{From the Archives – August 1969} “Robin Gibb Now” (Fabulous 208)
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It has been such a long, hot summer – and it is not over yet! Stay cool and refreshed, every one. We were looking for certain things, but while we did not find what we wanted, we found this in our files and piles.
49 years ago this week, Robin Gibb was on the cover of the British magazine "Fabulous 208" (August 16th, 1969).
IT’S ROBIN ALL ALONE OUT THERE
When Robin Gibb split from the Bee Gees, everyone wondered how his solo career would go. The answer is: from success to success. You can’t keep a Gibb boy down!
ROBIN GIBB will never cecome a ‘has been’ – he’s far too talented for that. Far too shrwered as well. This frail figure with protruding teeth and thick curly hair has come out of the Bee Gees split very nicely thank you. He’s got himself a hit with his first solo record and he’s been busy touring the world to promote the disc in other countries. He’s definitely got his head screwed on.
It upset a lot of Bee Gees fans when Robin quit the group, but there is one big advantage — now you can buy a Bee Gees’ disc and a Robin Gibb one and you still get beautiful sounds.
"I don’t intend to change my style of writing or singing," Robin says. "One advantage is that I don’t have to write something and hold it back because it’s not Bee Gees style. I wrote Saved By The Bell about three months before it was released — that must have been about the time of the split."
Did he feel his decision to quit the group was hasty?
"No, not at all, it was a carefully calculated move — a decision that had been building up since September of last year. That was when I walked out of a recording session. They said in the press at that time it was nervous exhaustion! I used to feel whenever I had an idea in the studio that everyone was blase about it. "
Does Robin see much of his brothers now?
"I’ve seen them both socially. Maurice has been the nicest about the whole thing and has wished me well. I don’t feel nostalgic about leaving. I watched the television when they were at the Talk Of The Town — it was the first time I’d watched it without me in the group. But I didn’t look at them wishing I was there. I love their new record incidentally.
"I won’t be writing with my brothers. I’m now writing completely independently. I’ve produced a record for Claire Torry and I’d like to produce artistes (sic) doing my songs. And I’ll always record my own composition," he added.
About the future Robin had this to say: "I’m halfway through an album now and we hope to release it sometime this month. I’ll be doing concerts, not gigs with a thirty-piece orchestra and having one-month intervals in-between. Sometime I’d like to act but not at the moment. But you can say that I’ve definitely got my eyes set on actig in the future."
Somehow Robin seems more relaaxed and much happier. He’s got things together — and that’s important. So expect great things form the Gibb brother who went out on his own －－Julie Webb
The record by Clare Torry (spelt Claire Torry in the article) mentioned above is ‘Love for Living‘ written by Torry herself, who is best-known for her wordless vocals on ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ from Pink Floyd’s album "The Dark Side of the Moon." On June 1969, 1969, Robin did a publicity photo shoot with her, and there are some photos available from this on Getty Images, etc.
See also the excellent "Gibb Songs" website (the year 1969) for details. According to its section on Clare Torry, Robin wanted to produce a record of her demo he overheard while at writer Chris Hutchins’s office, and did the overdub session with brass and strings on May 28, 1969. Although, "strangely enough by the 1980s Robin denied having had any involvement at all."
{Bee Gees Days}
