Staying alive: Battle to save the venue where Bee Gees first sang

THEY struggled to stay in tune and had snapped their backing record.

But the short gig during a cinema interval was enough to give three brothers a taste for stardom – and set them on track to becoming the Bee Gees.

Now the old picture house where Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb made their performing debut in 1957 is threatened with demolition, and fans are racing to save it. Their ‘Stayin’ Alive’ campaign hopes to raise £500,000 to buy the building – now a funeral home – and turn it into a community hub. The brothers’ cousin Hazel Gibb, 58, said the venue in Chorlton, Manchester, was of great ‘musical importance’.

Speaking about their first performance, when they were still in primary school and known as The Rattlesnakes, she said: ‘They managed to break the record, so decided to sing live. The story goes they weren’t very good.’ The Bee Gees sold 220million records.

More details about the campaign can be found at www.stayinalive.org.uk.

Ready for stardom: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb sing together in 1959

At risk: The old cinema, now a funeral home