Bee Gees

Born on the Isle Of Wight, and raised in Manchester, The Bee Gees “grew up” and started their recording career in Australia. When they returned to England in 1967 they left behind a curious but important prefix to their global history.

The Gibb family migrated to Australia in 1958 when Barry was 11 years old, and the twins Maurice and Robin were 8. They’d already started performing in Manchester at the local picture theatre which had children mime to records in between features. According to legend, on the way to the show Maurice dropped the record they were supposed to mime, and they decided to sing live. This was the start of a series of amateur and semi-pro appearances under various names, including Wee Johnny Hayes and the Blue Cats. Young Barry was already interested in songwriting.

When the brothers resumed their singing career in Australia they invited sister Lesley to be part of their group, but she declined. Their former bandleader father Hugh, now working as a photographer, wanted an Inkspots type vocal group singing standards, but the boys wanted to be more contemporary. They compromised on something in between, and the three brothers vocal group made their Australian public performing debut at Redcliff Speedway, performing between races. The audience would throw money on the track for the singers to pick up.

The Gibbs also collected the support of the speedway driver Bill Goode, who introduced them to Brisbane radio personality Bill Gates. Gates recorded the brothers and played their songs on the radio, many Barry Gibb originals. Since Bill Goode, Bill Gates and Barry shared the same initials the group came up with the idea of calling itself The B.G.s.

Although there was just three years’ difference between Barry and his brothers, on stage and on TV it looked a world of difference, the tall handsome Barry bookended by his toothy little brothers.

Someone else whose support and admiration they won at the racetrack was popular singer Col Joye. After going as far as they could at the racetrack and with regular performances on Brisbane television the group and family moved to Sydney where Hugh Gibb handed management over to Joye, who also signed the Gibbs to a songwriting contract. In Sydney they started their recording career with Leedon Records.

Their records at this stage consisted of Barry providing lead vocals to his brothers’ harmonies. The first single, released in March 1963, ‘Battle Of The Blue And Grey’, a Barry Gibb composition, was a bit of a hit back in Brisbane. Called Barry Gibb and the B.G.s on record, they released three more singles before, in search of a hit, they were given an American song to record, ‘Turn Around And Look At Me’. They were still searching for that big breakthrough, but there were plenty of people who believed. Col Joye, Lonnie Lee and Johnny Devlin all recorded Barry Gibb songs. Even American Wayne Newton took one away to record after visiting Sydney. Their reputation was growing, their television performances were popular, but the hits were eluding them. All people saw were big brother Barry tagged by his cute little brothers. Meanwhile, their relatives back in England were sending the brothers records by a hot new group called The Beatles.

So far everything had been recorded virtually live with minimal production values. At this critical point in the Bee Gees’ career in stepped Bill Shepard, an experienced arranger, conductor and producer, temporarily working in Australia. He saw a lot of potential in the Gibbs and put a bit more effort into recording them. For the first time he used the Bee Gees themselves as musicians, and Robin Gibb joined Barry on lead vocals, starting the tradition of shared lead vocals. Festival Records was losing faith however and about to drop the Bee Gees. Shepard convinced the company to release one more single, since it was already recorded. ‘Wine And Women’ became the Bee Gees’ first “hit”. The tide had turned.

Bill Shepard returned to London, having given the Bee Gees a reprieve. Festival switched them to its new pop label, Spin and producer Nat Kipner for an album that included the next hit, ‘Spicks And Specks’.

After nine years in Australia the Gibb family decided to return to England, to start again and let the Bee Gees get away from that lingering picture of Barry accompanied by his kid brothers - even though they had now become the first Australian pop act since the Easybeats other Australian recording artists turned to for songs. Ronnie Burns’ ‘Coal Man’ was the first release to carry a “B.Gibb-R.Ribb-M.Gibb” songwriting credit.

As ‘Spicks And Specks’ was climbing the charts the Gibbs were on a passenger ship bound for London. On the way over they considered making a complete split with the past by changing their name to Rupert’s World, but finally chose to stay as the Bee Gees. On February 7, 1967 they arrived in London, and contacted an old associate of Bill Shepard’s, Robert Stigwood.

Stigwood became the Bee Gees’ manager. Bill Shepard stepped back into the picture as musical director. Adding two Australian musicians to turn themselves into a sixties band rather than a vocal group The Bee Gees launched themselves onto the world, forever grateful of the apprenticeship they had served in Australia.