A spirit having flown

WITH their perma-tanned skin, toothy smiles and bouffant hair, the Bee Gees will forever be associated with Seventies disco.

But they were much more than one-hit, or even one-decade, wonders.

In fact, with career record sales of more than 220 million, the Bee Gees are one of the bestselling musical acts of all time. They had major hits in three consecutive decades and their contribution to the Saturday Night Fever album, written over a weekend, became the soundtrack of a generation.

And when news of Robin Gibb’s death broke on Sunday night, the tributes were led by Ringo Starr, Bryan Adams, Mick Hucknall and ex- Prime Minister Tony Blair. Not bad for three brothers who began their career singing cover versions in a Manchester cinema.

Robin and his twin Maurice were born on the Isle of Man to English parents on December 22, 1949, three years after their brother, Barry. The family moved to Manchester shortly after and the boys attended Oswald Road Primary, where they first started singing in harmony.

The trio were encouraged by their father Hugh, a band leader, and their mother Barbara, a former singer. Legend has it that the boys were planning to lip sync to a record at their local Gaumont cinema – as part of the intermission entertainment – and were running to the venue because they were late. In a moment of clumsiness one of the boys dropped the record, which smashed to bits. Instead of pulling out, the plucky trio opted to sing live – and the audience response was so positive they began to think of a professional musical career.

They continued performing when the family moved to Australia, in 1958. They took the name Bee Gees, an abbreviation of Brothers Gibb, signed to the Australian label Festival Records and released a series of singles written by Barry in his teenage years.

The group were popular and released an album, but failed to top the charts Down Under until they had headed back to the northern hemisphere in search of success.

Their single, Spicks And Specks, went to number one in Australia while they were signing a record contract in the UK and their first recording under that deal – New York Mining Disaster 1941, released in mid-1967 – made the top 20 on both sides of the Atlantic.

But the group’s first major hit was the charttopping Massachusetts. The brothers soon followed the lead set by The Beatles and Rolling Stones as they embraced experimentation, tackling different styles. They recorded the album Idea and from it released I Started A Joke and Gotta Get A Message To You, both hits. But the brothers argued over follow-up album Odessa, released in 1969, and did not record together for 18 months.

Regrouping in 1970, they created their first US number one Lonely Days, and the following year had another hit with How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, covered by soul legend Al Green. But as tastes and the musical landscape changed, their star slipped and they lost ground.

IT was teaming up with producer Arif Mardin – who had worked with Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield and many other soul legends – which sowed the seeds for the change in sound. Jive Talkin’ featured on their second Mardin-produced release, the Main Course album.

But it was their manager, Robert Stigwood, who brought them on board for Saturday Night Fever, a film he was producing, and the songs were written in little over a weekend. Disco was already established but the music and the film combined to give it huge popularity.

POSING with their perfect grins and tight white outfits, they effortlessly captured the look of an era. And with their falsetto close harmonies hitched to a dancefloorfriendly sound, the trio’s career was propelled to new heights.

They sang on fewer than half the songs on the soundtrack to the 1977 film, which brought John Travolta adulation for his portrayal of a working- class boy who lived to strut his stuff.

But as one of the biggest selling albums of all time, it brought recognition for their new direction (two of the songs had featured on earlier albums) and paved the way for the even bigger Spirits Having Flown in 1979.

Spirits, which went on to sell 30 million copies, included songs such as Tragedy and became the group’s first and only UK number one studio album. It was also their first appearance in the UK albums top 40 for a decade.

The Bee Gees’ song catalogue led to their induction into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

But tastes changed once again and as the disco boom ended, so their sales took a hit.

But they staged another comeback in 1987 – almost grand statesmen of pop, despite Robin and Maurice only being in their late 30s – with a new album and a return to the top of the singles charts with You Win Again.

Songwriting also yielded numerous chart hits, including Dionne Warwick’s Heartbreaker, Diana Ross’s Chain Reaction and Islands In The Stream for Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.

‘‘A lot of these songs in our catalogue are still on the radio,’’ Robin said in an interview in 2011.

‘‘I can turn the radio on, on any given commercial radio station or the BBC, and hear five Gibb brothers’ songs a day – also in America – because of all the other artists we have written for, as well as ourselves.’’ THE family suffered a setback when younger brother Andy, who had his own pop success, died in 1988 from heart failure at the age of 30. And 15 years later there was further heartache when Maurice died in Miami, due to a complication from a twisted bowel.

Robin last performed on stage in February, supporting injured servicemen and women at the Coming Home concert at the London Palladium.

He had been due to premier his classical work, The Titanic Requiem, last month, with son Robin-John, but the event went ahead without him due to his poor health.

In an interview in 2003, he told how hard he had found it coming to terms with the death of his twin. “He was part of the fabric of my life,” he said. “We were kids together, and teenagers. We spent the whole of our lives with each other because of our music. I can’t accept that he’s dead. I just imagine he’s alive somewhere else.”

If he is, then you can be sure the two brothers are now reunited – belting out an amazing repertoire of hits.