Not only have I debated with other fans, I’ve endlessly debated with myself as to what the absolute finest Bee Gees albums actually were. So let’s spark up that debate once more! Only this time, with a little mathematics to help us out. Put the kettle on, get comfy, fire up the speakers and get…
Category: Artists: A-C
Farewell To Aretha Franklin – The Heartbreaking Song Her Sister Wrote For Her
10 years ago I was in Melbourne and stumbled into this amazing little vintage clothes shop in a basement somewhere in the central city. Flicking through the stock, it was such a relief to finally find a place that sold music T-shirts beyond the usual suspects of Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, Metallica and the Rolling…
Great Southern Land: The Soundtrack To An Aussie Outback Road Trip – My NZ Herald Article
On Monday I’ll be returning to the Queensland Outback so here’s a recent piece of mine the New Zealand Herald published about my ‘roo-dodging, Aussie-soundtracked road trip there back in 2016: New Zealand Herald, May 6, 2018: ‘Brisbane – Way beyond the beach’ As the title suggests, this was “way beyond the beach”. As in,…
21 Different Genres, 21 Different Bee Gees Songs – Barry Gibb Gets His Knighthood
I’m so thrilled for Barry Gibb, or Sir Barry Gibb as he is now officially known. His knighthood was finally presented to him by Prince Charles a few hours ago (having been announced in December last year) with Barry joking to the future king about the difficulty in getting up from the stool he had to kneel…
40 Years Since Andy Gibb’s ‘Shadow Dancing’ & The Biggest Hit Of 1978
This past week marked 40 years since Andy Gibb hit the summit of the US singles charts with Shadow Dancing, the title track to his second album. This wasn’t just a big hit. We’re talking double platinum in the US with more than 2.5 million copies sold in that country alone. Then there are the…
Paul McCartney & The Best Ever Carpool Karaoke
Forget every other Carpool Karaoke, this tops them all. I woke up this morning and this clip with James Corden and Paul McCartney was everywhere on Facebook. The cliche of “if you only watch one thing today, watch this” was used about half a dozen times, just from people I know alone. So here it…
Barry Gibb Reveals Long Lost Grease Demo As The Film Turns 40
I can remember reading once that Barry Gibb reportedly earned more money for writing the song Grease than any one person has ever earned for a solitary song in music history. Something both highly contestable and near-on impossible to quantify, but who cares, it’s a great fun fact. Even if the “fact” aspect is mightily…
30 Years Since Andy Gibb Died, Why It’s Time To Re-Examine His Career
It’s 30 years since one of the biggest teen idols of them all, Andy Gibb, passed away. Given that this month also marks what would’ve been Andy’s 60th birthday, I wanted to post an updated version of an article I wrote in 2013 that I hoped would encourage people to re-examine his life and career. Five years on…
Cat Stevens Live: My NZ Herald Review Of His ‘Intimate And Grand’ Auckland Concert
It’s not everyday you get a retweet from Cat Stevens. Indeed it would be slightly odd if Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam loved your Twitter feed to such an extent. But a one off? I’ll take it. Apparently the man himself liked my review of his Auckland concert late last year and humbly said, that’s a massive…
Why it’s wrong to call Maurice Gibb “the quiet Bee Gee”
Article updated January 2022 for the 20th anniversary of Maurice Gibb’s death. He was the glue, the joker, the multi-instrumentalist and the rock ‘n’ roll of the Bee Gees and today, it’s 20 years since Maurice Gibb’s sudden death. Thinking back to the news headlines after Maurice died (due to complications from a twisted intestine),…
Saturday Night Fever Turns 40, Barry Gibb Gets A Knighthood & This Music Geek Discovers Something Unusual About The Fever Songs
Barry Gibb has a knighthood and I’m a happy man. I’m not much into numerology, but there is something about the Gibb family and the number 7. The Bee Gees had their first international hits in 1967, they released what became the biggest selling album of all time in 1977, they stormed back to the top of…
Paul McCartney Live: My NZ Herald Review Of His ‘Profound’ Auckland Concert
On Saturday I had the honour of being asked to review the Paul McCartney concert in Auckland for the New Zealand Herald. The pressure! With an understandably tight deadline, I was up until 3am trying to capture what made this three-hour event so remarkable. Here is the link: Review: Paul McCartney’s ‘profound’ Auckland concert Thanks…
