Bee Gees tragedy ... Robin Gibb has died after a battle
with cancer. Photo: AP
The Sydney Morning Herald reports
Robin Gibb, singer with the legendary band
the Bee Gees, has died at 62 after a lengthy battle with cancer, his family
says.
Gibb, who had undergone intestinal surgery,
notched up dozens of hits with brothers Maurice, his twin, and Barry - as
performers and writers - and sold more than 200 million records.
Maurice died of a heart attack in 2003
following intestinal surgery.
The Gibb family issued the following
statement: ''The family of Robin Gibb, of the Bee Gees, announce with great
sadness that Robin passed away today following his long battle with cancer and
intestinal surgery. The family have asked that their privacy is respected at
this very difficult time."
The singer looked gaunt in his last few
months as he struggled against the disease.
Andy Gibb, their younger brother who was not
in the Bee Gees, died in 1988. He had been addicted to cocaine.
"I sometimes wonder if all the tragedies
my family has suffered - like Andy and Maurice dying so young and everything
that's happened to me recently - is a kind of karmic price we are paying for
all the fame and fortune we've had," he told The Sun newspaper in
March.
Barry, Maurice and Robin scaled the heights
of the pop world in the 1970s with disco hits including How Deep Is Your
Love, Stayin' Alive and Night Fever.
Robin Hugh Gibb was born on December 22,
1949, on the Isle of Man, the British crown dependency, about half an hour
before Maurice.
Soon after the twins were born, the Gibb
family moved to Manchester, north-west England, and then to Brisbane in
Australia in 1958.
The Bee Gees soon became child stars and had
their first hit in 1963, The Battle of the Blue and Grey, performed on
national television.
"We used to say that we were one soul in
three bodies. We worked with such spirit between us, able to read each other's
thoughts when we wrote together," Robin said.
The trio returned to Britain in 1967 where
they soon had several more successes, including the UK No.1 Massachusetts.
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, the group's first US
No.1, along with Jive Talkin', Nights on Broadway and You
Should be Dancing established them as big stars.
But the disco soundtrack Saturday Night
Fever (1977), which sold more than 40 million copies, was their biggest
success. One of the best-selling albums of all time, its songs included
perennial favourites Stayin' Alive, Night Fever and How Deep
Is Your Love.
They wrote hit songs for others including
Diana Ross (Chain Reaction), Barbra Streisand (Woman In Love),
Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton (Islands In The Stream) Dione Warwick (Heartbreaker)
and Frankie Valli (Grease).
Their last studio album was the 2001 record This
Is Where I Came In and the group has notched up more than 200 million
record sales.
Robin mostly sang lead in the 1960s, while Barry's falsetto took the foreground
in their 1970s disco period.
The Bee Gees were made Commanders in the
Order of the British Empire - one step below a knighthood - in 2004.
'Second only to Lennon and McCartney'
Broadcaster Paul Gambaccini said Gibb was
''talented beyond even his own understanding''.
''Everyone should be aware that the Bee Gees
are second only to Lennon and McCartney as the most successful songwriting unit
in British popular music,'' Gambaccini said.
''Their accomplishments have been monumental.
Not only have they written their own No.1 hits, but they wrote huge hit records
for Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Celine Dion, Destiny's Child,
Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers; the list goes on and on.
''What must also be said is Robin had one of
the best white soul voices ever. He was singing lead on his first No.1 when he
was 17, that was Massachusetts.''
Radio disc jockey Mike Read, who was a family
friend of Gibb, said the singer had an incredible voice.
''Robin had the voice, the pathos, and he was
a great writer,'' he added in remarks to BBC Radio 5 Live.
Advanced colorectal cancer
In February, Gibb said he had made a
"spectacular" recovery, reviving hopes that his cancer was in
remission, but he recently suffered a sharp deterioration.
In April, his doctor said Gibb had advanced
colorectal cancer and had remained in intensive care after waking from a coma.
His son, Robin-John Gibb, said his father was
''completely compos mentis''.
Doctors said they were ''confounded'' by
Gibb's progress after he was given a 10 per cent chance of survival.
His family maintained a bedside vigil while
he was been treated at a London hospital.
Gibb's relatives sang to him and wife Dwina
Murphy-Gibb said that he cried when she played him the song Crying by
Roy Orbison.
Dr Andrew Thillainayagam said Gibb had
recently caught pneumonia because he was weakened from chemotherapy and two
operations.
The singer fell into a coma in April after
contracting the pneumonia. He had been breathing with the help of an oxygen
mask and needed intravenous feeding.
He cancelled multiple public appearances last
year and said on his website that he had been seriously ill but did not give
more details. He did tell the BBC he had a growth on his colon that was
removed.
Gibb was too ill to attend the April 10
premiere of his first classical venture, The Titanic Requiem, penned
with Robin-John. He had been due to perform the song Don't Cry Alone.
"It's not about how complicated music
is; it's about how simple and relative to the human spirit it is," Gibb
said of his new composition.
The singer and his wife-to-be Molly Hullis
survived the 1967 Hither Green rail crash in south-east London that killed 49
people.
"I do think it is easier for me to walk
in the shoes of the people who were on the Titanic," he wrote in The
Mail on Sunday newspaper in January.
"I know what it is to live through a
mass disaster ... it haunts me to this day."
He was married twice, to Hullis from 1968 to
1980, and to author/artist Murphy-Gibb and is survived by three children -
Spencer, Melissa and Robin-John.
He was made a CBE in the 2002 New Year's
Honours List, along with his brothers.
