Because this was the week that Robin Gibb died. And he sings the opening verse of this fabulous song by The Bee Gees. And because it was the first song of theirs that I thought was incredibly brilliant. Even though I was still at Primary School at the time. The first time I heard it I was in the top bunk in my bedroom at Beaumont Hostel in Sydney. Lucky I didn't fall off it was so good. I leaned over the side to turn up the sound on my little transistor radio. Despite the tinniness of the speakers in those early days our ears could turn the sound they were hearing into something quite powerful and magical. I became quite obsessed by the song. At the time there was this major disaster in Aberfan in Wales where a whole school was destroyed by a coal disaster. Later I found out this was the inspiration for the song. I'd read about it in the English papers. Each week I'd buy a bundle of two month old UK paopers to keep myself in touch. My step father's parents also used to send me the Manchester Evening Gazette each week so I could keep up with the doings of Manchester United. I guess I was desperately trying to hang on to being English.
Later on my brother bought the best of the Bee Gees. He would play it continously on the portable record player he kept between our beds. Those early Bee Gees songs soundtracked the late sixties for me. So it was really hard when they had all that success in the 70s with Saturday Night Fever. And Bee Gees became the enemy of what punk stood for. I remember going to a 21st and almost being physically sick because all they played was Saturday Night Fever. And when you said you liked the Bee Gees you had to point out which era you were refering to. And so we buried those Bee Gees records for a long time.
But really it was all good.
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