Original subtitles

(laughs)

- Hey, is this the Jive Talkin' bridge?

- [Barry] Yes, I suppose this is it.

Chk, ch-chk, ch-chk, chk, ch-chk, ch-chk.

That's what set up the idea for the song.

That was the inspiration.

♪ Jive talkin', tellin' me lies, yeah ♪

♪ Jive talkin', you wear a disguise ♪

- [Rahni] Did lots of your songs come that way,

just something that simple?

- Well, some kind of source, or some kind of trigger.

I've got a song that I've been working on for Robin,

and it's called The End of the Rainbow.

It's all about time.

Today is tomorrow, winters are summers,

and the end of the rainbow is here, you know?

So whatever you're searching for, you've found.

- [Rahni] Be happy with where you are.

- And I always said to Rob and Mo,

you know, the dream came true.

Stop, stop.

Sit down and enjoy it.

- [Rahni] No matter how you look at it,

the Bee Gees' success was colossal.

But for all the joy, equal measures of pain.

- My greatest regret

is that every brother I've lost

was in a moment when we were not getting on.

And so I have to live with that.

Yeah.

I'm the last man standing.

- [Rahni] You all right?

- Yeah.

- [Rahni] I want to take you back,

because I think people don't realise

that you weren't born with silver spoons in your mouths.

- No.

- [Rahni] You really were pretty poor.

- Well, yeah, that's the right word.

We were from Manchester, and we had no fear.

- [Rahni] Looking for a better life,

the Gibb family became Ten Pound Poms,

settling in Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, in 1958.

- I think growing up in Australia,

there is nothing like it,

and that's my country.

That's where my heart is.

That's where my heart is.

- [Rahni] You guys knew you wanted to be stars.

- Yeah, we wanted to be famous more than anything.

♪ There is something I would like you all to see ♪

♪ It's just a photograph of someone that I knew ♪

♪ Have you seen my wife, Mr. Jones ♪

♪ Do you know what it's like on the outside ♪

- [Rahni] In London, they were picked up

by the management team behind the Beatles.

Legendary promoter Robert Stigwood

launched their first single anonymously.

- Robert put it out in America for radio,

but he didn't tell anybody who it was.

And I think the trick for him

was to make everyone think it was the Beatles.

- [Rahni] I think your dad said to you

to always smile onstage when you were young.

- He would stand at the back of the audience.

Tell Robin!

♪ Smile ♪

♪ An everlasting smile ♪

♪ A smile can bring you near ♪

♪ To me ♪

♪ Don't ever let me find you gone ♪

♪ 'Cause that would bring a tear ♪

But dad was very undemonstrative.

He couldn't show his emotions.

- [Rahni] So he never praised you?

- No.

No.

You'd see the look on his face, that was good.

That was all right.

- [Rahni] And that helped to drive you on, didn't it?

- Yeah, because you're probably

looking for acceptance all the time,

and if you get that too easily, you don't work for it.

♪ It's only words ♪

♪ And words are all I have ♪

♪ To take your heart ♪

♪ Away ♪

(audience applauding)

- [Rahni] In 1969, Robin left the band.

But two years later, they reunited,

and by the mid-'70s had rediscovered their mojo.

♪ You can tell by the way I use my walk ♪

♪ I'm a woman's man, no time to talk ♪

They moved to Miami as disco erupted.

♪ Since I was born ♪

♪ And now it's all right, it's okay ♪

♪ You may look the other way ♪

♪ We can try to understand ♪

♪ The New York Times' effect on man ♪

♪ Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother ♪

♪ You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive ♪

♪ Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin' ♪

♪ And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive ♪

♪ Ah, ha, ha, ha ♪

♪ Stayin' alive, stayin' alive ♪

♪ Ah, ha, ha, ha ♪

♪ Stayin' alive ♪

And then the world really exploded for you.

- Yeah, and we became, I don't know, we were in a bubble.

You're in it, but you can't see it.

And so you're in the eye of a storm.

- [Rahni] What's that like,

when people are clambering over your cars,

there's thousands of people wherever you go?

- It's great.

Isn't it?

- I don't know, it's never happened to me.

♪ Dancin', yeah ♪

♪ Dancin', yeah ♪

- Hold it. - One more.

- Hold it.

It would be nice if we could find

a bigger sound for that solo.

Can we go rounder?

(keyboard music)

Yeah, just like that, yeah, beautiful.

Okay, let's do it again.

Second half of the chorus, but bring that sound in.

That's great.

Yeah.

Okay.

One, two, three, four.

♪ Tragedy ♪

It's usually melody first,

and then a few days later we'll sit down and do the lyrics.

Because it's nice to let something ferment,

let it find its way into your head,

and let it stay there, and then you do the lyrics.

And you make the lyrics fit the melody.

♪ Tragedy ♪

♪ When the feelin's gone and you can't go on ♪

♪ It's tragedy ♪

♪ When the morning cries and you don't know why ♪

♪ It's hard to bear ♪

♪ With no one to love you, you're goin' nowhere ♪

- [Rahni] It got to a point where

you weren't in the charts, you were the charts.

- We had five in the top 10,

and at one point as a writer,

I had three songs in the top five.

All by different artists.

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Ooh ♪

♪ Pulses racing, darling ♪

♪ How grand we are ♪

♪ Little by little we meet in the middle ♪

♪ There's danger in the dark ♪

- [Rahni] You've worked with some of the most

incredible artists in the world.

Was Barbra Streisand the most intimidating of all of them?

- Yeah.

I think so. - I think she's

downright scary. - Oh boy, yeah.

I love her.

But she scares me.

♪ We take it away ♪

♪ It's gotta be night and day ♪

♪ Just a matter ♪

- [Rahni] Why is she scary?

Does she yell at you or something?

- No, she's angry.

She's happy and angry and happy and angry.

♪ Ah, ah, ah ♪

♪ Nobody gets ♪

- [Rahni] You of course had the falsetto.

- [Barry] Yeah.

- [Rahni] Tell me about discovering that falsetto.

- Well.

(laughs)

It's a long story.

♪ Ah, ah ♪

♪ Nobody gets ♪

- [Rahni] How do you do it?

How do you, I mean--

- Well, you change.

You just go from that

to that.

(laughs)

♪ And you start singin' ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Ah ♪

♪ Love is such a ♪

That scream led me to doing whole songs like that.

And then everyone got carried away,

because it worked so well, that Robin would say,

oh no, sing this song, sing this song,

because we're having smashes, we're having hit records.

We had six number ones in a row with that sound.

Robin wanted success more than anything,

and that's what made Robin tick.

- [Rahni] You have said that you never want to feel success,

because then you'll stop trying.

- Yeah.

- Is that why you think you've been able

to keep your humility, because--

- Stay on the ground.

Don't believe any of it,

because everything passes no matter what.

And what have we witnessed in the past 10 years?

How everything really does pass.

- [Rahni] On a drive to Miami Beach,

Barry is thinking a lot about the old days,

about his good friend Michael Jackson.

- I had a great relationship with Michael.

We had some amazing moments.

He would always say things like

watch out, watch out, Barry.

Barry, they want your music.

They're trying to get my music.

I said it's all right, Michael.

(laughing)

♪ How deep is your love ♪

♪ How deep is your love, how deep is your love ♪

♪ I really need to learn ♪

♪ 'Cause we're ♪

- [Rahni] What do you think your greatest achievement is?

- My family.

My children, my grandchildren.

Because that's real.

- [Rahni] Hello.

- Well, g'day.

- G'day, mate.

I'm Rahni, how are you?

Lovely to meet you.

- A lizard.

Where'd you get the hat?

- Playing games.

I told you.

- [Rahni] So you put up with this man for 45 years.

- I have indeed.

- How do you manage to have

one of the longest marriages in show business?

- We don't really know, actually.

We don't really know.

- I guess we keep laughing.

- [Rahni] As close as Barry is to his wife Linda,

the relationship with his brothers

was a deep and unbreakable bond.

- Nobody really ever knew

what the three of us felt

or what the three of us thought about each other.

Only the three of us knew.

It was such a unifying thing

that the three of us became like one person.

We all had the same dream, you know?

That's what I remember more than anything else.

And that's what I miss more than anything else.

- [Rahni] Robin died four months ago.

Maurice, or Mo, as Barry calls him, died in 2003.

♪ I just wanna be your everything ♪

Andy, who was 12 years younger than Barry

and a successful solo artist, died in 1988.

- What happened with Andy was always abstract.

The medical story is that his heart was very bad,

but he had lived a lifestyle that, you know,

very few of us in the family even knew about.

What would you call it?

The L.A. lifestyle.

You don't have to look too far.

- Why do you think that happened to Andy,

when the three of you, to a large extent,

avoided that depth of--

- We never avoided it.

We all fell over at certain points.

- [Rahni] It has been a bloody tough year for you.

- It's actually been a bloody tough decade.

Since I guess losing Mo, it's 10 years.

We lost Mo in 48 hours

from being aperfectly spirited, normal guy,

as wacky as he always was,

to suddenly becoming gravely ill, and we just lost him.

The situation with Rob was different,

because I always felt something was wrong with Rob,

and if something's really wrong with you,

you don't want everyone to know.

- [Rahni] So Robin didn't even tell you until--

- No.

No.

- [Rahni] Late in the piece.

- Even now,

those closest to him will say it was something else.

There's a lot of not wanting to say what it is.

Cancer is cancer, you know?

- [Man] That's right, on up through there.

- [Rahni] You can't watch it?

- [Barry] It just makes me emotional.

- [Rahni] Yeah.

How special they were.

- [Barry] Yeah.

- [Rahni] You all right?

- Yeah.

- Are you feeling the loss of them, so dealing--

- Yeah, for a long time.

The only way I can actually deal with it is through music.

- When you see that, do you remember those--

- Of course I do.

- First. - Yeah.

We loved it, that's why we did it.

That's why we did it.

We knew it sounded great.

We just knew.

And that was our path, and there was no other path.

We loved the sound of each other's voices.

Can we take a pause?

- [Rahni] Yeah, sure, certainly.

Have a moment.

Do you want some water?

- [Barry] Yeah.

- [Rahni] It's that video, isn't it?

Sorry. - No, it's okay.

It's okay.

Hey, listen, it's--

- [Rahni] Sorry.

- [Barry] No, not at all.

That hasn't happened before.

- [Rahni] You've never cried?

- No.

- [Rahni] Oh, Barry, I'm so sorry.

- That's all right, darling.

That's all right.

That's life, isn't it?

But that hadn't happened.

♪ Please help me mend ♪

♪ My broken heart ♪

♪ And let me live again ♪

My greatest regret is that every brother I've lost

was in a moment when we were not getting on.

And so I have to live with that.

And I'll spend my life reflecting on that.

There were many times we had conflicts,

but this was just really,

distressing that every time one of them passed

it was during a moment when we weren't getting on.

I see a lot of sides to life now that I didn't see before.

And I don't know why, but I'm the last man standing.

I'll never be able to understand that,

because I'm the eldest.

Don't try to understand it.

Don't try to understand it, just keep movin'.

- That's Scarborough, that's the house.

- [Rahni] Barry is returning to tour Australia in February.

He'll be sharing his music, home movies, and stories,

including his colourful childhood in Redcliffe.

- Right about here, the three of us stood together

and decided that we would never break the law again.

- [Rahni] Really?

Joining him in Miami is the mayor of Moreton Bay region,

Allan Sutherland.

- And my speech to them was

we're either gonna end up as criminals,

or we're gonna end up being famous.

We have to decide now.

- Wow, that's a changing moment

on the Redcliffe jetty for the Bee Gees.

- It certainly was.

And I remember having a pen knife

that I just nicked from Woolworth.

And I threw it in the water.

- [Rahni] Really?

- And I never stole another thing in my life.

- [Rahni] Next year in Redcliffe,

a walkway will be named in honour of the Bee Gees.

- [Barry] What are you doing down there?

- A model of what's going to be a lot larger.

- [Rahni] There'll also be a life-sized statue.

- Wow.

- [Rahni] This must be a bit overwhelming.

- The whole day has been a little overwhelming for me.

Today was the first time I'd actually

accepted the fact that all my brothers are gone.

And that was tough.

But I have to thank you for that,

'cause that's, that hasn't happened.

That hadn't happened until today.

Because it was totally unacceptable to me.

- [Rahni] That Robin had passed.

- Yeah, that all of them are gone.

- [Rahni] When you get up on the stage in Australia,

will your brothers be alongside you?

- They'll be onstage with me, yeah.

♪ And we don't say goodbye ♪

♪ We don't say goodbye ♪

We just didn't agree on everything,

and that's the way life was,

but boy, did we have some fun.

My God.

♪ Immortality ♪

From here on, I got the memories,

and I've been able to unload a lot of those emotions today.

I didn't know what would happen,

because I hadn't done an interview since I lost Rob.

Thank you so much, sweetheart.