How the Gibbs live in England

Interview from 1997 / By Jens Stefan Hübel / Photo credits: Juliette Wilson and Toon de Rouw

Barry & Linda Gibb

Where A Bee Gee Finds Himself A Haven Of Peace
One used to laugh about their hits. They had to bring their records into a radio program by using tricks and now young and old dance to their music!! “There have been times we had to sent our records to the radio stations anonymously, only with a white label, so DJ’s had no idea that the material came from us.

`Wilton Place`

If they would have known then surely they would have thrown it in the wastepaper basket immediately.”
It indeed sounds a little sour when Barry Gibb talks about the early Bee Gees times. Not everything was glitter and glamour in the good old days!
Funny but these days young people think the group is cool and one looks at them as being disco kings from the Seventies, and an example of the wild nightlife of those days.
The soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever made them legends in pop music and there’s hardly any party where young and old do not dance to songs like for instance Stayin’ Alive.

Barry and Linda

“Funny how times change,” says Barry.
“Nowadays they admire us, and a couple of years ago critics didn’t even take us seriously and even made a fool out of us.

They used every opportunity to lash out at us.
Some way or another they saw us as those funny brothers with the high voices, lots of hair, shining suits and big medallions around our neck.
But that’s all over.

We’ve just received the highest award in British Music Industry the: Brit Award, for having chart and stage success for over 30 years and also our newest album: Still Waters sells extremely well and that just gives us a very good feeling.”

Barry is sitting on his very comfortable leather sofa and looks out of the window into the beautiful garden, surrounding his huge English house.
Here in Buckinghamshire near London, he feels very much at ease.

 

“England will always be my home. I love this part of the country. It’s a haven of peace to me.”
Pondering he says: “In fact it frightens me a little to go out here.
Maybe it sounds strange but I just don’t like it to be looked at by all kinds of people who then all start to whisper: – is that him or not?! –


I don’t feel and see myself as a pop star but more like an artist and that’s why I never feel that comfortable when I’m in the center of interest.”
Instead of going to all sorts of parties, Barry prefers to nose around in some book store somewhere near his home and afterwards he very much enjoys reading a good book at his swimming pool or in his cosy English living room.

Barry with his daughter Alexandra