Three hundred Gisbornites caught Saturday Night Fever on Wednesday night, dancing in the aisles to Gibb favourites performed in The Best of the Bee Gees - Saturday Night Fever show at the War Memorial Theatre.
The show began with a delve into the back catalogue of the Bee Gees with Russell Davey as Robin Gibb bringing the late singer back to life in his on point performance of I Started A Joke. He also looked like him, too.
Some of the players, meanwhile, noted they were Kiwi, with Evan Webster as Barry Gibb from Dannevirke and Greg Wain as Maurice Gibb being from Auckland. Webster sounded and looked just like Barry Gibb, played the guitar and even his stage stance was the same as Gibb! He noted he had been billeted to Gisborne as a child for sport and carried off Gibb’s breathy falsetto very well on songs like their endless hits How Deep is Your Love, Tragedy and many others.
The performers played a range of songs the Gibbs had written for other people with guest singer Roslyn Loxton singing Dolly Parton’s part in the duet the Gibbs wrote for her and Kenny Rogers Islands in the Stream.
The performers noted that they were very happy to have the support of the Gibb family and noted that included the elder sister of the Gibb brothers, Lesley Evans (nee Gibb). Evans still lives in Singleton, New South Wales and her daughter Debora McLane came on stage to sing another Bee Gees written song, this time Immortality by Celine Dion, which also featured the Gibbs on backing vocals.
“It’s an absolute pleasure to share music of my uncles,” McLane noted. She also shared footage from 1979 of her uncle Andy Gibb, who died in 1988 at the age of 30.
She said the 1979 footage was when she and her twin sister were 10 and Andy had turned 21. “Andy’s memory will always live on,” she said, before the band began playing Shadow Dancing with “Barry” on lead vocals and visuals of Andy on screen. It was noted that the song was written by Andy and also his older brothers.
As the show moved on through the night, tribute was also paid to long-serving Bee Gees drummer Colin “Smiley” Petersen, who played on several of their early albums and was the original drummer on Massachusetts. Footage was played of him drumming while “Robin” took lead vocals.
“Barry” noted that Petersen had been looking forward to playing in New Zealand and had been dropped off by the band at his home in Redcliffe, after an Australian tour had finished in Bundaberg late last year. However, Petersen had sadly passed away that night.
The show then took a break for intermission before surging into the high points of the night which celebrated Saturday Night Fever, the platinum hit album and the film starring John Travolta, the soundtrack of which was written by the Bee Gees. The songs from this soundtrack included Night Fever, How Deep Is Your Love and Stayin Alive, the penultimate song of the night. Clips of the film Travolta dancing also played with him resplendent in medallions, white suit and trademark chest hair. (Not unlike the actual Gibbs in the late 70s!)
A highlight of the night was also when band guitarist Ralph Muller took centre stage to perform a cool rendition of Disco Inferno, which fitted the disco theme well, blending seamlessly into the Saturday Night Fever vibe. After a great disco night out though, it was eventually time for the disco inferno’s fire to be extinguished and the musicians closed out with You Should Be Dancing, as encore, which the audience definitely were as everyone stood up to dance.
This show was an amazing tribute and it certainly captured the Bee Gees’ songs flawlessly which is as much as we could hope for seeing as Barry Gibb, now 78, is the last brother standing, with the passing of Maurice in 2003 and his twin Robin in 2012. Hopefully it’s not too long before they get us dancing in Gisborne again.
The show will now continue through to Napier on Thursday, as well as New Plymouth, Hamilton and Whangārei.