"TWO DON'T ADD UP TO A GROUP," SAYS BARRY GIBB- Disc And Music Echo (September 1969)
Barry Gibb is the first to admit that he's
reckless. But his decision to leave brother Maurice in the lurch as the last remaining Bee
Gee is something that has been building up following the departures of the other three
former Bee Gees - Colin, Vince and Robin.
The day after he announced his decision to quit, he told Disc: "I just didn't believe in two people being a group. Colin, Vince and Robin have put the lid on it for me. They all left for their own reasons. I had nothing to do with them leaving, despite the things they have said."
"Vince said that my music got on his nerves; Robin said he was a better singer than me; Colin said that I wanted to be "King".
"What Maurice does is his own business. We'll still work together but it won't be as the Bee Gees."
At his plush London home, Barry said that he was not interested in retaliating against the other ex-Bee Gees - "Although they have all had a damn good go at me..."
"I was nine years old when I asked my brothers to play with me. That was 14 years ago. Something happened after we came to England. We lost enthusiasm.
We had to leave Australia to become international stars. You can be tops in Australia and be unheard of everywhere else.
It was a family thing with us and that maybe is what destroyed it. The Bee Gees no longer exist."
Barry said that he was fed-up with the "phoney" image that had been built up of him - "I just want to get down to reality".
"By going solo I could lose a fortune but money is not important. I couldn't give a damn. I will always have my songs and I don't think I will ever dry-up. I would be content if I had nothing but a tape-recorder. I could still write songs and record them." Barry has a lot of plans for the furture. In February he is to start work on a film, either aWestern or a period-type thing. "Five or ten scripts a day are coming into the office and we are just waiting for the right one."
He has a TV tour of Europe lined-up, intends to do more TV here and there are also plans for a trip to America. He is very keen to get into acting.
Robin Gibb commenting last week on the final break-up of his old group: "It looked as if it was going to happen anyway. One of them was going to leave; they couldn't go on with just two people. But it looked so silly the way it happened. They should have just let the news leak out on its own instead of Barry announcing it the way he did.
I don't think Maurice knew anything about it; it was just a case of Barry leaving on his own accord. He was very bitter because Maurice was out of the country with Lulu getting things done by himself, and he was just sitting around at home."
