There’s an old joke about a tenor singing “Pagliacci” at La Scala in Milan. Every time he finishes the “Vesti la giubba” aria the audience screamed “Encore! Encore!” By the time the tenor had repeated it twenty times he was exhausted. A man stood up in the audience and yelled, “You’ll do it again until you get it right!”
CIRCUS MAGAZINE
October 13, 1977
Andy Gibb:
The fourth Bee Gee Brother Braves It AloneHis third try at it, Andy Gibb has got it right. Gibb’s “Flowing Rivers” album, the hottest LP moving in pop streams right now, was recorded two times before in its entirety – the same material, with two different producers. With executive producer Barry Gibb as captain of this particular cruise, “Flowing Rivers” (RSO) should spawn at least three hit singles, “I Just Want to be Your Everything,” “Thicker Than Water,” and “Too Many Looks In Your Eyes.” Or, as 19 year-old Gibb says, “Maybe I’ll have a whole new record by then and there’ll be all new singles to release.”
And this time he’ll probably only have to record them once. How does one get to record an album three times till it’s perfect? For one thing, it’s easier when you ’re the younger brother of the Bee Gees. For another, Andy Gibb also happens to be personally managed by rock impressario Robert Stigwood, who handles only Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees and owns RSO Records. And – not incidentally – Andy is talented. He has a beautiful singing voice filled with the poignant Bee Gee vibrato which melds the best qualities of his gifted older brothers. He is a prolific, up-tempo songwriter and penned seven of the nine tunes on his album. (One was written by brother Barry, the other co-authored by the two). Andy is also pretty enough to give the likes of David Cassidy or K.C. of the Sunshine Band a run for the throne of teen idols.
“I was actually a little tired of those songs when I went back into the studio the third time,” Andy admits about “Flowing Rivers” final incarnation. “The two times before were for an Australian record company, but the albums were never released. The songs just didn’t come out right. I thought I was going to be just as disillusioned this time around.”
It was Robert Stigwood himself who convinced Andy to return to the studios again. At the time Andy was honeymooning in Bermuda (he’s now separated from his wife), which just happens to be the same island Stigwood lives on. Stigwood listened to Andy’s previous tapes and was so impressed Andy interrupted his honeymoon and rushed to Criteria Studios in Miami where he began recording with producers Alby Galuten and Karl Richardson, who produced the classic Bee Gees LP’s “Children of the World” and “Main Course.” Barry Gibb supervised the recording and acted as all around advisor.
Oddly enough, this version of Gibb’s album has a strong country-rock flavor, not so much because Galuten and Richardson conceived it that way, but because the Eagle’s Joe Walsh happened to be down the hall in Criteria Studios recording sections of the Eagle’s “Hotel California” album. Walsh guested on a couple of tracks too. The two tracks Galutin and Richardson had little to do with, “I Just Want to be Your Everything” and “Thicker Than Water” are noticeably brighter, middle-of-the-road, and the sound Andy will pursue in the future.
Born in Manchester, England, Andy is the youngest boy and fifth of the six Gibb children. He moved to Australia with his family when he was six months old and spent the next nine years there before again returning to England. In 1970 the family moved to the island of Ibiza off the coast of Spain and then the Isle of Man. Andy left school at 13 and took off for Australia at 17 to break into the rock business like his brothers had done ten years before.
“Until I was thirteen years old I wasn’t interested in music at all until Barry put a guitar in my hands,” “I’m aware that I wouldn’t have been able to make this record if the Bee Gees weren’t my brothers.”
Like the rest of the Gibb family, save for brother Robin who refuses to leave England, Andy lives in Miami, Florida. He is presently renting what he calls “an enormous houseboat” with a grand piano in the lounge and a mirrored ceiling in the bedroom installed by the previous tenant who was shot to death on the boat. Barry Gibb lives just around the corner on a large estate and Maurice Gibb just two doors from him.
“I still need a year or two to get known in America,” Andy says modestly. “Even though I’ve been in the business for years, if you can make it here, you’ve really made it. This is the only thing I want to do, the only thing I know how to do and cut out for it or not, here I am.”
