BBC 5 Live
interview with Robin Gibb
(2001) Excerpt
Q: Have you heard this rumor by the way. there was a rumor going around that you actually wrote for Take That the song "Back for Good" I've heard it from several places
R: No. "How Deep Is Your Love" they recorded.
Q: Yeah, they covered yours, and I think it was just maybe born out of the coincidence that you had an album coming out at the time, they come out with "How Deep Is Your Love," and everyone says "oh, we reckon the Bee Gees have written this, it's such a good" well, a compliment "it's such a good song, we reckon the Bee Gees must have written it." But it was Gary Barlow, wasn't it?
R: Yes.
Q: OK. Well, let's ask you a few questions that have come in on the e-mail: Chris Jordan- 'what special diet or training did you need to sing like the HeeBeeGeeBees?' He's got a serious one here: 'was there an advantage in the early days in coming from Manchester?' That's an interesting question.
R: Yeah, I don't know if there was an advantage coming from Manchester, it's just doing what we were doing. We were just enjoying our music. We didn't really think about where we came from. That was sort of something that came later, where there was a lot of people making music and coming from Manchester.
Q: You could have capitalized on it in the "baggy" days of the early 90's, couldn't you, Happy Mondays and all that
R: Absolutely, yeah.
Q: But you chose not to. Question 1 on here from Ronnie Olsson, I think I lost that.
R: Have you got silly ones?
No, I'm [reading] them as we go now: 'Any plans on promotions in Sweden or Denmark?' That must have come from abroad.
R: I'm sure there are, but I don't have my itinerary with me at the moment.
Q: Do you know what will happen with "Lovers and Friends," the song you did with Ronan Keating?
R: Don't know yet, no
Q: What's the story behind that?
R: I'm not sure because that's something that Barry and Maurice did
Q: Oh ok
R: So that was another thing, yeah.
Q: Another one here from Lynn. oh, this was about when you walked out of the Clive Anderson show. very courageous, walking out on Clive Anderson, was it a case, she asks, of safety in numbers. in other words, did you feel emboldened by the fact that there were three of you?
R: No, I didn't feel threatened, there was only one of him. No, I mean, it wasn't anything to do with bravery. I just didn't like Clive Anderson, I just didn't like him, and I still don't like him.
Q: Difficult call, that, but you came out of it ok
R: I loved him before I went in there.
Q: Really?
R: Yes. And I didn't like him when I left.
Q: Have you ever made up since?
R: No.
Q: No intentions
R: No, not at all.
Q: You've released four solo albums, more up your sleeve?
R: I don't know yet. I haven't thought about that. But there may be in the next couple of years I might get around to doing one.
Q: I've read that you might be taking a sixty-piece orchestra to Lords?
R: What, in south of France? That would be very unpopular
Q: It's a word
R: I don't know about that, that's another one. I read that from the paper, by the way.
Q: Yeah, I read it from the press I think. I thought it was maybe a sneaky ploy to distract us from what was going on on the field of play when the Australians come over.
R: A bloody good one, too. but no, I haven't any information to further that. We will be doing special event stadium shows next year in the U.K. But I don't think Lords will be one of them.
Q: Would you like to be able to play small venues?
R: Yeah, I think we're going to do that as well, something intimate.
Q: Wow, how much will those tickets be!? Here's a question for you: Robin Hood or Captain Hook? In other words, stealing from the rich to give to the poor, or pirate
R: Well, I mean, I'm not in favor. I think Napster, I think, has been very good for bringing attention to people's music that otherwise wouldn't get the attention. And record companies have actually benefited from that. On the other hand, of course, it's all free, and record companies and artists are losing money and sales because of it. So, you know, I don't know if that could continue in the same form that it's continuing now. And there are steps to stop that that I do know of.
Q: You haven't teased the new album with anything on the internet or anything like that?
R: I don't know of anything. I personally don't know of anything.
Q: Paul from Birmingham asks, wasn't the Steps version of "Tragedy" a tragedy?
R: That's subject to, it's really down to personal opinion. I know a lot of kids who loved that version. I personally like anybody that does our music and expresses it in their own way. It's all fun, it's all fun music.
Q: Good answer! Can I ask you about one of the tracks, I think it's track 7 on the album ["Technicolour Dreams"], which has got a really intriguing lyric. actually we'll maybe just hear the lyric first of all. I love that, Panavision pictures and technicolour dreams. Where did you get the idea for that?
R: That's actually an idea from Barry, who wanted to do something in the vein of Noel Coward, and he's a great Noel Coward fan.
Q: Cause that is your "When I'm 64," isn't it?
R: It is, yeah. And it kind of harked back to the old Hollywood 1930's syndrome. Yeah, it was completely influenced by Noel Coward.
Q: Didn't you have to clear the trademark?
R: Well, no, cause Noel Coward's dead, you see, we tried to get in touch with him, and they told us he had died quite a few years ago.
Q: No, the trademarks "Panavision" and technicolour
R: Yeah, we did actually have a problem with that and I think we ended up using technicolour with "c-o-l-o-u-r" rather than the trademarked "c-o-l-o-r" which kind of got around it a bit. Although I think the trademark in the U.K. is "c-o-l-o-u-r." "Panavision" we had no problem with. yeah, I don't know why, but we didn't.
Q: Mike from Wavertry asks, "did you ever consider a punk direction?"
R: I can't say that we have ever thought of going into punk. We've often been influenced by lots of music in the past and today, but never thought of actually going [punk]. Yeah, I think you've got to stay, at some point, true to your art, and without, you know, you've got to sail between the winds of change, and if you get too trend-orientated, you become that trend. And so you've got to really stay between them, and be influenced by them.
Q: Your wife is a patroness of the Order of Bards and Druids.
R: Yeah, she's the head of the Druids.
Q: What does that make her then?
R: I don't know too much about it, I just know that she is the head the Druids in the United ingdom. And it's something that she deals with
Q: Does that influence the way you choose to live, or
R: No, not at all, no, it's just something
Q: Where you choose to be when the sun comes up on summer solstice?
R: No, no, there's no visits to Stonehenge. It's just something that she's into.
Q: Does she do your Tarot cards for you or anything
R: She doesn't do it [in front of] other people, she doesn't do them for me
Q: Now why wouldn't she do them for you then?
R: I don't want her to.
Q: [laughter] Cause you don't believe in any of it!
R: It's not that I don't believe in it, I just don't like knowing, even if it's not true.
Q: Have you any advice for a band starting. any advice from you? Were you managed by your father?
R: No, no, Robert Stigwood was our manager.
Q: No, in the very early days
R: Yeah, when we were young, cause in those days, it wasn't about making records when he was managing us. But the thing is, you know, there's a lot more to being an artist than just making a record, you know, if you're a songwriter and you're a musician, there's a lot more I believe that goes into being an artist instead of just having a good-looking face and singing someone else's music. There's a lot more to it. That's my philosophy, so it's hard for me to really pass judgments on something that's one competition.
Q: Why were you called the "Gee Bees" by the way, cause you went to Australia
R: "BG's"
Q: Why were you called the "Gee Bees"
R: Back to France, wasn't it? [chuckles]
Q: Cause Gibb brothers, that makes sense, doesn't it
R: Conversely, if you say the brothers Gibb, it works the same way, Brother's Gibb, Barry Gibb, Bill Gates, the disc jockey who discovered us.
Q: Oh, I didn't know that! Bill Gates?!?!
R: Yeah, it was in Brisbane, Australia. He worked for a radio station, a pop station, and he did some acetates for us in the audio room there and put it on the air. And we were writing our own songs then, even! We were very little kids. And yeah, he named us the BGs, but with just B-G-S, initials.
Q: The other Bill Gates. And finally, I read that your hobbies include taking baths, have you had one recently?
R: Well, I always have a bath in the morning! Just steady on!
Q: Thank you, Robin Gibb, for being on
R: I have a bath every month whether I need it or not!
Q: New album, "This Is Where I Came In." Thank you, Robin Gibb.
