you.

And I look f orward to the next time
that we can concoct something

that we both look at each other and say,
''There, that's it.''

- That's all I care about.
- Me too.