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Gibb Songs version 2 by Joseph Brennan, copyright 2006—2013

2009

The long-delayed reissue of Odessa finally appeared in January. Optimistic fans wondered whether this marked an end to the mysterious logjam in the series and would lead to a box with the next three Bee Gees albums, namely Cucumber Castle, 2 Years On, and Trafalgar, but it was not to be.

Robin completed an album-length collection of new recordings in 2008, but never released it. In August he gave the lame excuse that he was deferring release so that he could concentrate on publicizing the Ultimate Bee Gees package due in November. At the same time he provided his web site members with a clip of a song from his album called ‘Instant Love’ that sounds excellent.

In July fans learned that instead of either the next set of reissues or Robin’s new album, Barry and Robin were arranging the release of two more collections of old material, available in two and four disks respectively. The first one, Ultimate, appeared in November, and the other a full year later.

Warner’s Rhino division, which produced the Bee Gees box sets (despite marketing under the Reprise label), laid off thirty-plus people in September, because of a ‘fundamental transformation of the physical new release and catalog business’, but also stated that the surviving staff ‘remain firmly committed to the core principles that made us the company you know and love’. But they were not able to push the Gibb brothers into getting the reissue series past Odessa.

songs

Another copyright for ‘In My Dreams’ was filed in 2011 with no reference to the 2009 registration, with date of creation as 2011, but it is probably the same song.

recording sessions

Beverley Knight

Beverley Knight — vocal
Robin Gibb — vocal
others unknown
producer: Kevin Bacon, Jonathan Quarmby
possibly first quarter 2009, London

TOO MUCH HEAVEN
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1978)
undated
stereo, lead vocal Beverley Knight
100%, September 2009

Robin sings backing vocals. Beverley Knight is an English singer and songwriter. 100% is her sixth album since 1995.

Artists Unite to Remember

Hayley Westenra — vocal
Mica Paris — vocal
Michael Bolton — vocal
Paul Rodgers — vocal
Robin Gibb — vocal
Lee Mead — vocal
Natasha Hamilton — vocal
Liz McClarnon — vocal
Carol Decker — vocal
Paul Carrack — vocal
Kenny Jones — vocal
Sam Brown — vocal
Nell Bryden — vocal
The Carmel Thomas Youth Choir — vocal
Army drummers and pipers
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Cliff Masterson
producer: Jim Creegan
November 2009, London

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
Mark Read (2009)
undated
stereo
download, November 2009

Robin is in the chorus of voices on a fund-raiser for The Royal British Legion, recorded at EMI Abbey Road on November 1 for digital release on Remembrance Sunday one week later. Hayley Westenra followed this up by singing ‘We’ll Meet Again’ at the Royal British Legion’s Festival of Remembrance in London.

The song was written by Mark Read, who mentions on his web site that he has worked with Robin Gibb.

For several years Robin worked towards greater recognition of the sacrifices of the British armed forces in World War II, particularly the Royal Air Force. He was instrumental in creation of the RAF Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park, London, dedicated in 2012.

selected record releases

The 1969 album, originally two LP disks, is reissued in a fuzzy red box containing a 2-CD set of stereo and mono mixes and a third CD called Sketches for Odessa. The Sketches disk includes demos or alternate versions for every song except ‘The British Opera’, and adds the two songs not used on the album, ‘Nobody’s Someone’ and ‘Pity’. The booklet is an essential companion to Sketches since it explains how each track fits in with the album project. It also mentions who plays some of the instrumental parts, highlighting Maurice’s non-vocal contributions as well as those of a few guest musicians. For unexplained reasons Barry and Robin did not contribute comments on the songs as they did for the 2006 box set.

The sound is improved over previous releases, which all sounded a little muffled. Check the clarity of the cello as soon it comes in on the first song. There is some tape hiss here and there, and that it can be heard means the sound has not been overly interfered with in the transfer to digital. Additional good news is that the compression evident on the 2006 box is almost gone.

The very rare mono mixes will probably not get immediate attention, and they show fewer significant differences than on the previous three albums (see the 2006 box), but it is good to have them. As usual the lead vocal and selected tracks are mixed relatively louder to clarify the sound as heard from one speaker. This was the last Bee Gees album with mono mixes. Some of the alternate versions in the Sketches songs were preserved only in mono rough mixes.

Sung mainly by Ruth Jones and Rob Brydon as their characters Vanessa Jenkins and Bryn West from the British television series Gavin and Stacey, with some vocals added by Tom Jones and Robin Gibb. Robin’s vocal contribution is minimal, but he has a good cameo bit in the video for the song. The disk benefited the Comic Relief charity effort and reached Number 1 on the charts. The title refers to the setting of the show, Barry Island in south Wales.

This is the content of ‘Robin Gibb Album Compilation’, a second compact disk filed at the US copyright office, this one dated June 2009. It is an update of the collection he filed in 2008, with all but one of the same titles plus some new ones. He continued to refer to his album in progress as 50 St Catherine’s Drive. The order shown here is the numerical order of the copyrights, but once again it may not be an intended playing order.

Sources close to Robin say this was never a final cut of songs for the album, and that he continued to add songs and rethink what he wanted on it. By 2010 he became caught up in the Titanic project and almost all the work for this album was set aside.

Edited from two shows recorded at the National Tennis Center, Melbourne, on November 17 and 18, 1989. The program is an interesting one because of numerous rarely performed songs from the 1980s and the relatively few songs from the disco era.

Although this is not an authorized release, it appears to be legitimate because of provisions in European law about recordings of live shows being protected for only twenty years.

Robin sings backing vocals on this one song.

Robin sings as part of the chorus.

For people who want copies of these songs and do not already have them on the other collections released this decade. There are no new or unusual cuts for fans, and not even one Maurice lead vocal.

The main draw for fans is the ‘box set’ version that has a third disk, a DVD of music clips and videos.

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