HOW DEEP IS YOUR BEE GEES KNOWLEDGE? Trio’s tragedy
Formed in 1958 1958, the band was made up of twins Robin and Maurice and older brother Barry. Born in Douglas on the Isle of Man, they lived in Chorlton, Manchester, until the late 1950s.
By the age of eight, Robin had become a young pyromaniac, setting pyjamas and advertising billboards on fire. Local police had a word and suggested the family should think about moving. They emigrated Down Under in 1958 where Robin channelled his energies into music.
Returning to the UK in
1967, Robin survived the Hither Green rail crash which killed 49 people that year. He managed to save his and fiancée Molly’s lives by escaping through a smashed window.
John Lennon introduced Maurice to booze
– buying him his first whisky and Coke. Maurice ended up being a regular drinking buddy of Lennon’s bandmate Ringo Starr. But his heavy drinking cost the Bee Gee his marriage to Lulu. He also reportedly pulled a gun on his second wife in the aftermath of a month- long bender. Maurice was a champion paintball player. He also had a store in Florida devoted to the hobby.
The Bee Gees’ sixth album Odessa was released in 1969. But the sleeve was made of red flocked felt and embossed ossed with gold lettering, lettering which triggered allergic reactions at the factory where it was pressed.
In 1978, the band released eight songs which reached No. 1 – including How Deep Is Your Love? Stayin’ Alive, Tragedy and Night Fever. That year they accounted for 2% of the entire record industry’s sales.
The Bee Gees made a film of the Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Despite using the Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road albums for material, recruiting Beatles producer George Martin, it was slammed by critics. The finale was a real- life approximation of the original album cover featuring atur celebs including Tina Turner and Aerosmith.
By the 1980s disco had ad gone out of fashion, n, so the trio turned to writing - and producing songs for others. They were behind Dionne Warwick’s Heartbreaker, Kenny y Rogers and Dolly Parton’s Islands in n the Stream and Diana Ross’ Chain ain Reaction.
Robin died in 2012, aged 62, from complications of cancer while Maurice died of complications of a twisted intestine in 2003 at 53. Barry is now 74 and has a new duets album Greenfields out next year.
The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart airs on Sky Documentaries on December 13 and is available on DVD and digital download the following day.