Aynur Kuru:
“I was in heaven last night. You can see the photos with me and Robin. I am the brunette with Bee Gees t-shirt. The blond girl is Ipek. She is another Big Bee Gees fan. Robin signed our scrapbooks! And he hugged me!!!!!”
‘When we went backstage, somebody took the photos for us. He was from the organization of the Jazz Festival. I will always be thankful to him. He kept saying before the concert: “You can’t see Robin Gibb or any artist. This is a Festival in the first place. Some journalists and a few people chosen by the sponsor firm can see the stars but only if the stars are agreeing in meeting anyone back stage.” I was around the open air-theatre for many hours but the sound check was done without Robin. And nobody allowed me to go inside. My sister and I tried so many ways to have the chance to meet Robin but there was no hope. The tickets I bought were right in front of the mike. We were in the middle of the first row. But my sister gave her seat to Ipek (another Bee Gees fan and friend). Robin performed the songs just in front of me and I felt like I was dying! He was looking at me sometimes. He was great as you can imagine. I wish I could have seen Barry (and Mo) on the stage too. The concert was wonderful. The audience went wild. After the concert, people were so crazy about Robin and there were so many persons waiting for autographs. Ten minutes later there were about twenty persons waiting. Security guards were telling all the time: “no autographs”. I must tell you that I also saw Ken Graydon, Robin’s personal assistant, and he was looking at the audience and I called him and told him that I am a big Bee Gees fan and I showed him my scrap books and my CD’s.
My English was terrible but when he saw my scrap books and old fan club cards, he said: “after the concert you can see Robin”. I can’t speak but I understood this very well. You can imagine how glad I was. Ken Graydon talked with Arif Mardin’s sister who was in the audience. There were some family members of Arif Mardin and some Turkish celebrities in the audience too. It was a magical night for me! The concert was super! We couldn’t take any photos however. The people of the organization only allowed some photographers to take photos during the first song. And the security people were so serious they never let people take photos. I know because the fan right behind me took a photo with his cell-phone and they took the cell-phone from him. Robin was singing my favorite songs just in front of me so I even hadn’t time to take photos during the show! I can’t tell you how I felt. The opening song was Emotion, but I think he won the audience with the song: “Nights on Broadway”. He also made a speech about Arif Mardin. The concert was a tribute to Arif Mardin. He also sang “To Love Somebody”. “Words” “NewYork Minig Disaster”. “Holiday” “Jive Talking”,”More Than A Woman” “Night Fever”, “How Deep Is Your Love”, “Massachusetts”, “I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You”, “I Started A Joke”, “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart”, “You Win Again”, “You Should Be Dancing”, “Staying Alive”, “Tragedy”, “Juliet”.
He came on stage again with “Night Fever” and “Stayin’ Alive”. he said he would like to come here some time with Barry too. And he left the concert saying: “I will be back” I visited the Istanbul concert and I heard from the other fans that the Cesme concert was great and sold out too. Some fans told me they couldn’t go to Cesme because there were no tickets available.
I especially would like to thank Mr Graydon and of course Robin! I adore him.
Love from Istanbul’.