News November 18, 2024
Colin Petersen
I cannot believe to have to tell you this but, today we again lost a famous drummer with the passing of Colin Petersen in Australia.
Colin was one of the original Bee Gees and their drummer in the first years. He was born in 1946 at Kingaroy Queensland as Frederick Colin Petersen. An Australian drummer, record producer and child actor. He played as a member of the bands Steve and the Board, the Bee Gees and Humpy Bong.
Colin moved to England in 1966, little knowing that the Bee Gees would soon be doing the same and they recruited him as their permanent drummer shortly afterwards – the first non-Gibb brother to become an official member of the Bee Gees. He played on the albums Bee Gees’ 1st, Horizontal, Idea, Odessa and Cucumber Castle. He was an equal partner in the group from early in their period in the UK and the Gibb brothers regarded his playing as essential to their sound. He and fellow band member Vince Melouney, who played lead guitar and had also moved to the UK, had some trouble when, in the late summer of 1967, they were threatened with deportation because of an error in the way they had secured their visas. That problem was solved only by the intervention of the group’s manager, Robert Stigwood, who mounted a publicity campaign that embarrassed the government into permitting them to remain in the UK.[citation needed] While he was a Bee Gee, he and Maurice Gibb wrote “Everything That Came From Mother Goose” with lead vocals and guitar by Petersen, but it was not released. Also in 1968, he played drums on the Marbles’ debut single, “Only One Woman”.
On 1 June 1968, Petersen married Joanne Newfield in Nassau, Bahamas, with fellow Bee Gees member Vince Melouney as the best man. Colin and Joanne have two sons: Jaime, born in 1971 and Ben born in 1976. The family relocated to Australia in December 1974.
Colin Petersen died on 18 November 2024, at the age of 78
We send condolences to his family, to Barry and everyone of the Gibb Family, to Vince Melouney and to all his friends and fans, R.I.P. Colin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Petersen
https://www.redcliffebook.com/post/colin-petersen
Marion / President official Bee Gees Fan Club
