Published on September 01, 2005

The most reserved member of the brothers Gibb had Bangkok audiences on their feet. Two years ago, three young guys from Australia who impersonate the Bee Gees for a living performed their “Stayin’ Alive” show to a sell-out crowd at the Thailand Cultural Centre.

As a loyal fan of the Gibb brothers, I couldn’t bring myself to attend that “Bee Gees tribute”. But I remember reading in the review that the audience screamed and applauded with such enthusiasm that the Bee Gees imitators were a little startled, though obviously thrilled.

So it was not surprising that almost 4,000 people packed into BEC Tero Hall in Suan Lum Night Bazaar last Thursday night to greet Robin Gibb, a “real” Bee Gee, brought to Bangkok by BNT Entertainment, even though they had to pay three times more than the folks paid for ersatz version. (It certainly brought one question to mind: why did Robin Gibb merit a less glamorous venue than the imitators?)

Robin, dressed smartly in an indigo jacket, opened with “Emotion”, a surprise, as it is not a Bee Gees hit but a song he and his older sibling Barry wrote for Samantha Sang in the ’70s.

Perhaps aware that the crowd was waiting for the familiar songs they had been listening to for the last 30 years, Robin immediately started a journey down memory lane with such hits such as “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You”, “How Deep is Your Love”, “I Started a Joke” and “Massachusetts”.

Amidst the frenzied cheers and wild applause, the sight of the frail 56-year-old standing alone centre stage in front of his band and a 40-piece orchestra brought back the memories of the night that I saw Robin for the first time.

It was at the Lincoln Centre’s Philharmonic Hall in Manhattan on the night of February 12, 1971. Robin was standing between Barry and his twin Maurice. The feuding brothers had put the past behind them and were on a tour to promote “Two Years On”, the album marking their reconciliation.

Music publication headlines at that time were full of news of the family battles, as the Gibbs had each launched records and solo careers. But it became obvious to them all that the sum of their three separate identities was only fully realised as the Bee Gees.

I still have the clipping where Barry says in an interview: “It was something we all had to try. We had been together for 10 years and each of us wanted to see what it was like to be alone. We found what it was like - it was lonely.”

In contrast to that concert in New York 34 years ago, when I remember Robin looking secure and content, singing a perfect three-part harmony with his two brothers, the man I saw on stage Thursday was indeed “lonely”.

The story of the Bee Gees is more than an account of hit records and superstardom. This is a family chronicle filled with brotherly love, feuds and triumphs.

For any dedicated Bee Gees fan, the news of the “Robin Gibb: Magnetic Tour” came as a surprise.

He’s always been the low-profile member, so why is he going it alone on a world tour, singing mostly hits written by his older brother and so soon after the death of his twin?

At each of the six Bee Gees concerts I’ve attended, Robin was always the most reserved. He let Barry chat to the audience while Maurice showed his talents on either keyboards or guitar. At the Bangkok concert, Robin seemed lost on that big stage, clinging to his microphone as his only comfort.

His finest moments came when he covered his own hits, his tremolo shining on such ballads as “I Started a Joke”, “New York Mining Disaster” and “Saved by the Bell”, a single from his own break-away solo album “Robin’s Reign” in 1969.

He faltered when he attempted numbers requiring Barry’s uptempo and passionate falsettos, such as “Nights on Broadway” and “You Should be Dancing”. It even got to the point when it seemed like Robin was doing the back-up for his own three-member chorus.

But the audience was there for the music of the Bee Gees and they did not seem to mind when Robin kept saying, in an almost apologetic tone, that he was going to sing Barry’s hits such as “To Love Somebody”, “First of May” and “Words”.

And when responding to the thunderous cheers and applause, Robin said shyly, “Next time I’ll bring my brother.”

As the evening segued into disco mode with hits from the “Saturday Night Fever” album, the audience showed Robin that they loved him despite the absence of his brothers by getting up and dancing - a rare occurrence for a generation of fans who did most of their gyrating 30 years back.

With the opening verses of “Staying Alive”, he brought back memories of the electrifying opening of “Saturday Night Fever” as John Travolta’s character, Tony Monero, struts down a New York City sidewalk.

By the time he got to “Tragedy”, Robin seemed to have got his second wind, with a fine rendition of this 1979 hit made famous by Barry’s trademark falsetto.

The night ended with Robin doing “Stayin’ Alive” for the second time after the crowd refused to leave after the first encore.

Seeing so many happy faces among the crowd that night - 50-somethings who grew up with the music of the Bee Gees, the disco generation who regard “Saturday Night Fever” as the soundtrack of their times and the young generation who discovered the Bee Gees through boy band covers - we should be thankful to Robin for “stayin’ alive” in our memories.

It was also evident that, after all these years, Robin still reigns.

Amporn Chakkaphak

The Nation

Post your comment to this story here