Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Southpoint Sun - 23
The Bee Gees were more than just a disco act
PART ONE I heard recently that the Foo Fighters are putting out a new album later this month containing only cover versions of Bee Gee songs from their disco era in the mid-to-late ’70s. The title of the album is “Hail Satin” and the group will be called “The Dee Gees”. Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl is known to have been a big Bee Gees fan when he was a teenager. That being said, I, too, was a big Bee Gees fan from the time they began their invasion of North America in 1967. Over the years, I’ve collected many of their albums totalling at least 25, along with a few imports from across the pond and even one called “Spicks and Specks” that was made in Australia. Born on the Isle of Man, an island in the Irish Sea between Ireland and England, in the mid to late 1940s, Barry Gibb, twins Robin and Maurice Gibb and their older sister, Lesley, and parents moved back to England in 1955 to a suburb in Manchester where the boys formed their skiffle rock group, The Rattlesnakes. But by August of 1958, the Gibb family, along with five-month-old baby Andy, emigrated to Australia and lived in Redcliffe, Queensland. In no time, the trio began playing and in 1960 were hired by promoter and driver Bill Goode to play for the crowds at Redcliffe Speedway
FLASHBACK RADIO with Chuck Reynolds
where popular Brisbane DJ Bill Gates would introduce them between races. As they sang on the back of a truck that drove around the track between races, they were allowed to keep any money that the crowds threw on the track. Soon afterwards, Gates started calling the boys the “BGs” after his, Bill Goode’s and Barry Gibb’s initials. In time, the boys changed it to “Bee Gees” and there ends any truth to the myth that they were originally known as the “Brothers Gibb”. Like many young bands starting out, the Bee Gees had more downs than ups in their career and had little success with any of their early recordings. But in 1966, they were allowed to spend several months at a studio in Sydney, practicing and recording their own songs. One of them, “Spicks and Specks”, was their first big hit. But nothing else seem to take off, so the Bee Gees and their family moved back to England in January of 1967. However, while at sea in January, they heard that Australia’s biggest music newspaper, Go-Set, announced
Community Calendar
VACCINATION CLINIC TRANSPORTATION SECC IS PROVIDING FREE TRANSPORTATION to/from the clinic. Give us a call at 519-326-8629. Please ensure you have an appointment before calling to arrange transportation.
ONGOING MIRACLE MOBILE MARKET - The Mobile Market is a weekly travelling fresh produce market that offers packages of fruits and veggies. The suggested donation is $5 ( all donations go back into purchasing local produce for the Market project.) Join us in Wheatley on Tuesdays from 12:30 - 1:00 pm at the Wheatley Arena. Visit www.mobilemarketck.com or www.facebook.com/mobilemarketck for the latest info. ERIE SHORES TOASTMASTERS Meeting online at 6:00 p.m. every other Wednesday. Summer meeting dates are July 7, 21, August 4 and 18. Develop your Communication and Leadership Skills in a positive, friendly environment. Visit a meeting and see how you like it! For more info Email: ErieShoresTM@yahoo.com Facebook: Erie Shores Toastmasters or go to ErieShores.toastmastersclubs. org and click on Contact Us. COMMUNITY TAKEOUT IS AVAILABLE at Leamington United Church, 4:00 - 5:00 pm every Monday. St. John’s Anglican Church also has takeout meals available every Wednesday from 4-5pm. Food and clothing are available from St. Vincent De Paul at St. Michael’s Parish, Salvation Army Food Bank, The warming Cross at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Food Cupboard at St. John’s Anglican church,
The Bridge (ages 14-24), Food Pantry at Parkdale Variety, neighbourhood pantry at Erie South and Marlborough and the Angel Pantry at St. John’s Anglican Church. All are free. All are welcome.
ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT SOMEONE’S DRINKING? Al-Anon Family Groups meeting information: 519-790-7739 or www. alanonwindsoressex.com IF YOU WANT TO DRINK, THAT’S YOUR BUSINESS If you want to stop, we can help. Call Alcoholics Anonymous: 519-999-1234. RANDY ATKINSON FUND provides money for extras that OHIP doesn’t pay for or to help with unexpected expenses for cancer patients (e.g. hospital parking etc). If you, your group or organization would like to have a speaker explain the fund and its availability in this area, call 519-682-2580. PLAY ROTARY TV BINGO GAMES - Tuesday nights, live on TVCOGECO from 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. Can only be viewed in Chatham-Kent viewing areas. Support the community and purchase your cards from Adamson Guardian Drugs, Wheatley. Pick up your cards early! Play 5 different games on 3 faces in 1 hour. $3 for 15 ways to win and $2000 in prizes. MELO CLINIC & PREGNANCY CENTRE, 75 Erie Street South, Unit 103, Leamington, offers free and confidential services provided by registered nurses. Pregnancy tests, STI testing & treatment. Call 24/7 for confidential support 519-326-0612. Business calls 519-326-3821. www.pregnancycentre.net.
To place your event in the Community Calendar Phone: 519-398-9098 Email: sun@southpointsun.ca or drop off at 194 Talbot St. E. Unit 5, Leamington
that “Spicks and Specks” was crowned the Best Single of the Year. Things were about to change for the Bee Gees when their father, Hugh Gibbs, delivered some demo songs in the same month to the Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, who then sent them on to Robert Stigwood, who had already proved successful managing of Cream, and, along with having Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker as clients, had recently merged his own agency with Epstein’s EMI company. The Bee Gees would audition for him the next month in February and then sign on for a five-year contract with Polydor in England and Atco Records in the US. They would be managed by Stigwood for many years to come and strike success soon in the spring of 1967 Their first North American single, “New York Mining Disaster 1941”, was sent to many radio stations with a blank label showing only the song title. As expected, several DJs thought this was a new single by the Beatles and so it was played often and it reached #14 on the Billboard charts. The next four singles, “To Love Somebody”, “Holiday”, “Massachusetts” and “Words” in 1967 and early 1968 all
THE BEE GEES
reached inside the top 20, while “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” and “I Started a Joke” from late 1968 and early 1969 peaked at 8 and 6 in the Hot 100. But after that, from March 1969 until late November 1970, none of their five singles released lasted more than seven weeks on the Hot 100 and only one barely broke into the Top 40. What happened? Some will say poor selections were released. Others may say because Robin Gibb had left in 1969 to go on his own. Whatever the reason, I would guess that the music just wasn’t what the radio programmers wanted to hear. For more on what happened to the Bee Gees, please join us for part two of the Bee Gees story on Flashback Radio next week.
