Vamos atualizar um pouco as notícias, pois não tive tempo nos últimos dias de entrar aqui, mas já coloquei o que havia de importante na lista BR GIBB. De qualquer forma, hoje tem bastante conteúdo, fugindo um pouco do assunto mais importante do momento, que é a saúde muito debilitada do Robin.
O mais importante é essa matéria a seguir, que conseguiu arrancar um depoimento do David English sobre os bastidores da visita que ele fez ao Robin em companhia do Barry. Para quem não sabe, David é ex-presidente da RSO Records e amigo muito próximo do Barry, mas também, claro, do Robin. Enfim, por algum motivo o Barry preferiu estar acompanhado neste momento de reencontro com o Robin.
Mas vamos lá. Aqui David English revela quais foram os planos para o futuro que os irmãos fizeram juntos. Trata-se na verdade de uma sugestão para a realização de uma turnê nos Estados Unidos. Todo mundo sabe que nesse momento é impossível pensar nessa possibilidade, mas com certeza a ideia do Barry foi dar mais um motivo para o Robin lutar contra sua doença. Até que deu certo, pois a postagem do Robin no blog mostrou que ele se animou em fazer planos com o irmão.
No mais, a matéria acaba sendo negativa, pois nas entrelinhas confirma tudo o que temos lido sobre o Robin. Infelizmente, estou cada vez mais convencido de que seu estado é gravíssimo e, pior, irreversível (tenho conversado muito com fãs da área de saúde, que têm me dado importantes esclarecimentos). Tomara que eu e esses especialistas estejamos errados. Queremos ver Robin forte para o esperado lançamento de seu novo álbum, em abril de 2012, criado sob inspiração dos 100 anos do naufrágio do Titanic. Tudo indica que será um grande trabalho, à altura de seu criador (algo que nos faça, quem sabe, esquecer de vez que, um dia, Robin cometeu o tal Magnet...).
Bom, segue a matéria, depois dela têm mais posts, com algumas novidades sobre lançamentos. Se tiverem tempo, leiam tudo até o final.
'Spider therapy', a detox hut and why cancer-stricken Robin Gibb insists he'll soon be back on tour
By Alison Boshoff
The magnificent, rambling 12th-century mansion in Oxfordshire that Robin Gibb calls home is full: its flagstoned hall rings with noise.
The former Bee Gee, 61, is surrounded by the love of his nearest and dearest as he fights liver cancer.
His wife, Dwina, sweeps about with her enormous Irish wolfhounds in tow. And three of Robin’s children are also helping care for him.
Robin’s older brother Barry has been to visit, too, as has his mother Barbara, 92.
And one of his closest and oldest friends, his old record company boss David English, has been to see him.
David told me: ‘He’s not very well, obviously. The whole family was there when I went to see him this week. ‘The first thing I did was to give him a hug — carefully because he is quite frail. Though he is very, very thin, his mind is just as sharp as ever, as is his wonderful sense of humour. Barry and I were crying with laughter at the things he comes out with, as we always do with Rob.’
The main topic of conversation was not, as you might expect, Robin’s health, but an idea floated by Barry that the two of them could tour the U.S. next year — if he can get well.
It’s extraordinary, given that the liver cancer with which Robin was diagnosed this spring offers a brutally meagre 10 per cent chance of survival beyond five years - less if it has spread.
David, who spent four hours with his old friend, said: ‘Barry came out with it and said: “Look, why don’t we go on the road again?” And Rob just grinned and said: “Great, when can we go?”
‘We said well, we need to get you a bit stronger and better first, we will have to feed you up, none of this vegan nonsense with herbal tea. I think it was the best medicine we could have given him.’
Sadly, Robin Gibb — whose songwriting has brought him a £140 million fortune — is, in fact, desperately ill, his health so poor that there is no disguising the crisis any longer.
Three weeks ago, he was treated in hospital for inflammation of the colon. Last week, he was taken back to hospital with suspected pneumonia.
He is understood to be improving daily from that scare, thanks to a course of powerful antibiotics, but remains in a vulnerable state.
Dwina, an artist, poet and ordained druid, is encouraging him to undergo daily 20-minute sessions in a detox hut to sweat out toxins.
She has been exploring Native American ‘spider medicine’, which promises to cure ‘even untreatable’ diseases.
The treatment involves what is essentially meditation in which the patient imagines the powers of a spider creating and weaving fate, and then attempts to capture and channel that energy.
Robin wrote on his blog this week that he believes he is on the mend.
‘I have been very unwell and am now on the road to recovering, and your prayers and wishes are a great tonic to me. I believe because of you I will get well, and my deepest love goes out to you all,’ he said.
This crisis in his health has put everyone in mind of his twin brother, Maurice, who died suddenly in 2003, aged 53, after what had been expected to be a straightforward operation to correct an intestinal blockage.
Robin was devastated by his twin’s death, which he says he still hasn’t really been able to accept.
‘He took ill and two days later he had gone. We were absolutely devastated,’ said Robin.
‘As brothers, we were like one person, but he was the glue that kept the personalities intact.’ I’m told Robin declined to have a party to celebrate his birthday last year because it should have been Maurice’s special day, too. Instead, he and his family lit a candle in his brother’s memory.
That painful milestone approaches again next month.
‘We spoke this week about Maurice again. Robin has never got over him dying, absolutely not,’ says David English.
‘It was devastating for him when his brother Andy died, but he and Maurice had an extra special bond as they were twins.’
What’s more, in an uncanny coincidence, Robin, too, has suffered from an intestinal blockage. Last October, he had emergency surgery, just as Maurice did.
‘At the time I thought it was just wind cramps,’ said Robin. ‘But the blockage was so bad that the surgeon was surprised it hadn’t burst the day before.
‘The relief (after surgery) was enormous and afterwards I didn’t need painkillers. Everything seemed back to normal.’
He said in an interview: ‘You realise you don’t think about death or think: “That’s for other people.” I’m just grateful I’m here. Losing people makes you realise you’ve got to grab life, not put off things. I don’t have too much faith in destiny or an afterlife. This is it.’
And what a life it has been. Gibb, a shy, laconic loner, was raised in poverty and rode the crest of the disco wave as a tight-trousered sex symbol. Along the way he was tormented by a destructive family dynamic that took its toll on his brothers.
Robin was only 17 when they had their first hit, New York Mining Disaster, and he fell in love with Molly Hullis, a secretary in pop mogul’s Brian Epstein’s office.
They were married within a year and settled in Epsom, Surrey, where they had their children Spencer and Melissa.
But as the Bee Gees’s fame took off, Robin’s drug use became pronounced. At the height of his fame, with the soundtrack to the hit movie Saturday Night Fever, Molly told him their marriage was over.
‘I loved my life, but I was young and still attracted to other people. I have a high sex drive and I was unfaithful,’ he said. For six years, despite legal actions by Robin, he was barred from seeing his children. ‘I felt I was going to die from complete misery,’ he said.
He was at a low ebb when he was introduced to Dwina. They met after he became intrigued by a painting she had done for the actress Sarah Miles.
They fell deeply in love and their son Robin-John was born in 1983.
Dwina supported Robin when his cocaine-addicted younger brother Andy died suddenly at their home at the age of just 30.
Their relationship was tested when Robin fathered a child by their housekeeper, Claire Yang. Dwina was said to be furious when the news emerged two years ago, and was said to have insisted Miss Yang be sacked. Yang and her daughter Snow Robin, an enchanting three-year-old, live in a converted barn close to Robin’s home.
Robin’s manager Mick Garbutt says there was never any question of a divorce.
‘There was maybe some irritation, but they are together now and are together in the future,’ he says.
As far as the locals were concerned, the birth of Snow Robin didn’t change their affection for their local celebrity one bit.
Jenny Walker, 60, who is part-owner of A Piece Of Cake in Thame, said that all of the local community are supporting him as much as they can, and that everyone has been saddened to hear of his illness.
‘He really has done so much for the town over the years. He turned on the Christmas lights one year and always takes a huge interest in what people are doing,’ says Mrs Walker.
‘If there is a charity fundraiser, he’ll be the first to contribute. I can only hope he manages to pull through this. He is a valued member of the community and a very nice person.’
David English says: ‘I don’t know how his mother is coping. She is wonderful, but she has lost Andy and Maurice, and now Robin is so ill. She is being terribly brave.
‘We all love Rob. His is an extra-ordinary success story and has brought so much joy to people with his music, but there has been so much tragedy in it.
‘I know the odds are against him, but I am hoping we can get him well and get him out there again because that is where he wants to be.’
É muito difícil para nós de fora comentar sobre a relação entre os irmãos Gibb. Eu juntei durante os últimos anos muito material interessante sobre isso. Abaixo, algo que encontrei hoje na internet, não sei a data da publicação, mas é posterior à morte do Maurice. É provável que seja um desdobramento daquela aparição do Barry no E! Television, que acabou motivando depois uma resposta do Robin no mesmo programa. Barry fala brevemente sobre as consequências da morte do Andy para a harmonia familiar. E diz que foi 'convidado' pela família do Maurice a não fazer parte de um álbum em tributo ao irmão. Será?
Barry Gibb Snubbed For Brother Maurice's Tribute Album
BARRY GIBB SNUBBED FOR BROTHER'S TRIBUTE ALBUM
BEE GEES brother BARRY GIBB is heartbroken after being told his late brother MAURICE's family want him to play no part in a planned tribute album. Gibb reveals he and siblings, Maurice and ROBIN, had fallen out five years before Maurice's sudden death in 2003 - and the feud continues two years after the tragedy. The singer explains, "I have been deliberately disinvolved. People have actually excluded me from that process. "Certain things were done by the people who look after my brother to stop me from being involved. "It much more involves exploiting the Bee Gees than it does paying tribute to Mo (Maurice), and that's what's sad." And, speaking exclusively to US news show Entertainment Tonight, Barry Gibb reveals he's more than used to family feuds he and his singing brothers rarely got along.
He blames the death of the brothers' youngest sibling ANDY in 1988 for sparking the family squabbles, and tragedy is still breaking them apart.
He says, "It (death) either fuses you together or it blows the family apart. I think it's very sad. It wasn't good for our family, to lose Andy and then Mo.
"The sense of loss that stays in the family... is the void that stays. It's real, it's touchable."
Chega em 5 de dezembro a reedição do CD Bee Gees Number Ones. Voltamos às cansadas coletâneas, mais uma vez espremendo até o fim um repertório que já está pra lá de saturado. Porém, infelizmente é isso que o público de massa quer comprar. Uma pena, pois o melhor dos Bee Gees ainda está para ser descoberto pelo público em geral. Segue os link (só um detalhe: me parece que a capa final não é essa, a arte será nova – alguma novidade tinha que ter nesse CD):
Outra “novidade” da Rhino é a reedição, em 6 de dezembro, do Main Course, para muitos o melhor álbum dos Bee Gees (acho que concordo). Creio que essa edição seja apenas para manter o álbum em catálogo (muitos outros títulos já haviam sido lançados pela Rhino, a partir de Children of the world, com esse objetivo). O que a gente queria mesmo era uma edição especial com extras, exatamente como foi feito com os 4 primeiros álbuns. Porém, o resultado das vendas levou esse projeto para a gaveta. Na visão da Rhino, e da indústria fonográfica como um todo, os Bee Gees não são uma banda para o mercado de álbuns, mas sim uma banda de hits. Daí o foco ter se voltado completamente para as repetitivas coletâneas.
Hoje saiu essa matéria falando sobre o Barry ter ficado de fora do álbum daquela banda virtual Gorilaz. Essa história é muito antiga, já foi mais do que divulgada, e agora voltou por conta de uma declaração do criador da coisa. Reproduzo abaixo, mas sem maiores consequências.
Barry Gibb has missed out on his chance to perform with the Gorillaz due to an ear infection.
Group frontman Damon Albarn revealed he approached Gibbs to ask him to join the band on stage for their track Stylo.
He says: "We almost had Barry Gibb on this one, but he got McLean's Earache on the way in and shied out."
But Albarn admits he's happy with the way the song turned out.
He tells PedestriaTV.com: "Bobby Womack's chorus, he just explodes into the track. Pow!!! How good is it to get Bobby Womack on the record? This was the first recording he'd made in 15, 20 years, so what an honour. Bobby said he only returned to do this Gorillaz track because his granddaughter said Gorillaz were cool. Which is true. We are.
"Bobby joined us on the Plastic Beach World Tour last year, and just knocked this song right out the park, every arena, every night. Incredible voice."
