It’s been a tumultuous last decade for one Mr Barry Gibb, after playing the last Bee Gees gig back in 2002, the singer/songwriter has since lost both his brothers and two thirds of the band.
However now accompanied by the strength and support of his family, Gibb has embarked on a national tour titled Mythology, playing the hits and sharing stories of the years gone by.
Supported by Sydney Rock/Pop trio Audio Vixen, Gibb packed out the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday night for his first gig on home soil in a while.
Taking to the stage at 8pm were the brother and sisters group, Audio Vixen, who liken themselves as a cross between Eagles and Dixie Chicks. Featuring Ross Pirrelli on guitar and vocals along with his two sisters, Ria and Christine, the three piece played through a short set with accompanying musicians on bass and keys.
The folk style music complete with acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies did a good job at getting the crowd warmed up, especially when the group payed homage to the Bee Gees with a cover of “Morning Of My Life”. They play with both a mixture of live (themselves), as well as some pre-recorded drum tracks as there is no drummer present on stage.
A short time later after Audio Vixen have wrapped up their set, the giant photo frame that has been lingering at the back of the stage starts to play a video of memories from the brothers childhoods and younger days as a band prompting most of the crowd to laugh along with their antics as young men.
The video soon finishes and Mr Gibb has taken to the stage to open his set up with “Jive Talkin’”, which has the whole crowd on their feet from the get go.
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“Lonely Days” and “You Should Be Dancing” keep the crowd singing and dancing along respectively before “First Of May” really slows things down for the first time and gives Gibb the chance to show off that amazing voice that everyone has come to fall in love with as he closes the song out on his own, with no instrumentation. “To Love Somebody” brings Gibb to start reminiscing about various places across Brisbane growing up before the first of a handful of ‘magical’ moments, as he puts it.
Joining the long haired and bearded frontman on stage with his band is a young lady by the name of Sami Gibb, and as the name suggests she is a relative, Maurice Gibb’ daughter…Barry’ niece.
After a beautiful rendition of “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart”, Sami leaves the stage and the band get stuck into a short medley consisting of a cover in “Fever” as well as snippets of “Stayin’ Alive”. Yet again Gibb’ incredible vocals shine on “How Deep Is Your Love” before revealing the guitarist who has been standing to the right of him all night with the exceptionally long beard and sleeve tattoos is in fact his oldest son.
Stephen Gibb takes the lead and sings “On Time” delivering the guitar solo of the night at the same time. “Yep that’s Stevie”, Barry proclaims, “standing next to me”, to which his son retorts, “I’m always next to ya dad”, a touching moment.
A tribute to the Beatles, a funny story about the origin of “I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You” and a crowd raising rendition of “Spicks And Specks” all lead to the first big standing ovation of the night.
A quarter of the way through “I Started A Joke”, Barry ceases singing and a video of Robin appears on the big screen singing the rest of song…the cheers and applause are mammoth.
Once the crowd return to their seats Barry is joined by one of his backup singers for “Islands In The Stream” before dedicating “Words” to his wife and family.
As Gibb gets to the end of the song, the crowd decide to take over and finish the last lines of the ballad prompting Gibb to announce that it’s his turn. Again and again the crowd keep taking over much to the amusement of the singer and punters, finally he gets it finished as ‘I Love You Linda’ gets spread across the big screen for his wife.
Sami returns to the stage one last time to take the reins on “If I Can’t Have You” followed by yet another medley including “Night Fever” and “More Than A Woman”.
As a slideshow of photos from Redcliffe go across the screen, Barry tells the crowd stories of each one and all his favourite places followed by an incredibly touching tribute to his brothers. Introducing each brother and telling the story of their upbringing, Gibb soon bursts into “Immortality” which immediately goes down as one of the most heart-warming yet saddening moments to hit this Entertainment Centre.
Returning to the stage for the encore, the band and Gibb bust out the full version of “Stayin’ Alive” which has every soul in the venue on their feet dancing and singing. The night ends on a high and a very long and well deserved applause for Mr Gibb as he leaves the stage accompanied by his family. All in all it has been a beau
