Maurice Ernest Gibb (; 22 December 1949 – 12 January 2003) was a British musician and songwriter. He achieved global fame as a member of the Bee Gees pop group, considered one of the most successful pop-rock groups of all time. Although his elder brother Barry Gibb and fraternal twin brother Robin Gibb were the group's main lead singers, most of their albums included at least one or two songs featuring Maurice's lead vocals, including "Lay It on Me", "Country Woman" and "On Time".
Gibb started his music career in 1955 in Manchester, England at the age of five joining the skiffle-rock and roll group the Rattlesnakes, which later evolved into the Bee Gees in 1958 after spending three years in Manchester when they moved to Australia. They returned to England, where they achieved worldwide fame. In 2002, the Bee Gees were appointed as CBEs for their "contribution to music". Following Gibb's unexpected death in 2003, his son collected his award at Buckingham Palace in 2004.
Maurice Gibb's earliest musical influences included the Everly Brothers, Cliff Richard, and Paul Anka; the Mills Brothers and the Beatles were significant later influences. During the Bee Gees' temporary break-up in 1969–1970, Maurice released his first solo single, "Railroad", but his first solo album, The Loner, has never been released.
1949–1958: early years and the Rattlesnakes
Maurice Ernest Gibb was born in Douglas, Isle of Man, on 22 December 1949, the son of Hugh Gibb, a drummer, and his wife Barbara (née Pass), 35 minutes after his fraternal twin, Robin Gibb. Aside from Robin, he had one sister, Lesley, and one additional brother, Barry (another brother, Andy, would be born in 1958).
In January 1955, the Gibb family moved back to their hometown in Manchester, England. Around that time, Gibb and his brothers were heard harmonising by their parents. Also in 1955, he started his music career when he joined the skiffle/rock-and-roll group the Rattlesnakes with his brothers and two friends, Paul Frost and Kenny Horrocks, who were their neighbours. The group's first major appearance was on 28 December 1957 when they performed at a local Gaumont cinema where children were invited to sing between films. They had planned to sing along to a 78 rpm record which Lesley had just been given as a Christmas present, but on the way Gibb dropped and broke it, so they sang live. The audience were pleased by their singing, which may have been the song "Wake Up Little Susie" by the Everly Brothers.
1958–2003: Bee Gees
1958–1969: a trio to a quintet, Robin's absence and temporary breakup When Gibb was eight years old, he emigrated to Redcliffe, in Queensland, Australia, with his family. Shortly afterward, he and his brothers formed the Bee Gees. By January 1963, the Gibbs moved to Sydney. The group's first single was "The Battle of the Blue and the Grey" but it failed to chart. Around 1963, the Gibb brothers worked with Judy Stone, Johnny Devlin and Jimmy Hannan. By 1964, Gibb made his first appearance as an instrumentalist on the beat-influenced "Claustrophobia". Also in 1964, the Gibb brothers worked with Johnny Devlin and Trevor Gordon. Around 1965, the Gibb brothers worked with Trevor Gordon, Michelle Rae and Noeleen Batley.
In 1966, the three Gibb brothers wrote their first song, "The Storm". Also that year, Gibb began his career as the guitarist and bassist for the band; at around the same time he recorded his first solo song, "All by Myself", on which he also played guitar. Around 1966, the Gibb brothers worked with Bip Addison, Sandy Summers, Anne Shelton, Vince Melouney, April Bryon, MPD Ltd, Ray Brown and the Whispers, Ronnie Burns, Lori Balmer, Marty Rhone, Vyt, Python Lee Jackson, Dennis Knight, Barrington Davis, Jenene and Jon Blanchfield. Their second album, Spicks and Specks (1966), included "Where Are You", Gibb's first solo writing credit to be released.
In March 1967, the Gibb brothers worked with Billy J. Kramer recording "Town of Tuxley Toymaker, Part 1". Around the same time, Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney joined the Bee Gees. In the middle of 1967 Bee Gees' 1st was released. The album was praised by the critics who compared it to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which was released weeks earlier. AllMusic's Bruce Eder wrote that Gibb's Mellotron on "Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You" 'was close in the spirit of the Moody Blues and was opened by a Gregorian chant.' The band's first number 1 single in the UK, "Massachusetts" was released in September 1967. In early 1968, the Horizontal was released. In August 1968, the Marbles released their first and only successful hit "Only One Woman" a song co-written by Gibb. In the middle of 1968, the band's third international LP Idea included the song "Kitty Can", which features Gibb's high harmony vocal, with Barry Gibb singing low harmony. In early 1969, they released Odessa, which features Gibb's solo vocals on "Suddenly" and "I Laugh in Your Face". On 19 March 1969, the same day that Robin Gibb announced his plans as a solo artist, Gibb and his bandmates recorded and later released "Tomorrow Tomorrow".
Maurice and Barry alone comprised the Bee Gees on the 1969 album Cucumber Castle during Robin's absence as a soloist. They sang the hit "Don't Forget to Remember" (which reached number two on the UK chart while Robin's first solo single, "Saved by the Bell", also reached number two) and follow up singles; "IOIO" and "Tomorrow, Tomorrow" with Barry taking lead and Maurice providing harmony vocals, but the duo version of the group enjoyed dwindling success. A supergroup in 1969 called the Fut was formed at a Tin Tin session and they recorded "Have You Heard the Word" while Gibb was still a Bee Gee, and released later as a single, the band consisting of Gibb on vocals/bass/guitar, Steve Kipner and Steve Groves on vocals with Billy Lawrie also providing background vocals. "Have You Heard the Word" features Gibb impersonating John Lennon, and Beatles fans thought that it was a lost Beatles song which had not been previously released. In 1985, Yoko Ono attempted to register the song as a Lennon composition.
On 1 December 1969, Maurice and brother Barry announced to the world that the Bee Gees had broken up.
1970–1979: first solo project and Bee Gees' reunion
In April 1970 Gibb released his first solo single, "Railroad" backed with "I've Come Back". His debut solo album, The Loner, has not yet been released. All of the songs on the album feature guitar work by Stone the Crows' Leslie Harvey. In May 1970 the album Sing a Rude Song was released in the UK with Gibb singing lead vocals on the three songs on the album. By 1976, New Blood Records issued Bee Gees Information which was credited to Gibb and features four songs from The Loner, but was only a limited edition for fan club, although the EP has no title but the picture sleeve of that has the club name ("Bee Gees Information") in large letters. In 1970, he formed a supergroup the Bloomfields with Billy Lawrie and they recorded a short version of "The Loner", which was released as a single in 1972 on Pye Records and intended for the film Bloomfield.
The Bee Gees reunited on 21 August 1970. Maurice later began taking a few lead vocals on a Bee Gees tracks in the 70s such as "Lay It on Me", "Country Woman", "On Time" and "You Know It's For You".
1980–2003: continuous solo works and later years In 1981, he recorded some instrumental tracks for his unreleased instrumental album Strings and Things, including "Image of Samantha", which seems refer to his daughter Samantha.
In 1982, Gibb appeared at the San Remo Festival and performed "Wildflower", a Bee Gees' song on which he provided lead vocals from Living Eyes. In 1983, Gibb re-recorded "On Time" at the same time as "Hold Her in Your Hand". By February 1984, he collaborated with arranger Jimmie Haskell for the film soundtrack of A Breed Apart, recorded at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. By March, he recorded "Miami, A Musical Score", this song was later used for a promotional film in Miami. His second single "Hold Her in Your Hand" was only issued in UK, Australia and South Africa. In September 1986, the Bee Gees began writing and recording songs for their upcoming album ESP. on which Maurice took lead vocal on the song "Overnight".
Gibb wrote and recorded the instrumental "The Supernaturals" in July 1985; it was later dubbed on the film of the same name, and he also appeared on the film doing a cameo appearance. On 24 April 2001, The Bee Gees released their 23rd and final studio album, This Is Where I Came In, which included his songs, "Walking on Air" and "Man in the Middle".
Death Maurice Gibb died suddenly from a cardiac arrest at the age of 53 at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida, on 12 January 2003, following surgery for a twisted intestine.
A private funeral was attended by about 200 family and friends, including Michael Jackson and Harry Wayne Casey. After the service, his body was cremated. Journalist and family friend Jennifer Valoppi said, "It was emotional, there was humor. Everybody talked about how this was a man who really celebrated life and so this was a celebration of his life." Nat Kipner, who managed the Bee Gees early in their career in Australia in 1966, also attended the service. Barry and Robin Gibb told the BBC about Maurice's death, "The fact that they had to operate on Maurice during the shock of cardiac arrest is very questionable." Barry said, "None of the sequence of events have yet made sense to us."
Robin Gibb spoke to Mojo magazine about Maurice's death in 2003: "We were kids together, and teenagers. We spent the whole of our lives with each other because of our music. I can't accept that he's dead. I just imagine he's alive somewhere else." Barry and Robin ceased performing as a group for a time, but later decided to perform occasionally under the Bee Gees banner until Robin died at the age of 62, from liver and kidney failure due to colorectal cancer, on 20 May 2012.
Influences Gibb's influences were the Beatles, the Everly Brothers, Cliff Richard, Paul Anka and the Mills Brothers. According to Gibb, he listened to the Beatles' early records when he was a child and was later influenced by Paul McCartney's bass guitar-playing. Talking about the song "Have You Heard the Word" by the Fut, on which Gibb sang and played bass, he said that "We were just getting ready to do some tracks and we were just doing nothing and I was fartin' around on the bass. I was a big Paul freak. He was a great teacher for me." Gibb added that "I could play every bass lick he [McCartney] played", especially "Michelle", saying that its bassline was "really tasteful stuff, and way ahead, way ahead of his time".
Musicianship
Recognition
DJ Paul Gambaccini said: "Maurice was the talented multi-instrumentalist, I mean here is a guy who played keyboards, guitar, bass and percussion."
Bruce Eder of AllMusic declared the track "Back Home" had "the loudest guitar ever heard on a Bee Gees record".
In the reunited Bee Gees from 1987 onward, Gibb was the group's resident expert on all technical phases of recording, and co-ordinated musicians and engineers to create much of the group's sound.
Instrumentalist He contributed the electric and acoustic guitars and the Hammond organ on the debut Bee Gees album The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs (1965). After that, he commenced his bass playing on the following album Spicks and Specks (1966). He focused on the bass and the keyboards after Vince Melouney had joined as the group's lead guitarist in 1967.
In terms of his proficiency at the guitar, he played lead guitar on "Country Woman" (1971) and the three 2 Years On (1970) tracks: 1. "Back Home", 2. "Lay It on Me" and 3. "Every Second, Every Minute" in addition to rhythm guitar on Bee Gees tracks.