24 luglio 2009: grande sorpresa al "Bee Gees Variety Club Silver Heart Awards", : un'esibizione a sorpresa di Barry e Robin Gibb, che hanno cantato dal vivo ALCUNE canzoni. Il live dei due Gibb non era previsto nel programma ufficiale della serata di beneficienza, nel corso del quale i Bee Gees sono stati premiati con il "Silver Heart", la più importante onorificienza del circuito benefico "Variety Club". Alla serata hanno preso parte anche la vedova di Maurice ed il figlio Adam, e la madre dei Gibb, Barbara. Nel corso della serata Ronan keating ha cantato "Words" ed altri artisti hanno cantato altre canzoni dei Gibb. A detta dei presenti l'esibizione dei Gibb è stata ottima. "New York Mining Disaster", "Massachussets", "To love somebody", "Words" ,"You should be dancing" ed "How can you mend a broken heart" le canzoni che componevano il set dell'esibizione a sorpresa dei Gibb, ammirata da circa 600 persone che hanno preso parte all'evento benefico. (Foto di Stuart Moser)
(Fonte: Facebook)
VIDEO - Barry & Robin Gibb "How can you mend a broken heart"
Barry & Robin: surprise live appearance in Manchester
Barry and Robin Gibb sang five songs at the "Bee Gees Variety Club Silver Heart Awards", in a surprise live show. The songs were: "New York Mining Disaster", "Massachussets", "To love somebody", "Words" , "You should be dancing" and "How can you mend a broken heart" . (Picture by Stuart Moser)
(Source: Facebook)
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StampaIl "Times" e l' "Independent" pubblicano in questi giorni due interessanti interviste di Robin Gibb, in questi giorni più che mai attivo.
L'intervista del Times rivela tra l'altro che il primo ministro inglese Gordon Brown è un fan dei Bee Gees, mentre nell'intervista all'Independent Robin dichiara con forza di pretendere più rispetto per i Bee Gees e per le altre grandi star che contribuito alla grandezza della musica pop e rock inglese nel mondo. Interessante anche il commento (che sottoscrive le affermazioni di Robin) contenuto in un articolo dell'Indipendent , successivo all'intervista.
Inoltre in questi giorni Robin ha registrato una video intervista come testimonial di una campagna lanciata dal governo inglese per incoraggiare i padri separati a restare sempre vicini ai figli. Il sito web del "Times" riporta la sintesi e la trascrizione della video-intervista, che sarà disponibile sul sito http://www.dads-space.com/ a partire dalla fine di maggio.
(Fonti (Timesonline, www.independent.co.uk)
Gordon Brown’s secret to stayin’ alive - listen to the Bee Gees
How is the Prime Minister surviving a grim period in office? By listening to the Bee Gees every day, the ever so well connected Robin Gibb reveals
Robin Gibb counts prime ministers past and present among his friends
Will Hodgkinson, (The Times 16-05-20089
Not everyone hates Gordon Brown. “He listens to our music every day,” says his friend, the Bee Gee Robin Gibb. “Gordon likes our music and I like Gordon. I was with him at a dinner recently” – Gibb says this with the air of a man for whom dining with the Prime Minister is all in a day’s work – “and he was asking: who is creating the big song catalogues of today? The answer is no one. Record companies today don’t see the need for creating big catalogues because that involves investing in careers, which they are no longer doing. But great songs are the backbone of music. They transcend the artist and the record and become part of the culture.”
It is not hard to see why Gibb is passionate about the craft of the pop song. The Bee Gees, the band he formed in his teens with his late twin Maurice and their elder brother Barry, are one of the most successful acts of all time. A fair chunk of the world’s population can sing along to Tragedy, Jive Talking and Stayin’ Alive.
The Bee Gees recently became the first band to be made fellows of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, for which the flagship event is the Ivor Novello Awards next Thursday. Since the ceremony is all about celebrating the art of the song, Gibb is one of its most vocal supporters.
“The Ivor Novellos [are] the beacon of the songwriting establishment in Britain,” says Gibb, a remarkably thin man with a gentle if slightly cadaverous air about him. “I come from an era when artists wrote their own songs, when people like Paul McCartney and Elton John created a huge body of work. We are in real danger of losing that tradition.”
Gibb lives in a 1,000-year-old former monastery in Oxfordshire with grounds equivalent to a reasonably proportioned London park. And he counts prime ministers past and present among his friends. “Tony Blair is a great friend,” Gibb says of our former leader, who took a holiday at Gibb’s Miami house in 2007. “I respect him tremendously. In this business you have friends from all backgrounds, including prime ministers and princes, and we get on like a house on fire.”
Brown likes the Bee Gees music, Gibb says, “because it talks about human relationships and experience, rather than specific events, and reaches out across the decades.” Brown has told Gibb: “Your music is absolutely timeless.”
Gibb is in fine form, talking rapidly in a Mancunian twang. Interviews have suggested that he feels the Bee Gees are not taken as seriously as they should be – there was the incident in 1998 when all three stormed off the set of Clive Anderson’s television show after the presenter made a joke about their once being called Les Tosseurs – but if this is still the case, he’s not showing it.
“We’re not just performers but also songwriters, which is the important thing,” he says. “I love Mozart because of his emphasis on melody, but in his time he wasn’t taken seriously at all. Now nobody listens to Mozart and says, ‘That’s so 1780s’. What you are left with is the music.”
“The music” has been Gibb’s saviour. He grew up in a poor family in Manchester until he was nine, when the family moved to Australia. The Bee Gees formed soon after, inspired by the broad variety of music they heard on Australian radio. “We didn’t have a pot to piss in when we were growing up – my dad couldn’t hold down a job – but we didn’t feel we were missing out because we had a lot of fun writing songs. We would hear our favourite bands on the radio and then try and write in their style, pretending that we were coming up with their next hit. We never thought about fame or anything like that.”
Does it bother him that the pop song is frequently dismissed as teenage trash? “That’s just an attitude and it doesn’t impact on the quality of the music,” he replies. “Writing a simple melody that people remember and that can be interpreted in different styles is one of the hardest things to do. Look at Islands in the Stream. We wrote that as an R&B tune but Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers turned it into pure country. A lot of classical composers worked in the same way. It’s rumoured that Beethoven sat in Bavarian taverns and stole melodies from travelling folk singers, so concepts of what is high or low art are irrelevant.”
The Bee Gees were writing songs at a farmhouse in France in 1976 when their manager, Robert Stigwood, approached them to provide music for an adaptation of a short story by Nik Cohn called Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night. “We weren’t at all sure about it,” Gibb says. “It’s a dark film about what was really going on in New York at the time, and it has gang rape, suicide . . . Robert Stigwood came over to listen to our new songs while crickets chirped and cows mooed in the background, and he talked about this thing called disco we had never heard of, and between us we came up with this marriage of film and music that eclipsed everything. It was a low-budget film with no marketing at all and yet it captured imaginations.”
At the height of their powers the Bee Gees couldn’t help but write smash hits. “We wrote Tragedy and How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? in one afternoon at our house in Addison Road in Kensington. Both went to No 1, so that wasn’t a bad afternoon’s work,” he says. “We would sit around with a tape recorder and a keyboard and bash out ideas, and I think it worked because we had fun. If you think too hard about what you want from a situation it never works. The secret is to enjoy it.”
Since Maurice died in 2003 a return to that golden age of fraternal hitmaking is impossible. But Robin and Barry are in talks about writing a musical based on their back catalogue, and there are always mainstream pop stars ready to look to a Gibb brothers composition for material – Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross and Destiny’s Child are a few that have already done so.
Gibb’s main concern for the future is that the songwriting culture is in danger of dying out. “Programmes like The X Factor turn the song into a vehicle for celebrity rather than the other way round,” he says. “Our whole lives have been made up of projects that went into creating a catalogue of songs that the world has embraced. I just wish that the world today [was] more like the world we started out in.”
"Jive talkin': Why Robin Gibb wants more respect for the Bee Gees " - Tim Walker meets a famously prickly musician (The Indipendent, 12-5-2008)
Gibb says the Bee Gees should be celebrated for what they've achieved
Interviewing a Bee Gee can be a tricky business. There was the notorious incident on Clive Anderson's talk show when all three brothers Gibb strode off after tiring of their host's wisecracks. And there was the time Robin Gibb, invited on to Radio 4's Front Row to discuss his last solo album with the probing but hardly combative Mark Lawson, peeled off his mic in mid-conversation.
The Gibbs would have made good guests for Graham Norton, but the comedian scuppered that prospect by making a tasteless joke about the death of Robin's twin brother Maurice in 2003. At the time, Robin, perhaps understandably, expressed a wish to rip the presenter's head off.
It's no surprise, then, when our first appointment, due to take place at the star's converted monastery in Oxfordshire, is broken. A second meeting is cancelled, too. Third time lucky: we meet at a private members' club in Cavendish Square in London.
In March, Gibb, 58, was made President of the Heritage Foundation. The organisation, he explains, is devoted to "the recognition of achievement by people across the spectrum of British cultural life", with activities including tribute events, concerts and the unveiling of blue plaques.
Now, Gibb is heading the foundation's Bomber Command campaign. "It's 63 years since the end of the Second World War," he says. "We want the 56,000 guys who lost their lives protecting the freedoms of all of Europe to be honoured with a statue in the centre of London."
Gibb is bothered by Britons' lack of pride in their history. "We whinge about our past, but we're a greatly admired culture. We're the country that produced Shakespeare, for Christ's sake, the Brontës, Winston Churchill."
His home in Oxfordshire is "a microcosm of British history. It's 1,000 years old – older than Westminster Abbey. It survived the dissolution, and during the Civil War it was used by both Royalists and Parliamentarians. In the Second World War, the American army had a base there."
Gibb and his twin Maurice were born on the Isle of Man in December 1949; Barry, the other surviving sibling, was three years their senior. The trio were brought up in relative poverty in Manchester until 1958, when their youngest brother Andy was born, and the family relocated to Australia, where the Bee Gees first found fame.
"As a teenager growing up in Australia," Gibb says, "I realised that the Australians value British history more than the British do. Tony Blair spent a few years growing up in Adelaide and I had the same conversation with him."
Blair, "a good friend", holidayed at Gibb's mansion in Florida last year, sending the tabloids into a tizz. In 1992, Gibb's wife Dwina had been inaugurated as patroness of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, a British neo-druidic order. She and Gibb were also candid about the openness of their marriage, a mistake he learnt from. "I don't understand why the press went crazy over that," he says. "They made very unnecessary jibes at my wife. It was a personal attack on her."
Unnecessary jibes are what have riled the band in past interviews: Anderson making the obvious joke about their former moniker, "Les Tosseurs", and Lawson asking Gibb how he felt about the lack of respect afforded the band. The Bee Gees are often treated without seriousness, mocked for the big hair, dismissed as men of the Seventies.
"Nobody ever says, 'Mozart? That's so 1780s!' I think we should see people for what they've achieved. Mozart was a womaniser and a drunk, but we evaluate him on his works," Gibb says. "We've got one of the biggest catalogues in the world. There are songs we wrote in 1968 that people are still singing. Ronan keating did 'Words', Destiny's Child did 'Emotion'. There's very few artists with that kind of history."
The Bee Gees' record sales top 220 million. The only people who have outsold them are Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson and Garth Brooks. Their compositions have shifted more units than The Rolling Stones, Abba, Elton John or U2. It's unlikely that the Bee Gees will ever be toppled from that top five, even now that the name has – probably – been retired.
Since Maurice's death in January 2003, Barry and Robin have performed together only a handful of times at charity events. The old tales of animosity between the pair are quickly dismissed. "Retiring the name is an emotional decision. We'll decide what we want to do in the next couple of years. We are planning to work together, but what shape or form that will take, it's too early to tell."
The album Gibb is recording for release later this year will, inevitably, be infused with the experience of losing his twin. "In many ways I don't accept that he's gone," he says. "I miss his presence, but it's something I have to live with."
Maurice wasn't the first family member to die unexpectedly. Andy, the youngest Gibb, was a Seventies star in his own right with a string of US solo No 1s. During the Eighties, the prospect of Andy joining the Bee Gees was much discussed, but in March 1988, he died from a heart condition. He was 30. His brothers didn't hide the fact that past abuse of drugs and alcohol had probably contributed. "Losing two brothers at a very early age is one thing, but the fact that both their deaths were unnecessary only compounds it," says Gibb.
Thirty years after its release, Saturday Night Fever is still the best-selling soundtrack of all time. Until then, the Gibbs were best known for their late 1960s ballads, like "Massachusetts". But, says Gibb: "We were dying to get into our soul influences. We wanted to do more than just ballads."
In 1976, they released Children of the World, complete with the No 1 blue-eyed soul single "You Should Be Dancing". They were working on new songs at a farmhouse in France when they got a call from Robert Stigwood. "He called from LA," Gibb recalls, "and said, 'We're making a film with this new guy John Travolta, and we're rehearsing to 'You Should Be Dancing'. Do you have any more songs?'" The rest is history.
"All those songs – 'Night Fever', 'How Deep Is Your Love', 'More Than a Woman', 'If I Can't Have You' – were written in a three-week period at five o'clock in the morning, with the only view from the window being of the cows that needed milking. They were the first to hear 'Stayin' Alive'."
Saturday Night Fever still overshadows the Bee Gees' long career. "Fever was a very important project, but the Gibb brothers were responsible for a wide range of songs," Gibb says, "from 'Islands In the Stream' for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, to 'Chain Reaction' for Diana Ross, to 'Heartbreaker' for Dionne Warwick, to 'Woman In Love' for Barbra Streisand. There's only a handful of people with catalogues like ours – the Stones, Elton, Abba and The Beatles.
"I get together with Paul [McCartney] a lot," he continues. "We talk about how we used to record. When we and The Beatles were recording we had no reference points. We just went into the studio and did what came into our minds. Many artists today just go into the studio and try to copy what's in the charts. We saw what was in the charts and said, 'Let's try to do something different.'"
Terence Blacker: These elderly pop stars have a right to feel miffed (The Indipendent, 13-05-2008)
The prejudice has less to do with the music than the way its performer looks, or his views
On the face of it, there are few sillier or unseemly sights in public life than a pop billionaire stroppily complaining that he is not taken seriously enough. Sir Cliff Richard does it every other week. Sir Paul McCartney seems to exude dissatisfaction with his lot. And that high-pitched, perfectly harmonised sound you can hear in the background almost certainly comes from one of the Bee Gees, those perennial chart-toppers in the moaners' hit parade.
A few years ago, they walked when Clive Anderson made a disrespectful, unfunny joke about them. A Mark Lawson interview with one of them, Robin Gibb, on Radio 4 was also terminated abruptly. This week, in The Independent, Gibb complained that it was odd that a group whose records have sold over 220 million and whose compositions exceed the sales of the Rolling Stones, U2, Elton John and Abba (and, he might have added, have suffered their share of misfortune) are still a byword for jokes about hair, teeth and the 1970s. "Nobody ever says, 'Mozart?' That's so 1780s!' I think we should see people for what they have achieved."
He is right to be miffed. By the simplest and most persuasive criteria of artistic success – how much lasting pleasure a work has given – pop musicians like the Gibb brothers deserve respect and gratitude, perhaps even from those who are not particularly fans of their music. The music that they wrote is in the bloodstream of a generation. People grew up, fell in love, married and had children to it. Their songs were taken for granted precisely because they were so ubiquitous.
Music is probably more vulnerable to snobbery than any other art form. For every talented pop composer, there are a thousand Clive Andersons, waiting on the sidelines to say how naff they are. More often than not, the prejudice has less to do with the music than the way its composer or performer looks, or his clothes, hair, views or sexuality. Almost always, the popular success of a musician confirms his lack of coolness to more sophisticated people.
Judgements as to which musicians are culturally acceptable are utterly subjective and, in the long term, meaningless. In the 1950s, when Gerry Goffin and Carole King were writing hits for Bobby Vee and The Drifters, the songs were dismissed as bubble-gum music for kids; a few years later, by some strange alchemical process which only rock journalists will understand, the same songs had become pop classics. A couple of decades later, Abba were seen to be the height of musical vulgarity. Only after they stopped writing and performing was it decided that, in fact, they were rather innovative and ahead of their time.
It must be annoying for someone like Robin Gibb, who has contributed so much to national life, not to mention to the national exchequer, to find that he is still a joke for the usual gang of scoffers. The state now and then attempts to recognise the work of pop musicians by handing out baubles and honours but, as poor old Sir Cliff and Sir Paul have discovered, a knighthood can often merely confirm a person's naffness.
Yet there is something which could be done to strike a significant blow against musical snobbery. Last year the Government announced that a national songbook would be introduced to encourage the nation's children to share and enjoy music. There would be 30 songs which would be the focus of a campaign called "Sing-Up". The project is now in all sorts of trouble. The list was thought to be too short and too prescriptive. Songs from different cultures were introduced in response to accusations of cultural imperialism. When last counted, there were about 600 songs in what has now become the National Song Bank.
Yet the idea was good. If the list had been increased to 50 songs and revised once every two years with the help of teachers and children, it could have engaged schools in understanding what made songs last. Because music has the power to unify, there would surely have been a case for putting the emphasis on songs from the main culture.
The list, as it stands, is dull: too many nursery rhymes and traditional songs. The national songbook should include the best popular songs of the past, whether they are naff or not. The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" should be there, and so should Ralph McTell's "Streets of London" and Cliff Richards' "Congratulations". Something by the Bee Gees – "Stayin' Alive", perhaps – would certainly be a contender.
There will be discussions and rows but the songbook would be a great, self-renewing celebration of the power of music. It would also be the best way to pass on to future generations songs that have brought us pleasure – however unfashionably – in the past.
"Stayin’ in touch: Bee Gee tips for absent fathers " (The Times , 6-5-2008)
The government has enlisted Robin Gibb, the Bee Gees singer, and Gary Lineker, the sports presenter, to encourage fathers separated from their children to stay close to them.
In an interview to be shown at a launch event this week by Ed Balls, the children’s secretary, Gibb, 58, speaks of having been “very, very nervous” and “horrified” at the prospect of seeing his children, Spencer and Melissa, for the first time after he divorced his first wife, Molly Hullis, in 1980. “‘Out of control’ is the first emotion alienated parents feel when they’re separated from their kids,” says Gibb. “They feel threatened. They feel as if they are not dictating events.”
Gibb says that one of the most difficult parts of reestablishing the relationship with children is knowing there might be another man in their home. “That’s what a lot of fathers can’t deal with,” he says.
The singer, whose interview was filmed for the website dads-space.com, which has received funding from Balls’s Parent Know How programme, has long had links to the government. He lent his Florida mansion to the former prime minister Tony Blair after noticing he looked “haggard” following the invasion of Iraq.
Transcript of an interview with Robin Gibb
This is a transcript of an interview with Robin Gibb conducted by www.dads-space.com, a service helping separated fathers communicate with their children. The full interview will be uploaded on to this website this month.
Quotes from interview with Robin Gibb on Dads Space
Emotionally, you tend to feel like swings and roundabouts; you don’t know what you want to do. You want to take action. You want to take action on your own, you want to take action with lawyers, you want to do this, you want to do that; you feel out of control.
I think that “out of control” is the first emotion that alienated parents feel when they’re separated from their kids. They feel threatened. They feel as if they are not dictating the course of events, someone else is, so it is very, very hard.
Related Links
Stayin’ in touch: Bee Gee tips for absent fathers
This is a very emotional period and this takes a while to settle down and see the wood for the trees. I think that once you let go of that emotional thing, things happen that become positive.
I became a father at a very early age by comparison to a lot of men – I was 22 years old when Spencer my first boy was born and I was in LA at the time, because in… this was about 1972 – it wasn’t always the thing… it was just… at the dawn of the time when men were supposed to be in surgery watching the child being born. But I was on the plane straight back… and he was premature. He was in an incubator …
I remember seeing him for the first time. It’s an incredible feeling actually producing life and having a child for the first time. And at 22 – I was still a bit of a kid myself. It kinda made me grow up a bit.
I think what you have to do… is that you’ve got to be a friend to your kids and you’ve got to be always there for them and I think more so when you are separated. I think you become more valuable as a father and friend once you’ve been separated. Because there are other people who come into the family structure that may be seen as father-figures – and so therefore you’re competing with that as well.
I think that’s what a lot of fathers can’t deal with as well – that there might be someone else at home who might be a father to the kids, who may spend more time with them and might replace them. In my case that did not happen. I feared it – but it didn’t happen. I’ve always been dad and we’ve always had a very close relationship.
And I think you’ve got to be first and foremost got to be a friend, a confidante to your kids. And not say… dictating too much, disciplinarian and always on their back… but a friend and a confidante – that’s the most important thing.
When I first saw my children afterwards I took them to pantomimes and things like that in Windsor, the usual quality moments, museums, all the things that parents do with kids to try and look for quality bonding moments.
The feeling I had when I first knew I was going to see them was great anticipation, very, very nervous; what would they think of me? Would they see me as Dad and how would their views be formed of me and what’s my role with them. You’re starting from a different reference point. I think a lot of parents go through this; you feel like a stranger with your own kids.
With those nerves that I had about seeing them, I turned them into “well, why don’t I just treat myself as a guy who’s getting to know some other people, like a friend and turn them into friends?” which is what I did, and I think, after a while I gained their respect and their friendship, which is probably something maybe I wouldn’t have had if we’d stayed together.
I think it developed into something more meaningful. All I know is that I was horrified at the time because I hadn’t seen them for a while. I think that any parent who’s going to see their kids after a long, long time is going to feel this, and it’s quite normal. You get over it. It’s just a moment in time but it is very, very nerve wracking.
Sono alcune dichiarazioni rilasciate da Barry Gibb durante un intervista radiofonica andata in onda tre giorni fa su BBC Radio 2.
L'intervista è inclusa nella prima parte dello special dedicato alla storia della musica dei Bee Gees, intitolato "You win again". Il documentario radiofonico, realizzato dal giornalista Paul Gambuccini, contiene interviste rilasciate da Barry e Robin, piene di interessanti riflessioni sulla loro produzione musicale , ed una rara intervista al loro storico manager Robert Stigwood ed al primo manager in assoluto dei Gibb, Bill Gates. Sono presenti commenti da parte di Ronan keating e Kenny Rogers. Lo show è articolato in due puntate, che percorrono tutta la carriera musicale dei Gibb. La seconda parte andrà in onda il prossimo 10 aprile.
Le dichiarazioni di Barry sono davvero sorprendenti, considerando che (anche nella biografia autorizzata) lui stesso ha sempre dichiarato di essere stato profondamente deluso ed amareggiato di vedere che in realtà era stato "abbandonato dai Bee Gees".
Fonte: "Words" mailing list e BBC Radio)
The competition was intense. I feel the bad feelings have never really disappeared. I would be content to be left alone".
These are some of the statements made by Barry during the radio interview aired three days ago by BBC Radio 2.
The interview is included in "You Win Again", a two-episode special about the history of the Bee Gees music. The second part of the show will be aired on april 10. The documentary, conducted by BBC journalist Paul Gambuccini, hosts the story of the music of the Bee Gees, drawing mainly on new and reflective interviews with Barry and Robin, along with a rare, new interview with impresario Robert Stigwood.
Also featured comments by Kenny Rogers, Ronan keating and other artists.
Barry's declarations are very surprising, in consideration that he always stated (also in the "Authorized biography") he was disappointed to know "the Bee Gees left him alone"...
Source: "Words" mailing list e BBC Radio)
Secondo quanto ha rivelato Sharleen Spiteri (ex cantante dei Texas) in un'intervista
rilasciata al quotidiano scozzese "Sunday Mail", Barry Gibb avrebbe declinato
il suo invito di scrivere per una canzone a causa dei suoi problemi di salute.
"Volevo fare un pezzo per il mio ultimo album, Melody, con Barry Gibb
dei Bee Gees, ma lui soffre terribilmente di artrite alla schiena, e quindi
non se ne è fatto nulla".
La Spiteri, ex-voce solista dei Texas, si esibirà il prossimo 25 ottobre a Londra
con Robin Gibb per un evento commemorativo dei 30 anni dell'ascesa alla vetta
delle chart UK della colonna sonora della "Febbre del sabato sera". L'evento
è previsto all'interno del prestigioso festival "BBC Electric Proms 2008".
Secondo quanto dichiarato dalla stessa artista scozzese, canterà "If I can't
have you" e "How deep is your love".
Robin sarà in compagnia della Spiteri, ma anche di altri artisti come Ronan
keating e Stephen Gateley (ex Boyzone che in questi giorni hanno confermato
la loro presenza all'evento) Sam Sparro, Gabriella Cilmi, e Bryn Christopher.
Nel corso della stessa intervista la Spiteri non ha nascosto la sua profonda
ammirazione per i Bee Gees e per il loro sconfinato catalogo di successi.
"Ero troppo piccola per vedere il film, ma ho sempre amato quella
colonna sonora. Quando Robin Gibb mi ha chiesto di cantare con lui ai BBC proms
ho accettato immediatamente. Sono sempre stata una grande fan dei Bee Gees.
Stare sul palcoscenico con Robin sarà spettacolare, un sogno che si avvera".
Nel corso della loro carriera i Texas, il gruppo di cui era cantante solista
Sharleen Spiteri, hanno raggiunto per ben tre volte la vetta delle classifiche
di vendita degli album in UK. Sharleen ha appena pubblicato il suo primo album
solista, intitolato "Melody"
"Credo che non esista persona al mondo che non conosce almeno una
delle canzoni dei Bee Gees di "Saturday Night Fever", ha aggiunto
la Spiteri, e "anche se i Bee Gees avevano un'immagine discutibile
(medagioni e capelli al vento), sicuramente hanno scritto canzoni brillanti
e credo che non gli importasse un "bel niente" di quello che pensava la gente,
mentre vendevano milioni di dischi..."
(Fonte: Sunday
Mail)
"Sharleen Spiteri on her Saturday Night Fever dream"
Sharleen has revealed she has waited 30 years to recreate John Travolta's famous "funky chicken" dance from Saturday Night Fever. The Texas singer became hooked on the 1977 disco movie - featuring hit songs by The Bee Gees - after watching it as a child on a bootleg video. Now, Sharleen will join Bee Gees legend Robin Gibb on stage to recreate the 70s era which sparked off a fashion craze for big hair, chest wigs and gold medallions. She said: "I loved it when John Travolta went on to the floor and did that chicken dance. "So you can bet I'll be striking a few Night Fever poses of my own. "I was 10 when the film came out but it was so different at that time. "All those dances were what the teenagers were doing." Sharleen will perform Bee Gees classics If I Can't Have You and How Deep Is Your Love? as part of the BBC Electric Proms in London next month. The concert also stars Sam Sparro and Estelle. Sharleen leapt at the chance to sing the movie's tracks backed by a 62-piece orchestra. Sharleen releases her great new single Stop, I Don't Love You Anymore - from her chart-topping solo album Melody - on October 6. She said: "I wanted to do a track forMelody with The Bee Gees' Barry Gibb. But he suffers from terrible arthritis in his back so it didn't come off. "When his brother Robin asked me to do this show to mark the 30th anniversary of Saturday Night Fever I jumped at it. I've always been a massive Bee Gees fan. "When you look at that group the first thing you think is, 'Now that's what I call a classic back catalogue.'"
When Saturday Night Fever sparked a global disco explosion Sharleen was too young to see it in the cinema. It tells the story of Italian-American Tony Manero (Travolta) who escapes the drudgery of his dead-end job in a Brooklyn hardware store by ruling the dance floor of his local disco, Odyssey. The film was given an R-rating by British censors due to its sex scenes, drug use and bad language. Sharleen said: "I was just that little bit under-age to go and see it. But Saturday Night Fever was such a big deal. I finally got to see it at 13 on a bootleg video at a mate's house. "I couldn't believe the coolness of the clothes, make-up and dancing - it was a big part of growing up in 1977. "Later I went through my Saturday Night Fever period of wearing men's suit jackets, waistcoat and jeans. "I took the Travolta suited look rather than disco leggings and medallions." Sharleen reckons The Bee Gees - Barry, Robin and their late brother Maurice - got an unfair pasting due to their "medallion man" image. She said: "Do you think The Bee Gees gave a flying f*** what people thought of their image when they were selling millions of records? "So they had big hair and big teeth ...but they could write brilliant songs. When anything goes that massive people always want to tear it down. "But I can't think of anybody who doesn't know at least one Bee Gees song from the soundtrack. "Being on stage with Robin Gibb will be spectacular, a dream come true."
(Source: Sunday
Mail)
From Twitter:
Brian Wilson (Beach Boys): Robin was 'part of the family'. I love the Bee Gees voices, they're some of my favorite singers. I am so sad.
Lenny Kravitz: Another legend passed. My deepest sympathy to the Gibb family. The Bee Gees are the soundtrack to an iconic era that shaped a world wide phenomenon and culture. Their rhythms, melodies,and production is one of a kind and instantly warms the heart. Respect Lenny
Liam Gallagher (Oasis): ROBIN GIBB LEGEND LG
Peter Frampton: So sorry to hear Robin Gibb has lost his battle with cancer. My heart goes out to the entire Gibb family at this very sad time. RIP
Elton John: Elton John dedicates 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' to Robin Gibb at a recent concert in Las Vegas
Duran Duran: Sorry to hear about the passing of Robin Gibb of the BeeGees. Our condolences to his friends and family:
Bryan Adams: Robin Gibb RIP. Very sad to hear about yet another great singer dying too young.
Justin Timberlake: We have lost a truly brilliant musician today. One of my idols. My heart goes out to the Gibb family in this time of sorrow...RIP Robin.
Ronan keating: Just heard about Robin Gibb. I am devastated. Can't believe it. May he rest in peace. My thought and prayers are with his family. X
Diane Warren: Bee Gees have written some of the best songs in pop music history. #RIP Robin
Nile Rodgers: "Got the wings of heaven on my shoes, I'm a dancing man and I just can't loose" ~Bee Gees~ Robin Gibb RIP
Mick Hucknall (Simply Red): RIP Robin Gibb. A musical giant.
Gary Barlow (Take that): I'm so sad to hear Robin Gibb has passed away.Such a great loss.His music will out live us all.
Heart: Bless the Brothers Gibb. Their family blend inspired many harmonies in the back of vans full of traveling...
Richard Marx: Robin Gibb RIP. The Bee Gees were so important to pop music. Huge loss.
Bruno Mars: R.I.P Robin Gibb
Skin (skunk anansie): R.I.P. Robin Gibb, I LOVE the BeeGees music, amazing songwriters, great voices, beautiful stories. 
The script: _ R.I.P. Robin Gibb. We met Robin+Barry in NY. Such a lovely guy. Prayers 2 his family. 2 many Legends being taken from us 2 early :(
The Doors: We send our condolences to the family and fans of Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, who passed away today.
Hanson: So sad to hear of the loss of The Bee Gee's, @RobinGibb, Another legend lost. Our hearts go out to Barry Gibb and Robin's entire family
Paula Abdul: The Bee Gees were & are music legends. my thoughts & prayers are w/ Robin Gibbs' family & friends. xoP
Kim Wilde: I toured with Robin Gibb in Germany.Always a true gentleman.He has left us an amazing legacy.
Chris de Burgh: So sorry to hear of the death of Robin Gibb, who was hugely influential in the writing and performing of modern popular music....
Jermaine Dupri: BEE GEES ~ LOVE YOU INSIDE OUT ~: RIP ROBIN GIBB,MY FAVORITE BEE GEES RECORD BY FAR, "LOVE YOU INSIDE OUT"
Boy George: So sad to hear about the loss of Robin Gibb, my prayers to his loved ones! R.I.P.
Peter Andre:I am so absolutely gutted about Robin Gibb passing away . One of the true musical legends whom I was honored to be friends with . RIP
BBC.CO.UK - Robin Gibb: Tributes to 'brilliant' Bee Gee: www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18142493
Access Hollywood: stars react to the death of Robin Gibb: www.accesshollywood.com/justin-timberlake-jimmy-fallon-and-more-stars-react-to-the-death-of-robin-gibb_article_65040
I Gibb, apparsi in ottima forma, hanno cantato davanti ad una audience di oltre 2000 persone tre canzoni, "Jive talkin'", "To love somebody" ed "You should be dancing".
• Aggiornamento (26/05/2006) Guarda le foto dell'esibizione di Barry e Robin (di Marco Zecchin in esclusiva per Bee Gees Italy)
Barry e Robin (annunciati da tutti come i Bee Gees) sono stati i primi a salire sul palco del concerto, al quale hanno preso parte, tra gli altri, anche Annie Lennox, Lionel Richie, Ozzy Osborne, Will Young e Ronan keating.
Dopo lo show, durante una breve intervista alla TV ufficiale dell'evento (ITV) durante la quale sono apparsi molto divertiti, hanno dichiarato di essere orgogliosi di avere preso parte all'evento.
Il resoconto della serata da parte di un "inviato speciale" di Bee Gees Italy
Ore 16,00...Appena arrivato sul luogo ho cercato la mia sistemazione nel mio posto al settore F, blocco 6, posto 108...ma visto che ero a circa 30 metri dal palco ho pensato di scendere ed avvicinarmi il piu' possibile. Al momento uno steward mi ha impedito di passare ma, con un piccolo trucco sono riuscito ad andate in platea non numerata, in piedi, lasciando il mio comodo posto per una posizione piu' vantaggiosa dal punto di vista visivo e fotografico.
Subito apprendo che i Bee Gees saranno i primi ad esibirsi e questo, mi e' stato spiegato, perche' le stelle della serata sono proprio i Gibb all'inizio e Lionel Richie alla fine.
Appena entrati i Bee Gees, il pubblico, tutto in pedi, ha fatto partire un forte applauso e grida di ovazione.
Tutto il pubblico, anche quello piu' giovane ( dai 15 ai 25 anni) accompagna la performance cantando tutte le canzoni dimostrando di conoscere alla perfezione i testi. Sicuramente la song piu' acclamata e gradita dall'audience e' stata You Shoud be dancing....fantastico vedere tutti in piedi a ballare,e cantare...anche il Principe Carlo and Family!!!!
Purtroppo dopo 15 minuti i Bee Gees devono lasciare lo stage agli altri gruppi, ma accompagnati da grida di approvazione da parte di tutto il pubblico...da brividi!!!!!
Il concerto prosegue con i McFly, Annie Lennox , Embrace, Will Young, il redivivo Ozzy Osbourne, Ronan keating che, intervistato sul palco prima della sua performance, dichiara di essere un grande fan dei Bee Gees, di essere onorato di aver potuto lavorare con loro definendoli una leggenda della musica,...fino al gran finale con Lionel Richie che chiude questa maratona di 3 ore e 20 minuti con All Night Long e fuochi d'artificio finali.
Sono le 22,15 e mi appresto a ritornare in aereoporto dove alle 6,35 ho il volo....un tour de force massacrante...ma fatto davvero con entusiasmo perche' sapevo che anche questa volta i miei Bee Gees non mi avrebbero deluso!!!
Marco Zecchin per Bee Gees Italy
Il prossimo 20 maggio Barry e Robin Gibb si esibiranno alla trentesima edizione del concerto di beneficienza presentato dal Prince's Trust, l'organizzazione benefica del Principe di Galles, che dal 1976 raccoglie fondi per aiutare i giovani dai 14 ai 30 anni.
Oltre ai Gibb, tra gli artisti annunciati ci sono Pink, Annie Lennox, Sugababes, Embrace, Lionel Richie e Ronan keating.
Quella londinese sarà la seconda apparizione dal vivo dei due Bee Gees dopo la morte di Maurice.
I due Gibb, dopo un periodo caratterizzato da conflitti e da profonde divergenze, hanno infatti suonato dal vivo insieme per la prima volta in Florida nel febbraio 2006, per un concerto di beneficienza per la raccolta di fondi in facore di una organizzazione per la cura del diabete.
Barry e Robin durante la chat video a casa di Barry
Durante una webcast tenutasi qualche settimana fa a casa di Barry, in Inghilterra, i due Gibb, apparsi molto rilassati e contenti, hanno lasciato intendere che sono possibili nuovi progetti comuni.
Il primo è proprio questa partecipazione al prestigioso evento londinese, nel quale i Gibb proporranno tre canzoni, accompagnati dalla band del Prince's Trust Concert, che di solito è composta da prestigiosi musicisti.
I Bee Gees presero parte nel 1988 al Prince's Trust. In quella occasione proposero "You win again", accompagnati da una band composta, tra gli altri, da Phil Collins, Eric Clapton ed Howard Jones.
(Notizia originariamente inserita il 04/11, aggiornata il 17/11 ed il 20/01/2006)
ULTIMO AGGIORNAMENTO: 20.01.2006
Il prossimo 28 novembre esce in Gran Bretagna una nuova raccolta dei Bee Gees, intitolata "Love songs".
Negli altri principali mercati le date di uscita sono le seguenti:
Germania: 25/11
Norvegia: 28/11
Canada: 29/11
USA: 06/12
Giappone: 7/12
Italia, Belgio, Olanda e Spagna: 20/01/2006
Australia, Danimarca, Francia e Svezia: 05/02/2006
Come suggerisce il titolo, questo (ennesimo) greatest hits raccoglie alcune tra le migliori canzoni d'amore scritte e cantate dai fratelli Gibb nella loro lunga e prestigiosa carriera.
L'album chiude definitivamente il contratto dei Bee Gees con la Universal Records.
Nel frattempo i Gibb si sono aggiudicati la titolarità del loro intero catalogo musicale, sicchè da ora in poi nessun nuovo lavoro discografico che include canzoni dei Bee Gees potrà essere pubblicato senza la loro diretta (e completa) autorizzazione.
Pare che Barry e Robin stiano valutando le offerte di alcune tra le più importanti etichette discografiche per la realizzazione di prossimi dischi come solisti e di un eventuale nuovo album dei Bee Gees.
Infatti, seppure in profondo apparente disaccordo su tanti fronti (le attività soliste di Robin, le modalità del tributo per Maurice, il disco della Streisand senza Robin), sembra che (di comune accordo con la famiglia di Maurice) su un nuovo contratto per il catalogo dei Bee Gees non ci siano divergenze fra i due.
Nel frattempo, ecco la playlist di "Love Songs":
1. To Love Somebody
2. Words
3. First Of May
4. Lonely Days
5. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart
6. How Deep Is Your Love
7. More Than A Woman
8. (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away
9. Emotion
10. Too Much Heaven 11. Heartbreaker
12. Islands In The Stream ( Live)
13. Juliet
14. Secret Love
15. For Whom The Bell Tolls
16. Closer Than Close
17. I Could Not Love You More
18. Wedding Day
Inoltre (purtroppo solo per il mercato britannico e per quello asiatico) saranno presenti due bonus tracks:
"Heart like mine" e "Lovers and Friends".
Quest'ultima fu scritta nel 99 da Maurice e Barry per Ronan keating, che la registrò per il suo album di debutto come solista.
Misteriosamente la canzone non fu però inserita nell'album, nonostante i Gibb erano citati e ringraziati con enfasi nelle note di copertine del disco. (aggiornamento date pubblicazione, fonte: robingibb.com)
ULTERIORI AGGIORNAMENTI (20/01/2006)
1) La Universal Records ha realizzato due siti a supporto di "Love Songs:
beegeeslove.com
beegeeslovesongs.com (attualmente ancora in realizzazione)
2) "Islands in thr stream" è tratta dal live "One Night Only"
3)"Lovers and friends" è pubblicata con la dizione "featuring Ronan keating", ed è quindi la canzone di cui si parla sopra, disponibile per la prima volta in un disco ufficialmente pubblicato.
Il retro della copertina della versone UK (con le bonus tracks)
Nuove date per un nuovo tour di Robin e la sua orchestra.
Il tour, in svolgimento a luglio 2006, riguarda la Gran Bretagna, ed allo stato attuale queste sono le date annunciate:
01.07 - Cardiff, Coopersfield
02.07 - Woodstock, Blenheim Palace (Oxfordshire)
06.07 - Liverpool, Liverpool Pops
07.07 - Chatsworth, Chatsworth House (Derbyshire)
08.07 - Knebworth, Knebworth House (Hertfordshire)
09.07 - Maidstone, Leeds Castle (Kent)
14.07 - Blickling, Blickling Hall (Norfolk)
15.07 - Bath, The Rec
16.07 - Edinburgh, Edinburgh Castle
Tutti i concerti (ad eccezione di quelli di Liverpool ed Edimburgo) fanno parte di "Summer Nights", un prestigioso circuito di eventi e concerti che ogni anno in Gran Bretagna prevede le esibizioni (all'aperto) di grandi nomi della musica in castelli ed altre amene località.
Quest'anno, oltre a Robin, si esibiranno, tra gli altri, artisti del calibro di Bryan Adams, James Blunt, i Westlife e Pavarotti. L'anno scorso partciparono, tra gli altri a Ronan keating ed Anastasia.
- Per ulteriori informazioni: Summer Nights 2006 e robingibb.com
- Per i biglietti (già disponibili per i concerti "Summer nights 2006): Ticketmaster UK
Tra pochi giorni verranno forniti ulteriori informazioni (e notizie per l'acquisto dei biglietti) dei concerti di Liverpool ed Edimburgo, che attualmente non sono disponibili.
Robin Gibb, Ronan keating, Sam Sparro, Gabriella Cilmi e Sharleen Spiteri sono stati tra i principali protagonisti della serata dedicata al trentesimo anniversario della conquista della vetta delle chart inglesi della fortunata colonna sonora di "Saturday Night Fever".
Lo show ha avuto luogo a Londra (Roundhouse) il 25 ottobre.
Robin ha cantato due canzoni ("More than a woman" e "To Love somebody").
Video della BBC sulla serata (youtube):
La playlist della canzoni dei Bee Gees eseguite al concerto:
- Stayin' Alive (Sam Sparro)
- How Deep Is Your Love (Sharleen Spiteri)
- More Than A Woman (Robin Gibb)
- You Should Be Dancing (Gabriella Climi)
- Night Fever (Sam Sparro)
- If I Can't Have You (Sam Sparro)
- Jive Talkin' (Ronan keating & Stephen Gateley)
- Words (Ronan keating)
- Heartbreaker (Gabriella Climi)
- Emotion (Bryn Christopher)
- To Love Somebody (Robin Gibb)
Inoltre sono state proposte altre canzoni comprese in "Saturday Night fever" (Fifth Of Beethoven, Boogie Shoes, Disco inferno etc).
La serata è stata ripresa dalla BBC con dirette tv e radio.
(Fonte: BBC Elecric Proms 2008)
Saturday Night Fever celebrated at the BBC Electric proms 2008
To mark the 30th anniversary of Saturday Night Fever topping the charts in the UK, Robin Gibb performed alongside very special guests including Ronan keating, Stephen Gateley, Sam Sparro, Sharleen Spiteri, Gabriella Cilmi and Bryn Christopher with the BBC Concert Orchestra in London's Roundhouse. The show was musically directed by Anne Dudley, the Oscar-winning composer, arranger and producer.
Robin sang "More than a woman" and "To love somebody"
Here is the full tracklist of the show:
(Source: BBC Elecric Proms 2008)
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