”Night Fever：The Rise of the Bee Gees” on BBC Radio 2
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To celebrate the 40th anniversary of "Saturday Night Fever," BBC Radio 2 in the U.K. aired an hour-long special program focusing on the "disco" era of the Bee Gees, "Night Fever : The Rise of the Bee Gees" last Wednesday, November 15, 2017. It remains available for replay on the BBC Radio 2 website for the next 4 weeks.
With Ana Matronic, who declares herself a huge Bee Gees fan especially of their disco period, as the show’s host, there are exclusive comments from Barry and also from Robin, about their respective experiences from the Fever era. ("You can no longer answer the phone," recalls Barry.)
The other speakers include Bill Oakes, who was responsible for putting together the famed soundtrack album as the RSO president, Simon Spence, author of the recent, revealing book about the Bee Gees and their disco years "Staying Alive: The Disco Inferno Of The Bee Gees (English Edition)," and ex-Sex Pistol, John Lyodn, who by this time must be tired of being referred to as " an unlikely admirer of the Bee Gees," and Albhy Galuten who as the producer lived through the disco heyday with the Bee Gees. As always, John Lydon really nailed it as he spoke of some of the qualities that made the Bee Gees the Bee Gees.
In those days the collaboration of the music and cinema was not yet an established practice in the industry, and some big names turned down the opportunity to be included in the soundtrack to the "little disco movie which stars an up-and-coming sitcom star," a decision which they must have bitterly regretted later.
It’s interesting to learn that the album became a 2-LP set because they wanted something that people could just leave on their record player during the weekend parties at home.
Based on a fictious account by Nick Cohn about a working class escape of Saturday night, the film had a serious Scosesean depth as a coming-of-age story of a Brooklyn lad, but in the end the music eclipsed everything else. It was so impressive that everyone coming out of the theaters were humming one of the tunes.
"Night Fever: The Rise of the Bee Gees" offers these insights and much more. Check it out!
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{Bee Gees Days}
