{"id":6979,"date":"2025-04-29T13:28:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T12:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=6979"},"modified":"2025-04-29T13:29:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T12:29:06","slug":"issue-162-the-bee-gees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=6979","title":{"rendered":"Issue #163 \u2013 The Bee Gees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Resurrected from the ashes after imploding in 1969, THE BEE GEES would spend most of the following year telling you they didn\u2019t exist, before finally giving in, reuniting and putting a new album out in record time in a chaotic blur of activity. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>MARTIN RUDDOCK counts their Lonely Days<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s 1st December 1969, and Maurice Gibb is enjoying some winter sun in Sydney with his wife, pocket pop powerhouse Lulu. It\u2019s been a weird year for the fraternal hit machine that is The Bee Gees. In a little over 12 fractious months, they\u2019ve dwindled from a quintet to a duo. Guitarist Vince Melouney had quit in late \u201968, his heavier leanings at odds with lead songwriters Barry and Robin Gibb\u2019s penchant for melodic balladry.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More damagingly, the prolific, eccentric Robin had bailed in March to go solo just as their epic double LP <em>Odessa<\/em> hit the shelves. Drummer Colin Petersen was abruptly sacked in the summer, leaving Mo and older brother Barry to complete their TV film <em>Cucumber Castle<\/em> and its attendant album as a duo. Nobody felt Robin\u2019s absence more keenly than twin brother Mo, but he\u2019d stepped up. Not even 20 years old, he\u2019d put in hard time as the band\u2019s studio wizard \u2013 singing more leads and manfully trying to bridge the void left by Robin. On top of this, he was producing Aussie emigres Tin Tin and musically tinkering with brother-in-law and co-writer Billy Lawrie.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bee Gees \u2013 Cucumber Castle \u2013 An Original Musical (1970) [Better Quality]\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EHWQyUiJp8E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last in the studio with Barry in late November, and with an album still to mix and the pair\u2019s new Gee Gee label to sort out, Mo felt he\u2019d earned a break after two breakneck years of recording and touring. He was surprised then when reporters started interrupting his holiday to quiz him about his future plans. Telling <em>NME<\/em> he was \u201cFed-up, miserable and completely disillusioned\u201d Barry had quit The Bee Gees for a solo career, and threatening to go into acting. \u201cI just didn&#8217;t believe in two people being a group. Colin, Vince and Robin have put the lid on it for me. They all left for their own reasons. I had nothing to do with them leaving, despite the things they have said,\u201d Barry snippily told <em>Disc &amp; Music Echo<\/em> a few days later. \u201cVince said that my music got on his nerves, Robin said he was a better singer than me, Colin said that I wanted to be \u2018king\u2019. What Maurice does is his own business.\u201d Twisting the knife, the ever-quotable Robin told <em>Disc,<\/em> \u201cHe was very bitter because Maurice was out of the country with Lulu getting things done by himself, and he was just sitting around at home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Robin&#039;s Reign\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/videoseries?list=OLAK5uy_lB5ZHwWlzTvBfTh-lLGTfG81V15fVvbOM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shrugging it all off, Mo followed Barry\u2019s lead. Returning home a few days later, he went straight into the studio with Lawrie and started work on his own solo album. Why not? Why should the others take all the glory? Robin had just wrapped his solo debut <em>Robin\u2019s Reign<\/em> and was already working on a follow-up in an astonishing creative splurge fuelled by speed and downers. \u201cI wrote three songs one night in my mind,\u201d Robin told <em>NME<\/em> that month. Song after song piled up, ranging from jaunty pop to haunted gothic fantasias decorated with sweeping orchestration and the lurch of his new Rhythm Ace drum machine.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Loner Album by Maurice Gibb\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/videoseries?list=PL6NzpaqiGLLm_LVo-7ZPdt4epZsTzhPB0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And so, as the last days of the \u201960s ebbed away, the brothers Gibb all attempted to strike out on their own. As we\u2019ll see, thanks to family ties and commercial pressures, it wouldn\u2019t pan out quite as planned. In fact, they couldn\u2019t quite agree on whether or not they\u2019d actually split up.<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/shindig-163\/\">here<\/a> to order issue #163 and read the full article. Subscribe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/unlock-the-world-of-shindig-subscribe-today-and-access-every-issue-ever-published\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<span class=\"synved-social-container synved-social-container-share\"><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6979&#038;t=Issue%20%23163%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Bee%20Gees&#038;s=100&#038;p&#091;url&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6979&#038;p&#091;images&#093;&#091;0&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F04%2FIm-BG.jpg&#038;p&#091;title&#093;=Issue%20%23163%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Bee%20Gees\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6979&#038;text=New%20post%20on%20our%20site\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Issue%20%23163%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Bee%20Gees&#038;body=New%20post%20on%20our%20site:%20https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F6979\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Resurrected from the ashes after imploding in 1969, THE BEE GEES would spend most of the following year telling you they didn\u2019t exist, before finally giving in, reuniting and putting a new album out in record time in a chaotic blur of activity. MARTIN RUDDOCK counts their Lonely Days It\u2019s 1st December 1969, and Maurice [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1009,7],"tags":[1190],"class_list":["post-6979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-music-videos","tag-bee-gees","post_format-post-format-video"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6979"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}