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Bee Gees


Bee Gees / For Whom the Bell Toll

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www.bonnierbooks.co.uk

Nine Eight Books to publish Bob Stanley’s 'stylish and compelling' biography Bee Gees: Children of the World - Bonnier Books

Bonnier Books UK’s dedicated music imprint, Nine Eight Books, has acquired the lyrical biography of one of the best-selling bands of all time from the renowned pop scholar Bob Stanley. Pete Selby, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights as part of a three-book deal from David...
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk www.bonnierbooks.co.uk
 
zinniabooklover said:
9781788705417.jpg


www.bonnierbooks.co.uk

Nine Eight Books to publish Bob Stanley’s 'stylish and compelling' biography Bee Gees: Children of the World - Bonnier Books

Bonnier Books UK’s dedicated music imprint, Nine Eight Books, has acquired the lyrical biography of one of the best-selling bands of all time from the renowned pop scholar Bob Stanley. Pete Selby, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights as part of a three-book deal from David...
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk www.bonnierbooks.co.uk
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Are you reading this, Zin?
 
Agonum said:
Are you reading this, Zin?
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Funny you should ask. I am quite intrigued by this. Normally I don't bother with biographies / autobiographies / memoirs. That has changed slightly in the last year. I read Moonwalk. Just finished Jermaine's book. Have been dipping in and out of Donny's book, also Nile Rodgers. But, generally, it's still not my jam. But this one does sound interesting. Over the weekend I saw a review and a big extract.

From the Sunday Times review:

"It was while hanging out in a stripper's dressing room that an 11-year old Maurice Gibb started questioning his life. 'Will I be a normal child?' he wondered as he waited to go onstage with his twin, Robin, and elder brother, Barry, for the nightly club set their band fitted in after school."

From the extract in the Saturday Review, The Times:

"Within days of signing with Stigwood, the Gibbs were in Polydor studios at 19 Stratford Place in Mayfair, effectively a converted cupboard with outdated valve equipment that was mostly used for writing demos. According to Barry there was a power cut. They sat on stone steps, next to an old goods lift with metal, concertina doors. They liked the echo of the lift shaft and came up with a minor key song about being buried underground - they gave it the eye-catching title New York Mining Disaster 1941."

I'm not planning on buying the thing right now, I might wait until next year when it comes out in pbk. It does sound really interesting. The Saturday Review thing was an extract from the book and there was SO much good stuff in there. It focused on some of the stuff happening in 1967. I'm especially interested in the 60's stuff bc that's 'my' Bee Gees.
 
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zinniabooklover said:
Funny you should ask. I am quite intrigued by this. Normally I don't bother with biographies / autobiographies / memoirs. That has changed slightly in the last year. I read Moonwalk. Just finished Jermaine's book. Have been dipping in and out of Donny's book, also Nile Rodgers. But, generally, it's still not my jam. But this one does sound interesting. Over the weekend I saw a review and a big extract.

From the Sunday Times review:

"It was while hanging out in a stripper's dressing room that an 11-year old Maurice Gibb started questioning his life. 'Will I be a normal child?' he wondered as he waited to go onstage with his twin, Robin, and elder brother, Barry, for the nightly club set their band fitted in after school."

From the extract in the Saturday Review, The Times:

"Within days of signing with Stigwood, the Gibbs were in Polydor studios at 19 Stratford Place in Mayfair, effectively a converted cupboard with outdated valve equipment that was mostly used for writing demos. According to Barry there was a power cut. They sat on stone steps, next to an old goods lift with metal, concertina doors. They liked the echo of the lift shaft and came up with a minor key song about being buried underground - they gave it the eye-catching title New York Mining Disaster 1941."

I'm not planning on buying the thing right now, I might wait until next year when it comes out in pbk. It does sound really interesting. The Saturday Review thing was an extract from the book and there was SO much good stuff in there. It focused on some of the stuff happening in 1967. I'm especially interested in the 60's stuff bc that's 'my' Bee Gees.
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So cool. Would love to read that book myself.

Thanks for the quotes!
 
Agonum said:
So cool. Would love to read that book myself.

Thanks for the quotes!
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Have just been reading another excerpt, this time from The Guardian Friday 2 June 2023. I didn't know this. I'm a bit 😲

"For one week in April 1964, the Top 5 singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 were all by the Beatles. This remains the only time a single act has occupied the entire Top Five, but in March 1978, the Bee Gees gave it their best shot.

The week that Night Fever went to No 1 in the US, Stayin’ Alive was at No 2 and both singles stayed put for the next five weeks; the Bee Gees became the first group, post-Beatles, to hold down the top two spots at the same time. In that first week, the Bee Gees had written or produced four songs in the Top 5 – the others were Andy Gibb’s Love Is Thicker Than Water, on its way down from No 1, and Samantha Sang’s Emotion, which would peak at No 3. Another couple of weeks later they claimed five records in the Top 10 as Yvonne Elliman’s If I Can’t Have You climbed to No 9, also on its way to No 1. The Beatles’ achievement remains singular, but the Gibbs’ moment was arguably more impressive in that none of the singles were cash-in reissues (as Twist and Shout and Please Please Me had been in 1964); also, they wrote and produced the lot."
 
zinniabooklover said:
Have just been reading another excerpt, this time from The Guardian Friday 2 June 2023. I didn't know this. I'm a bit 😲

"For one week in April 1964, the Top 5 singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 were all by the Beatles. This remains the only time a single act has occupied the entire Top Five, but in March 1978, the Bee Gees gave it their best shot.

The week that Night Fever went to No 1 in the US, Stayin’ Alive was at No 2 and both singles stayed put for the next five weeks; the Bee Gees became the first group, post-Beatles, to hold down the top two spots at the same time. In that first week, the Bee Gees had written or produced four songs in the Top 5 – the others were Andy Gibb’s Love Is Thicker Than Water, on its way down from No 1, and Samantha Sang’s Emotion, which would peak at No 3. Another couple of weeks later they claimed five records in the Top 10 as Yvonne Elliman’s If I Can’t Have You climbed to No 9, also on its way to No 1. The Beatles’ achievement remains singular, but the Gibbs’ moment was arguably more impressive in that none of the singles were cash-in reissues (as Twist and Shout and Please Please Me had been in 1964); also, they wrote and produced the lot."
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Yeah, they seemed unstoppable there for a while. Truly remarkable stuff!
 
Phil from Wings of Pegasus talks about To Love Somebody - live, 1974

14m 15s

 
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filmandmusic said:
@zinniabooklover

I always wondered what you thought of the bee gees disco period since you love them so much while at the same time disliking disco music
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Not mad keen. The songs are good. I don't think the Bee Gees can write crap songs. So the material is fine - if you like that sort of thing. I loved 60's Bee Gees, that's when they were my guys. And after the disco thing was finished they did some more great stuff although I haven't heard loads from that period. But the disco stuff? I can't say I avoided it bc you couldn't. The songs were everywhere. But it wasn't for me. I think those songs, as good as they are, have the least interesting vocals from the brothers. I'm only talking about stuff that was released as singles. I didn't hear any album tracks. Not that I can recall, anyway.
 
zinniabooklover said:
Not mad keen. The songs are good. I don't think the Bee Gees can write crap songs. So the material is fine - if you like that sort of thing. I loved 60's Bee Gees, that's when they were my guys. And after the disco thing was finished they did some more great stuff although I haven't heard loads from that period. But the disco stuff? I can't say I avoided it bc you couldn't. The songs were everywhere. But it wasn't for me. I think those songs, as good as they are, have the least interesting vocals from the brothers. I'm only talking about stuff that was released as singles. I didn't hear any album tracks. Not that I can recall, anyway.
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Did the UK also experience a bee gees revival in the early 90s? Paying the price of love and for whom the bell tolls were huge in Belgium then.
 
filmandmusic said:
Did the UK also experience a bee gees revival in the early 90s? Paying the price of love and for whom the bell tolls were huge in Belgium then.
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I don't remember it like that, tbh. But I was pulling away from the charts and pop papers at that point. Bell Tolls went Top 10, iirc. But Price of Love only went Top 40, I think. I don't think I'd call it a revival.

I think the pop music scene in Belgium sounds fab!
 
zinniabooklover said:
I don't remember it like that, tbh. But I was pulling away from the charts and pop papers at that point. Bell Tolls went Top 10, iirc. But Price of Love only went Top 40, I think. I don't think I'd call it a revival.

I think the pop music scene in Belgium sounds fab!
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I checked the charts it looks like it was a Belgian thing only. I remember it so well, it was on the radio non stop and PTPOL eventually peaked at nr 5. I remember me and my father loving it big time back then.
 
filmandmusic said:
I checked the charts it looks like it was a Belgian thing only. I remember it so well, it was on the radio non stop and PTPOL eventually peaked at nr 5. I remember me and my father loving it big time back then.
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Belgium is freakin' awesome when it comes to pop music. You do NOT follow the crowd, you do your own thing! I love it. :D
 
They hade a “revival” with You Win Again in 1987. That song was huge. And the whole album is very good. I put ‘revival’ in quotation marks, though, because they never left the charts during the eighties. They just wrote and produced for others to sing (Kenny Rogers, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick; Maurice even produced an album for Swedish “talent” Carola).

Also their next album—One, 1989—was fairly well received.

After that: Still Waters, in 1997.
 
High Civilization (1991) went all the way to number two in the German album charts, also breaking the top ten in Austria (4) and Switzerland (6). The UK had it as its highest at 24, Sweden at 50.

Size isn’t Everything (1993) went number one in Argentina, number six in Austria, and number twelve in Germany, meanwhile halting at number 23 in UK.
 
Still Waters (1997) was a top ten album over pretty much all of Europe (except Sweden and Finland). It hit number one in New Zeeland and Switzerland, while halting at number two in Germany and the UK.
 
This is Where I Come In (2001) actually fared better than what I remember. Germany had it highest, at number three, but it also went top ten in Austria (6), New Zealand (4), Switzerland (5), and the UK (6). In the US, number 16 at its highest.
 
I have lovely memories of the bee gees, my eldest brother would now be in his late seventies. I was really young when he passed away at just 19 he would imitate Barry putting his hand to his ear singing masachutis.He got paid every Thursday, he would bring home fish & chips and we watched top of the pops life seemed so much simpler.
 
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