JULIE BARRET
(Bee Gees fan club secretary in the late 60s)

"Barry was the most extrovert and you could see that he took charge of situations. He didn't divulge a lot about himself, but he was definetely the one you reckoned was in charge and would have the last to say on whatever was going to happen. He was very much aware that he was older and perhaps the most forward of the three.

"Maurice to me always played the part of a clown, always joking around. He enjoyed having jokes with you and it was him who instigated any little practical joke. He was quite naïve and very immature in some ways.

"Robin had a very warped sort sense of humour and he took his music very seriously. I think Robin is the deepest of them, and I think that perhaps is the reason why sometimes he was unpopular. He wasn't actually being unfriendly, but he couldn't always communicate with people. He found it quite difficult, but when he did, and it took a while, then you realised that he was quite a funny guy as well, but that he just found it difficult. He didn't seem a 17 or 18 year old; he seemed far more mature than Maurice. No way would you have thought they were twins!" (Tales Of The Brothers Gibb)

ROBERT STIGWOOD
(Bee Gees manager from 1967 to 1980)

Reporter: Mr. Stigwood, what do the fans of the Bee Gees find appealing about them?

Stigwood: This might sound corny, but it is their poetry. These boys are completely uneducated. They don't even know how to spell. They write the lyrics out spelled phonetically. And the simple poetry appeals to the public.

Robin: We start with a title. The rest just flows from there. It's like a spiritual thing when we write. We know what the other one is thinking. Lonely Days was written in 10 minutes.
(Rolling Stone, 1971)

ARIF MARDIN
(producer, credited for helping create the band's signature falsetto vocal style and revitalizing their sound into a dance/R&B sound)

"Usually when Barry writes the songs, or actually the three brothers write them, Barry would have the electric guitar or the acoustic guitar, and the song would take shape with the instruments they used. And Maurice would go to the piano and play the chords. It's not like one brother goes into seclusion and comes out with a song. They write them together. In the beginning their process is that they have nonsensical syllables to accomodate the melody, and then the lyrics come after that. They do the melody first. Most songwriters teams have their own system.

"During the recording of Main Course I asked Barry to take his vocal up one octave. The poor man said 'If I take it up one octave I'm going to shout and it's going to be terrible.' He softened up a little bit and that's how their falsetto was born." (The Light Millenium and Tales Of The Brothers Gibb)

ROBERT STIGWOOD

"Maurice Gibb is the boy people tend to put in the background and yet his contribution is enormous because he is the arranging brain and the multi-instrumentalist of the group. Although his singing is usually restricted to singing harmonies on the choruses, in the studios his part is enormous. He plays bass, piano, organ, mellotron, rhythm guitar and is now lead guitarist. Added to all this, his rapport with the two other brothers Gibb is incredible too. The way he can translate the songs they've written into the right field for recording amazes me. It's because of this that the other two can come into a recording studio and write a song and then Maurice will instantly arrange it for immediate recording.

"As a person, perhaps he's the easiest of the Gibb brothers to get on with since he is always a cheerful person. He's not as moody as Robin, for example, and he's also quite mature. As an example, on a date, when the police lose control of the crowd, Robin will get frightened, yet Maurice will merely laugh about it.

"Maurice is great company as he is so easy going and he is a splendid host. I'm proud of the way he and Lulu look after people who come round to see them. His marriage will be very good for him. The additional responsibilty will help to settle him down and Lulu's such a level-headed person. They make a perfect couple even though that sounds corny and, most important of all, he's very much in love with her.

"He's out of his raving stage now. As many people know, he used to drink too much. It didn't affect his work, mind you, but he has cut down now. He's gregarious. He loves meeting people and he's fond of touring, probably for the same reason. He and Colin are both keen, whereas Barry and Robin dislike touring. He is also rather an extravagant person. He likes buying clothes and spends too much. In dress, though, he has developed tremendous good taste and for 19 years of age, has become remarkably poised. He is also terribly generous to his family and friends.

"Really, Maurice is totally different from his twin brother and yet the three Gibbs are fantastically close. Of course, they argue like mad and anybody who bursts upon them in the middle of a row would think they were about to murder each other, but two minutes later they are as thick as thieves and the closeness between them is the tremendous thing in their ability for developing harmony on the records." (Disc and Music Echo, 1968)

JIMMY RUFFIN
(whose 1980 album Sunrise was produced by Robin Gibb)

Interviewer: How did your collaboration with the Bee Gees come about?

Ruffin: I met Robin Gibb years ago - a really nice person, he was even more reclusive than I so we got on well. We talked a lot about working together then suddenly with Saturday Night Fever and all the other stuff they became so hot we couldn't work together until 1979. So we made an album and almost immediately the record company went out of business.

PAULA KELLEY
(Singer, member of a Bee Gees tribute band in the 90s)

"I've loved the Bee Gees from a very early age. I had actually just met (the guitarist in my band) Aaron, and I was at a gig of his. I overheard he and another friend of ours, Ad Frank, discussing starting a Bee gees tribute band. I pushed in and said under no circumstances were they allowed to do this unless they involved me. I learned to play bass for that band- now it's my favorite instrument to play! I think my favorite song is off their early 70's album, "A Kick in the Pants is Worth Eight in the Head" that was sadly never released. It's called "Dear Mr. Kissinger." There's a lot of great stuff on that album. If you ever come across a bootleg, grab it and run like there's no tomorrow. "My favorite Bee Gee was Robin when I was little, but now I think its Barry. I love his singing on that late 60's early 70's stuff. Very raw and emotive. I wish he'd go ahead and get a goddamn haircut, already, though!" (Excellent Online)

RONAN KEATING
(Speaking about the 1998 Bee Gees concert in Dublin)

Ronan: That was unbelievable. I grew up loving the Bee-Gees and all of their music. To be on the same stage as them singing a song with Barry was just magical. A magical moment.

Interviewer: It was hard to explain just how amazing that night was. Everyone, all ages, were dancing and singing along.

Ronan: Absolutely. I think with the whole disco revival now everybody is just loving the Bee-Gees, all the old stuff. They all wanted to come along to the show. It was such a great night. A great vibe.

ALAN KENDALL
(who has played lead guitar on Bee Gees albums since 1971)

"I enjoy melody and they are probably the most melodic of all writers."

911
(Boy band)

Interviewer: Who's your biggest influence?

Spike: The Bee Gees. We met them actually when we did the tribute album. They're really nice guys. I've always wanted to meet them. They're legends.

YVONNE ELLIMAN
(who recorded the Bee Gees song 'If I can't Have You' in 1977)

"The Bee Gees are phenomenal songwriters and performers. They are not motivated by money. One of the things I admire most about Barry, Robin and Maurice is their genuine love for music."

VINCE MELOUNEY
(Bee Gees member in the late 60s)

"Barry was the driving force behind the band. He was always working. He's a nice guy, very gentle, thoughtful, extremely diplomatic. Robin was extremely eccentric and introverted. Maurice was flamboyant, extremely extroverted, prone to exaggerate things. If you bought a Rolls, he'd buy a bigger one. I think he had issues to deal with Barry and Robin with their voices and where he stood in the band. Mo, Colin and I would socialise quite a lot and would have these great blues jams, just the three of us." (Tales Of The Brothers Gibb)

COLIN PETERSEN
(Bee Gees member in the late 60s)

"They have totally different personalities. Robin is a very temperamental and very highly strung person. His music is his whole life and he is highly sensitive to criticism. Barry is a very easy-going and receptive type. He adapts himself to the situations he finds himself in at the time. He is very interested in the potential acting possibilities of the group. I think he would like to be a film star more than a singer. Maurice is closer to my attitudes and ideas. He has the same kind of humour as I have. We have other common interests like playing chess. As brothers, they really have very little in common, except the feeling that they are living for the day." (Tales Of The Brothers Gibb)

AHMET ERTEGUN
(Ahmet Ertegun is the founder of Atlantic Records)

"They had the most beautiful voices, unlike anything I had ever heard: beautiful clarity and a lot of feeling. It was the sound of brothers — like the Everly Brothers. There is something about brothers harmonizing together. They were fantastic."

GEORGE MARTIN
(who produced the Sgt Pepper's soundtrack)

"They were so professional, all three of them. When they came into the studio, they would fool around and joke a lot, but once that the red light was on, they were in there, and they were dead serious. Their harmony singing... they were very careful about precision of ensemble, and in fact they wanted to do things over and over much more than I did. I would be inclined to say, 'That's human, that's lovely.' 'Oh no. We've got to get it right.' When they double tracked, they double tracked so accurately that you could hardly tell it was double tracked. They were very, very good."

LINDA GIBB
(Barry Gibb's wife. Speaking in 1978)

"To Barry, family is everything. His parents live five minutes from us. His brother Maurice lives six blocks away with his in-laws and their kids. And Barry moved my family here from Scotland. Quite honestly, I couldn't see it. I love them and all, but I'm a 28-year-old married woman, and living with my parents seemed a bit odd. But Barry really wanted it and he's been right. For him, having family around is vital."

STEVE KIPNER
(Member of the group Tin Tin, produced by Maurice Gibb in the early seventies)

"I was in a duo called Tin Tin and were produced by Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees. One of the songs was 'Have you heard the word'. We were recording the song for our album when Maurice Gibb and his wife at the time, Lulu, and her brother Billy Lawrie came to the studio with a bottle of Johhny Walker. We drank it and got away too drunk to really sing. All four of us put on headphones and sang around one microphone and ad-libbed our way thru a Beatles impersonation. We all had a good laugh and went home. I don't know anything about how the record was released as I didn't know about it until years later. It wasn't until 23 years or so later that I even knew that anyone had heard it and that it had somehow been believed to be a real Beatles recording." (Liquid 2K)

ALBHY GALUTEN
(co-producer with Karl Richardson of several Bee Gees and solo albums from 1976 thru 1985)

"Karl, Barry and I were the main ones. We had a vibe very powerful and very creative. Maurice was usually out in the lobby holding court, drinking Perrier - which much of the time had vodka in it-, being social and hanging out. Robin was pretty active in the writing, and then he and Maurice were usually not in the studio. Robin was often not around at all, except when he came in to sing, but he often had good incisive comments, which were often quite useful and sort of objective in certain ways." (Tales Of The Brothers Gibb)

DAVID FOSTER
(Well known poducer. He produced two songs for the Still Waters album)

"They sing as magnificently now as I remember them 30 years ago. They haven't lost any range. You know, the voice is a muscle and like everything, we all get a little older, lose your range, whatever. I see no difference in the way they sing now than when I was a fan like everyone else. Next to The Beatles, they were probably the most creative group ever."

MICHAEL LONG
(Director of the White House Writers Group)

"We have all heard by now that disco music was the least of what the Bee Gees did. Such music was "the worst thing that ever happened to [them]," Baltimore Sun rock critic J. D. Considine told USA Today; and both "a blessing and a curse," wrote Andrew Dansby in Rolling Stone.

"C'mon, critics. Don't you know what the rest of us know? Disco was the most-fun, most-memorable, most-influential part of it all. While critics despise the familiar from their usual briar patches, those of us of a certain age will always love the great good memories that flood when that bouncing, butt-shaking bass line of "Stayin' Alive" comes on the radio.

"Whether you lived in Brooklyn, like John Travolta's doltish-but-dreaming Tony Manero, or some wide-spot-in-the-road down south (like I did), or a big city or a little town or whatever, the Bee Gees music of those days was bright and infectious and happy, a marvelous antidote for the overpopulation of self-serious acoustic singer-songwriters, who themselves were the antidote for the self-serious gaudy rockers before them.

"Critics hated the disco-era Bee Gees because the music wasn't trying to say anything of great social import. (Strange how the same stuff is now called "techno" and "dance music," and critics treat that stuff like a golden calf.) It was simply fun to listen to, fun to dance to, fun to ride around in the car to. Sometimes music is so good that everybody catches on, and this stuff is so good that music lovers will be listening to it to as long as there's a popular-music scene.

"It is pretty hard not to smile and want to get up and dance, no matter your age, when you hear "You Should Be Dancing," "Night Fever," "Tragedy" (a tune that came a little later), "How Deep Is Your Love," "Jive Talkin'," and "Nights On Broadway" (both of which came a little earlier), "More Than A Woman," and the lush, sweet ballad "How Deep Is Your Love" — which makes you want to slow dance under a mirror ball with your prom date, I swear it does.

"One has to actively not like the music to not like it: The salty, hissing cymbals, the stinging treble of the highest falsetto, the tight studio mix of horns, the featherbed of strings — that was the best of disco, and the Bee Gees were the masters, layering it all with the gorgeous, simple harmonies of their voices, and building from a powerful base of R&B.

"The Bee Gees created one of the most-memorable soundtracks for a generation. Given the short life of artifacts of pop culture, that's quite a legacy."

BOB SACKER
(whose 1973 album They've taken back my number was produced by Maurice Gibb)

"Maurice is famous for embroidering stories. He exaggerates completely! It used to annoy me because he used to tell stories about me in front of people and he'd made them up, but he'd convinced himself that they were true like an apocryphal story. But he's a nice guy, they are all nice fellers. Maurice is a very good musician and so is Barry, but Robin for some reason, he just busks along, they fit around him." (Tales Of The Brothers Gibb)

NOSTRADAMUS

Quatrain VIII.97- Children of the World:

At varied ends the Mighty rearrange.
Near a bank three lovely boys arrive;
Of age, the people ruin seek to change.
The kingdom, country, seen to grow and thrive.

It could be the Bee Gees, couldn't it??