Hollywood Diary – hanging out with Bee Gee Barry

What a lovely week I’ve had, thanks to an interview with a musical legend that I’ve admired for such a long time.

Step forward, Mr Barry Gibb of Bee Gees fame.

I was asked to interview Barry at his home in Miami. Hmm, let me check if I’m free. Sounds OK.

Of course, I’m joking I was on that plane like a shot to meet Barry and his gorgeous wife. I knocked on the door. Barry opened it, swore and said: “Oh, not you!” and slammed it shut. The cheek of the man!

Sometimes there’s an anticlimax after you’ve interviewed someone. You go in, have a chat and then leave. You might not be the only one they’re speaking to, and so many of these people have tight schedules.

But when the cameras stopped rolling for our interview, Barry invited me to stay for drinks and a bite to eat I stayed for three hours.

I hope I didn’t outstay my welcome, but the time just flew by. Barry’s wife, Linda is a Musselburgh lass. And she’s still got a lovely Scottish burr. She’s a fine-looking woman and was the first Miss Edinburgh.

She managed to “photo bomb” me it’s an internet craze of deliberately wrecking people’s photographs.

I was getting a photograph taken with Barry when she came up and squeezed us both from behind. I got such a fright it managed to totally ruin the photo!

That’s her behind us in the pic on the opposite page.

Barry and Linda will be back in the UK when he plays some concerts in September and October. Unfortunately he’s only arranged to play England so far but I had a wee word and told him to play in Scotland if he could!

Hopefully he will the man’s got an unbelievable back catalogue and has had five decades of hits. That is an incredible record few can beat, so he’s well worth seeing.

Linda wants to get back to see relatives in Musselburgh, so hopefully it won’t be too long before he’s playing some of those incredible hits at a venue near you. Barry admits a mix of emotions when he’s on stage without brothers Maurice and Robin.

They were a team and it really hit him hard when they passed away. But he told me when he’s on stage he definitely feels their presence. He gets a lot of comfort from that but he knows he’s got to deliver on his own. He’s ready to get back out there on stage. He spoke about how Robin wanted to do his own thing before he died and Barry stepped back to give him his chance.

But now Linda has encouraged him to get back out there. She knew it would be good for him, even though it’ll be hard, too. He spoke about his mum, who’s 92, and how close they are. It must be so hard for her, she’s lost Maurice, Robin and their brother, Andy. It beggars belief she’s lost three children, but how proud she must be of Barry.