Sigley later informed the audience that it was from Gibb's forthcoming album, but was not appeared on any of his previous records. The first song is a demo called "To a Girl" (with his brother Maurice playing organ), he later performed that song on his first television debut in Australia on The Ernie Sigley Show. With Col Joye producing, Andy, Alderson and Stringer recorded a number of Andy's compositions. Both Alderson and Stringer followed Andy to Australia with the hope of forming a band there. Lesley Gibb had remained in Australia, where she raised a family with her husband. Barry believed that as Australia had been a good training ground for the Bee Gees it would also help his youngest brother. Īt the urging of his brother Barry, Gibb returned to Australia in 1974. Another track on the session performed by him was "Windows of My World" co-written by him with Maurice. Gibb's first recording, in August 1973, was a Maurice Gibb composition, "My Father Was a Rebel", which Maurice also produced and played on. The group was managed by Andy's mother, Barbara, and had regular bookings on the small island's hotel circuit. In June 1974, Gibb formed his first group, Melody Fayre (named after a Bee Gees song), which included Isle of Man musicians John Alderson on guitar and John Stringer on drums. He quit school at the age of 13, and with an acoustic guitar given to him by his older brother Barry, he began playing at tourist clubs around Ibiza, Spain (when his parents moved there), and later in the Isle of Man, his brothers' birthplace, where his parents were living at the time. He used to try to get me to buy him beer when he was underage - he would only have been about 11 or 12. It was unheard of in those days! But he was just a cheeky little lad with a heart of gold. Īccording to producer and film director Tom Kennedy described Andy's personality on his childhood: “Īndy was always around - he was this cheeky little lad, Hugh and Barbara doted on him, so he would have a limo to go around London with his pals and twenty quid to go to the cinema. He'd wander back home around lunchtime smelling of horse manure, yet he'd swear he had been at school. I'd send him off to school but he'd sneak off to the stable and sleep with his two horses all day. In his childhood, his mother Barbara described Gibb as "A little devil, a little monster. After moving several times around Brisbane and Sydney, Andy returned to the United Kingdom in January 1967 as his three older brothers began to gain international fame as the Bee Gees. He has four siblings, his sister Lesley and three brothers, Barry and fraternal twins Robin and Maurice.Īt the age of six months, Gibb emigrated with his family to Queensland, Australia, settling on Cribb Island just north of Brisbane. His mother was of Irish and English descent and his father was of Scottish and Irish descent. He was the youngest of five children of Barbara and Hugh Gibb. Life and career 1958–75: Early life and first recordingsĪndrew Roy Gibb was born on 5 March 1958 in Manchester, England. 1.4 1987–88: Attempted comeback and final days. ![]() 1.3 1981–86: Decline and live performances.1.1 1958–75: Early life and first recordings.“I know I’ve been lucky and wouldn’t have got as far as I have so quickly if it hadn’t been for my family. “I feel I’ve done very little,” he once said. That said, he had always assumed he would become the fourth Bee Gee but his voice was so appealing that in 1975 – at the age of 17 – his family urged him to strike out on his own Down Under.Īfter one hit in Australia he was signed up by his brothers’ manager Robert Stigwood and Barry and Maurice each produced an album for him in the Miami-disco style of their soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever.įrom the moment Andy exploded on to the world stage he was called the “Baby Bee Gee” and the truth is that he was always in awe of his older brothers and doubted his own talent. He later said: “Everybody said I’d regret leaving school so young but there was nothing else I would rather have done.” Barry gave him a guitar and, bored with school, Andy quit the education system for ever at the age of 13 to play in a local bar. On the back of the Bee Gees’ success, the Gibbs decamped to the party island of Ibiza and the young Andy would be ferried to school and back by Rolls-Royce – much to the chagrin of his classmates.
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