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Maurice Gibb

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Not to be confused with Maurie Gibb.
Maurice Gibb

Maurice Ernest Gibb CBE (22 December 1949 – 12 January 2003) was a musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in the Isle of Man, the twin brother of Robin Gibb, and younger brother to Barry. He is best known as a member of the singing/songwriting trio the Bee Gees, formed with his brothers Robin and Barry. The trio got their start in Australia, and found major success when they returned to England. The Bee Gees became one of the most successful pop groups of all time. According to britishhitsongwriters.com, he is the eleventh most successful songwriter in U.K. chart history based on weeks that his compositions have spent on the chart.[1]

Biography

Born Maurice Ernest Gibb to Barbara (née Pass) and Hugh Gibb in the Isle of Man. Maurice (pronounced "Morris"), was the fraternal twin brother of Robin Gibb, and was the younger of the twins by thirty-five minutes. The fourth-born of five children, he had one older sister, Lesley (b. 1945), and three brothers, Barry (b. 1946), twin Robin (b. 1949), and Andrew (b. 1958). In late 1958, he and his family, including baby brother Andy, moved to Brisbane, Australia, settling in one of the city's poorest suburbs, Cribb Island, which was subsequently demolished to make way for the Brisbane Airport.

Gibb was married to the Scottish pop star Lulu from 1969 to 1973; they had no children, and the pressure of their respective commitments led to their divorce.[citation needed] Together with his second wife Yvonne, Gibb had two children: Adam and Samantha.

Gibb loved the sport of paintball, and had a team which he called the Royal Rat Rangers, a reference to his being named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and to his time at the Little River AA group, where the members referred to each other as "river rats." He promoted the sport at every opportunity, and opened a paintball equipment shop, "Commander Mo's Paintball Shop," in North Miami Beach, Florida.

Death

Maurice Gibb died at a Miami Beach, Florida, hospital on January 12 2003 of complications resulting from a twisted intestine (volvulus). Following his death, his surviving brothers Barry and Robin announced that they would no longer perform as the Bee Gees.

Career

Main article: Bee Gees

Maurice Gibb's role in the group focused on melody and arrangements. He sang harmony and backing vocals, and played a variety of instruments. Very early on in 1965 and 1966 he played lead guitar, but as early as 1966 he was playing other keyboard and string instruments in the studio. Bee Gees records from 1967 to 1972 are dominated by Maurice playing piano and bass guitar, along with mellotron ("Every Christian Lion Hearted Man" and "Kilburn Towers"), rhythm guitar (along with Barry), and other parts. The piano on songs like "Words" and "Lonely Days" is the Maurice Gibb sound. On stage he usually played bass guitar, with an additional musician taking bass when Maurice switched to piano. Maurice was less influential in the disco Bee Gees sound of 1975 to 1979, when he played mostly bass guitar.[2] After that time for the last twenty years of his life he played primarily electronic keyboard instruments on stage and in the studio, but occasional lead guitar (like the acoustic on "This Is Where I Came In", 2001).[3] In the reunited Bee Gees from 1987 onward Maurice was the group's resident expert on all technical phases of recording, and he coordinated musicians and engineers to create much of the group's sound.

As a songwriter, Maurice contributed mainly to melody, with his brothers writing the lyrics that they would sing on the finished song (for the most part). It is difficult to identify his contributions because the songs were so shaped to the singer, but his brothers' continued writing collaboration with him on solo projects shows how much they relied on him. Maurice sang lead on average one song per album. He was sometimes known as "the quiet one" for his less obvious contributions to the group, but privately he was a good teller of stories who immensely enjoyed talking with fans. His reputation as a mild-mannered stabilising influence with two very ambitious brothers continued through his life.[4]

Away from the Bee Gees, Maurice recorded an unreleased solo album in 1970. He also he appeared in a short-lived West End musical, Sing a Rude Song written by Caryl Brahms and Ned Sherrin that same year. In 1972, Maurice produced Jimmy Stevens' album Don't Freak Me Out (called Paid My Dues in the United States).[4] During the Bee Gees hiatus in the mid-1980s, he worked with both Barry and Robin on their solo projects, and did some instrumental writing and recording including the soundtrack for the film A Breed Apart. In 1986, Gibb produced and co-wrote an entire album for Swedish singer Carola. Of these and other projects, the only work released under his own name were two singles: "Railroad" in 1970 and "Hold Her in Your Hand" in 1984.[3]

Maurice's last great project was to produce an album's worth of songs written and sung by his daughter Samantha, which finally appeared in 2005 under the name M E G—Maurice's initials.[5]

Awards

In 1994, Maurice Gibb was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 1997 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His catalogue is published by BMG Music Publishing.

In 2002, Maurice was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), along with his brothers, but the awards were not presented until 2004, after Maurice's death; his son Adam accompanied Barry and Robin to Buckingham Palace for the ceremony, representing his father.

Discography

Albums:

Singles:

Film Scores:

Musicals:

Productions:

References

  1. ^ http://britishhitsongwriters.com/
  2. ^ David Leaf, "Bee Gees / The Authorized Biography", 1979.
  3. ^ a b Album credits.
  4. ^ a b Melinda Bilyeu, Hector Cook, Andrew Môn Hughes, The Bee Gees / Tales of the Brothers Gibb. London: Omnibus, 2001.
  5. ^ M. E. G.
  6. ^ Including the #20 Billboard USA hit Toast and Marmalade for Tea.

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