US: Fans from around the world and figures from the music industry paid tribute to Bee Gee Maurice Gibb (53), who died yesterday after suffering a heart attack on Thursday during emergency abdominal surgery in Miami, Florida.
Gibb, who had in his 20s and again in his 40s battled alcohol problems, died at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami with his second wife Yvonne and two children at his side. Also present were his twin brother Robin and older brother Barry - who made up the Bee Gees trio.
Chris Hutchins, a former agent of the group, said Maurice had a history of poor health.
"His drinking did upset his system, he was greatly weakened by what he put himself through, in terribly destructive years," he told BBC radio.
Maurice Gibb will be best remembered for adding his unique vocals to the disco tracks on the classic soundtrack for the film Saturday Night Fever.
Pictured on the album cover in a memorable pose, the Gibb brothers were all wide smiles, bouffant hair and tight white outfits, but the music marked the pinnacle of their career and propelled the Bee Gees to superstardom with hit after hit.
The trio's trademark falsetto close-harmony vocals were the highlight of the soundtrack that also brought John Travolta to the attention of the film world for his portrayal of the working class boy who lived for the disco.
The new-found reputation of the Bee Gees was far removed from their beginnings as a young trio performing in theatres in Manchester in the mid-1950s.
Twins Maurice and Robin Gibb were born on the Isle of Man on December 22nd, 1949, three years after their brother Barry. The trio started out as a child act encouraged by their father, Hugh, a bandleader, and their mother Barbara, a former singer. They continued performing when the family moved to Brisbane, Australia, in 1958. They took the name Bee Gees, an abbreviation of Brothers Gibb, signed to the Australian label Festival Records and released a series of singles written by Barry while in their teenage years.
While their single Spicks and Specks was number one in Australia they managed to sign a record contract in the UK and their first English recording, New York Mining Disaster 1941, released in mid-1967, made the top 20 on both sides of the Atlantic. But the group's first real hit was Massachusetts, a chart topper in England. Following their 1968 album Horizontal, which produced their first major hit, they recorded the album Idea and from it released I Started A Joke, and Gotta Get a Message To You, both hits.
In 1969, Maurice married a young Scottish singer called Lulu. The couple had met in a BBC canteen before the Bee Gees recorded a song for Top of the Pops and married in 1969.
But they divorced in 1973 and within a few years Maurice met and married his second wife Yvonne, the mother of his two children Adam and Samantha, now both in their 20s. Lulu said of their failed marriage: "I was incredibly sad, but it was never going to work. We were two spoiled little pop stars, each too used to having our own way."
After a spell in the doldrums, the group changed their sound under the guidance of producer Arif Mardin. Slowly they began having hits again. Jive Talkin, a single from their second Mardin-produced album, became their second number one in America and the culmination of their rebirth was the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack which sold more than 30 million copies.
The group continued to release albums and were inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and were awarded CBEs in the 2002 New Year's Honours list. - (AFP, PA)