Robin
Gibb on "Frank Skinner Live"
(ITV1, October 29, 2002)
Frank Skinner: Ladies and gentlemen Robin Gibb.
Robin Gibb: Hi Frank
Frank Skinner: You've been a pop star, would you call yourself that?
Robin Gibb:I think so, yes.
Frank Skinner: For what... 40 years?
Robin Gibb: Since I was a teenager.
Frank Skinner: Not bad, is it?
Robin Gibb: It's a pretty long part of your life, we were little kids when we started back in Australia.
Frank Skinner: We've actually got a clip of you all when you were. I think it was 1960. How old were you then?
Robin Gibb: About 9 years old.
Frank Skinner: Right. Barry looks about three foot taller than you and Maurice.
Robin Gibb: Barry was a very tall chap, and we were actually very small, me and Maurice, cause we were twins. Not that that has got anything to do with size, but they had to put us on boxes, it was our very first television performance. Me and Maurice had to stand on wooden boxes to even out with Barry.
Frank Skinner: Right, and Barry still looks 3 feet taller!
Robin Gibb: He's still very tall, yes.
Frank Skinner: I'll tell you what I like, whenever you read interviews with your brothers, you know when people ask, they say 'so and so was the cheeky one, and he was the funny one', I've read a couple of interviews with your brothers and they've said 'Oh yes, Robin he was the arsonist!'
Robin Gibb: Well, yes. I'm sure it was that word... I think it was because I was a bit of a fire bug when I was about 8 years old, especially around the streets of Manchester, for some unknown reason I used to go around and light fires on golf courses and a few dream homes too perhaps, but that was only if they got in the way, you know. But it was never intentional Frank... It was done with a lot of love and respect... I loved it and I respected it... It was a hobby, I was bored, if I was particularly bored, when I wasn't doing things I used to go and do that, and it was just after that that we emigrated...
Frank Skinner: Yes! Are they still sending criminals to Australia?
Robin Gibb: Ah yes! That's what Pome means, isn't it, 'Prisoners Of Mother England'
Frank Skinner: So what's the best thing you ever burned down Robin? What do you remember with most affection?
Robin Gibb: I actually remember burning down a set of billboards in Manchester High Street, but they were terrible anyway! But they didn't do anyone any harm...
Frank Skinner: No!
Robin Gibb: It was all done with affection.
Frank Skinner: Now you're bringing out a solo album...
Robin Gibb: Yes, I'm bringing out a solo album, actually the album comes out over Christmas, or January, past the Christmas period. It's something I'm doing on my own. The Bee Gees are going to make an album next year and this is just to kind of squeeze this out before we actually start making that one.
Frank Skinner: I've actually got a clip called Please, will it be the new single?
Robin Gibb: Yes, that's the first single
Frank Skinner: It's great actually.
Robin Gibb: Thanks a lot Frank.
Frank Skinner: It's impossible for you to sing a song that doesn't sound like the Bee Gees of course.
Robin Gibb: I don't mind that. I'm very proud of being a Bee Gee and I'm not trying to look for a separate identity. I know that if I do a song it's going to sound like the Bee Gees, but I don't mind.
Frank Skinner: No, it's not a bad thing to sound like...
Robin Gibb: No. Again, it's what I am.
Frank Skinner: Yes, you're a Bee Gee
Robin Gibb: That's what I am, a Bee Gee.
Frank Skinner: Just get over it!
Frank Skinner: Now I have to mention the 70s and the whole disco thing. The Bee Gees were already a big band, but they became disco gods, didn't they?
Robin Gibb: Yes, but it was almost by accident, because we were actually in France when we were writing that stuff. Robert Stigwood rang from LA and said he was making a movie called Trible rights of a saturday night, and we said, do you want music for it? and he said yes, and because that's the name of the film, based on a New York Times article, we're making the film have you got any songs? We had 5 songs, we had How deep is your love, Night fever, If I can't have you, Staying alive written already.
Frank Skinner: Not a bad little batch to have there, was it?
Robin Gibb: Well, we'd been in the studio for a few weeks and he he said we had to change the name of Stayin alive, it had to be Saturday night, and we said there were too many songs called Saturday night, so let's put Night fever on the front of it and call it Saturday Night Fever, it became Saturday night fever.
Frank Skinner: So you actually came up with the title of the movie?
Robin Gibb: That's right.
Frank Skinner: Is it true that you got the idea for Jive talkin from being in a car and the car was going tch tch?
Robin Gibb: Yes, we were going across a bridge in Miami with those tar lines across the road and as were crossing them they made the rhythm sound that was identical with the rhythm of Jive talkin and because we listened to that, we wrote the song or got the idea for the song before we got to the other side of the bridge and we were on the way to the studio, we finished the song when we got there.
Frank Skinner: I know when you get them in old movies, you think people never write songs like that.
Robin Gibb: It's true, they do actually write songs like that and most good ideas do come like that, out of the blue, and it can be anywhere.
Frank Skinner: Now is it true that you've got a model of Stonehenge in your garden?
Robin Gibb: I have, yes. My wife is very sort of into things like that,and I go along with her cause I enjoy it too. There was a tennis court from the 1930s in the house when we got there and we didn't play tennis very much, so we got rid of the tennis court and turned it back into a lawn and then got the idea of having a sort of having these stones brought up from the west country and turning it into a Stonehenge area, so now it's got it's own standing stones.
Frank Skinner: So how big in scalewise is your stonehenge? Is it big?
Robin Gibb: To about there.
Frank Skinner: Oh right, so it's.
Robin Gibb: Yes, it's about the size of a sort of semi-tall man.
Frank Skinner: How beautifully put!
Robin Gibb: But it's different
Frank Skinner: It is different, and if you've got a big house, why not put a stonehenge in the garden?
Robin Gibb: Why not! That's right! Yes! Have a stonehenge!
Frank Skinner: Maybe the pyrimids next year?
Robin Gibb: Maybe, yes...
Frank Skinner: Cause your wife is quite a senior druid, is that right?
Robin Gibb: I don't know what the full name is but she's a patron I think, she's up there, she's a head druidess.
Frank Skinner: Robin you could have found out her official title, for gods sake, she's your wife! So if she has got her own Stonehenge, does that mean that she doesn't have to make the trip every year?
Robin Gibb: Well, yes. It's always full of tourists anyway...
Frank Skinner: Yours or theirs?
Robin Gibb: No, not mine! Theirs, the one down in Salisbury. I don't know too much about it to tell you the truth.
Frank Skinner: You must chat about it when there's nothing on the telly!
Robin Gibb: Well, we don't actually.
Frank Skinner: No?
Robin Gibb: No. It's something that doesn't come up very often..
Frank Skinner: I also read that you live in a very old, is it 12th century?
Robin Gibb: Yes, the house is about 1000 years old.
Frank Skinner: And it's haunted, isn't it?
Robin Gibb: Yes. It's got a font, you know one of those things you put holy water in. It fills up on its own for some unknown reason, every few months, regardless of the weather, and we just don't know how it's done, we've had people in to check it out, and it just fills up on its own, and there are people who have seen things in the house, I haven't seen them myself. You know when you have a house that's that old, there's bound to be some kind of leftover emotions from where people have lived there over time.
Frank Skinner: You think it's just emotion
Robin Gibb: Oh right, Yes! It's possible!
Frank Skinner: Now, you didn't see 'Stars in their eyes' did you this week?
Robin Gibb: No, I didn't no.
Frank Skinner: You missed a treat!
Robin Gibb: Did I?
Frank Skinner: There was three Italian brothers doing the Bee Gees
Robin Gibb: Oh really?
Frank Skinner: Yes! We'll have a quick look, shall we?
Robin Gibb: All right
Frank Skinner: This is the Italian brothers doing the Bee Gees.... Enough of that!
Robin Gibb: Italian?
Frank Skinner: Yes
Robin Gibb: Oh! That's interesting. Where did they come on the rankings?
Frank Skinner: They didn't win , i'm afraid , I think Tina Turner won.
Robin Gibb: Oh
Frank Skinner: Do you feel let down?
Robin Gibb: It's terrible! It's a blow Frank!
Frank Skinner: By the way, when those Italian brothers were interviewed after, they said when they were over here they went up to Manchester to see your old house. And they knocked on the door, and the woman let them in, they had a look in the garden and they found a piece of broken extractor fan.
Robin Gibb: So they were the bastards that were stalking the house!
Frank Skinner: Exactly. They found this piece of extractor fan and they stole it because they thought it might have been there when you lived there.
Robin Gibb: That's a criminal act, isn't it Frank?
Frank Skinner: Yes, exactly... Thank you, the arsonist!
Robin Gibb: Well, you know...!
Frank Skinner: I read that Barry had bought that house.
Robin Gibb: In Keppel road ? Yes he has, I actually read it in the paper, but never asked him.
Frank Skinner: You haven't spoken about it??
Robin Gibb: No, I read it in the paper, so I think it's true.
Frank Skinner: I wonder if he's going to turn it into a Bee Gees museum or something?
Robin Gibb:I don't think he's going to do that but I think there's a problem when you buy houses like that, because there are people living in it, he technically becomes the landlord, doesn't he? He'd be eligible for roof fixing and drains being fixed and all that!
Frank Skinner: Well, yes.That would be great. Barry Gibb coming round your house saying: Never mind that, just give us the rent will you?
Robin Gibb: Yes, and turf them out in the snow if they can't pay...
Frank Skinner: Yes, well there's a woman living there now so clearly...
Robin Gibb: She's in danger!
Frank Skinner: Yes! ButI thought he'd empty it and do something with it, not just buy it.
Robin Gibb: Well you can't do that, it's illegal. You see you can't turn people out.
Frank Skinner: All the old ways are dying out!
Robin Gibb:I know...
Frank Skinner: You could have had a doorbell that went "Stayin alive", wouldn't you want to get that on a car horn?
Robin Gibb: Yes! Good idea!
Frank Skinner: Well, look, best of luck with the solo single, and the album.
Robin Gibb: Thanks Frank
Frank Skinner: Great to see you. Ladies and gentlemen, Robin Gibb.
Robin Gibb: Thanks lot Frank.
