There is a little bar that caters to tourists on Ibiza, a resort-filled island in the Mediterranean just off the coast of Spain. Back in the summer of 1970, a 13-year-old youngster of English citizenry, who had, however, grown up in Australia, used to perform there for vacationing crowds.
from "Rock Stars: People at the Top of the Charts"copyright 1979, Exeter Books
Andy GibbHe would sing, accompanying himself on the guitar, and everyone who heard him thought he had remarkable talents. His name - Andy Gibb- was not at all familiar to the tourists from Europe and America who inhabited that bar. Most of them did not know either that his three older brothers - Barry, Robin, and Maurice- were also rock musicians who at that time were very real international celebrities performing under the name of the Bee Gees.
Andy Gibb was born 11 years after his oldest brother Barry, nine years after the twins, Robin and Maurice. The birthplace was Manchester, England, but Andy lived there for only six months before the family moved to Australia.
By the time Andy Gibb was nine years old, the Bee Gees were already a substantial success and the family had moved back to England. By the time he became a teenager, Andy decided he too would like to have a try at the same kind of career as his brothers.
In 1973, Andy, at 16, lined up his first group, composed of some local musicians of Britain’s Isle of Mann where the itinerant Gibb family was then living. After that, apparently taking cue from the success story of his brothers, he decided to go back to Australia to serve his apprenticeship there, where the Bee Gees had some 10 years earlier. It took Andy only a year there, however, to firmly establish his reputation. He did it with a series of regular concert performances and his first single record Words and Music, which he wrote himself. It was a success, at least in Australia.
After that, he made his way to the United States to meet up with his brothers, who were working in Miami, Florida, at the time. The four Gibb brothers collaborated on writing several songs there. Some of these would turn up on Andy Gibb's first album, Flowing Rivers, which was released in the summer of 1977. He continued on in the United States -- live performances as well as TV where he appeared on everything from American Bandstand to an Olivia Newton-John special. A solo North American concerttour followed and it was smashingly successful.
A string of Top of the Chart singles and his second album, Shadow Dancing, brought him to the top of the rock business in 1978. He was nominated for two Grammy awards that year: Best New Artist ofthe Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.
Today, he composes his own songs but also writes others with older brotherBarry.
submitted by Caroilin
