The Roxborogh Report

Robin Gibb 1 Year On - Please Don't Turn Out The Lights

2013-05-19T16:50:00.002-07:00

The Brothers Gibb.

One year ago today I was lying by the pool in Bali, checking email and realising one of my heroes had just died. If you click here you can link to the piece I wrote later that day in a disastrously a/c-free internet cafe about Robin Gibb's death and what I called "the fight for the Bee Gees legacy."

Robin Gibb.

That article highlighted one of the finest late-period Bee Gees songs For Whom The Bell Tolls - a UK top 5 hit and South American #1 from 1993 - which showcases virtually everything that made the Bee Gees great. As I wrote at the time:

An unforgettable title; a massive chorus, with unusual verse and bridge structures; Barry singing in both falsetto and natural voice; three part background harmonies topped with a powerful Robin lead.

And then the lyrics. Not surprisingly for a song entitled For Whom The Bell Tolls (borrowed from Hemingway), they are poignant in times of loss. Here is the song once again:

Going back in time 21 years before For Whom The Bell Tolls and 41 years from the present day, here is another Bee Gees song I love which has shared Barry and Robin vocal leads. I've launched a mini-Internet campaign to get Alicia Keys to cover this song, though three Tweets about it in the space of a year is probably not what you'd call "viral" at this stage.

Nevertheless, Please Don't Turn Out The Lights is a soul song and a modern day soul singer needs to rediscover it. Just listen to that second verse in particular, starting with Robin's plea:

Baby I don't feel too reliable /
I can only do what I'm viable

Then Barry takes over with the ultimatum:

But if you want to leave me /
Love me and just leave me

Then Maurice joins his brothers on the echoed, harmony-filled chorus of:

If you turn down the lights /
Please don't turn out the lights

This isn't just soul, it is the structure of black gospel music and songs this good don't deserve to remain to buried. For Robin Gibb, one year on from his death, this is Please Don't Turn Out The Lights:

Afterword: If you are new to the Bee Gees or they somehow are lodged in your mind as just Saturday Night Fever, click here for a list of their scarcely believable achievements and records. The article is also about the country / soul / gospel album by the Gibbs from 1969, Cucumber Castle.

New Zealand's Beautiful Bay Of Islands

2013-05-18T03:18:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I got back from a place you can wear shorts and T-shirt - not to mention jandals / thongs / flip-flops - just 2 weeks out from winter. Russell in New Zealand's Bay of Islands sits on the same latitude as Sydney and a steady (and not shocking) couple of 23 degree days in mid-May saw us sail with dolphins, view the surrounding islands from the hill-top flag-pole Hone Heke so famously cut down (four times no less), absorb the history of Waitangi and wander the streets of this country's original capital.

Here are some of my favourite photos from the trip:

Bobby Womack Live In Auckland - His Most Monumental Song

2013-05-18T02:38:00.001-07:00

Things have been a bit of whirlwind lately and - forgive me Bobby - I somehow forgot that soul great Bobby Womack was playing in Auckland tonight. Realising my error just before show time, not surprisingly I missed out on tickets to the man who once played guitar in Sam Cooke's backing band, who wrote the Rolling Stones' first UK #1 hit It's All Over Now, who provided Aretha Franklin with the soaring I'm In Love, who gifted George Benson the greatest R&B instrumental of the 70s with Breezin' and who gave us one of the most timeless soul songs to miss the US top 10 with Across 110th Street. Not to mention Harry Hippie, If You Think You're Lonely Now etc etc.

For anyone who knows their Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Temptations and Curtis Mayfield but not their Bobby Womack as far as early 70s, socially-conscious soul, here is the always monumental portrayal of New York ghetto-life, Across 110th Street.

Azerbaijan The New Dubai? Baku To The Future

2013-05-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

Azerbai jove!

Azerbaijan got a mention on The Two last night (their kids are the best slept in the world, Kiwi kids the second most sleep deprived after the States) and there may've been a joke speculating why those Azerbaijan kids hit the pillow so hard. That joke may've invoked Biblical imagery involving a long day carving stone. However, considering the importance of this being Azerbaijan's debut appearance on the 18 month old The Two, it got me thinking if we'd perhaps not painted an accurate picture.

Azerbai golly wow!

Well, we might not have been too far off the mark - there definitely is a lot of handiwork going on in Azerbaijan, but it appears to be of more Dubai / Shanghai nature than we thought. And maybe the kids are involved with the building of these scarcely believable projects?

Perhaps not quite yet, but by 2015 the capital Baku could well be on the radar as a place to visit if you like being blown away by modern architecture. That is the year the so-called "Death Star Hotel" - variously known as the Half Moon Hotel or Full Moon Hotel - will be completed. This is part of a further project called Crescent City which looks as space-age as any hotel on the planet. Add to that the almost finished Flame Towers and people will be calling the city Baku To The Future.*

*Not necessarily.

Burt Bakurach's favourite skyscrapers.

Wishing Billy Joel A Happy Birthday With His Saddest Song

2013-05-09T00:41:00.001-07:00

A very quick post to wish Billy Joel a happy 64th birthday. I hope Billy gets inspired by Rod Stewart who has said goodbye to 20 years of writer's block and has released an album of new, self-written songs (Time) for the first time since Jack Tame was in kindergarten. Similarly, Billy's last studio album was 1993's River Of Dreams and while he's been busy since then with plenty of tours, he hasn't felt the inclination to release a full LP.

Many music critics, including a couple of prominent New Zealand writers, love to pretend that Billy Joel is awful. Which must be hard for them because amongst all the underwhelming songwriters in this world, the man behind New York State Of Mind, Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, Allentown, Goodnight Saigon, Leave A Tender Moment Alone, Captain Jack, Movin' Out and She's Always A Woman etc etc etc etc etc etc etc (etc) is so clearly not a part of their club. What a shame to be a music critic who has to fight their ears and heart to convince themselves they don't like these songs?

Oh well, here is another one for them to think they don't like. Here is the very beautiful and sad And So It Goes. Happy birthday Billy.

Aaron Gilmore's Favourite Songs

2013-05-08T07:51:00.002-07:00

Aaron Gilmore in happier times.

UPDATED MAY 11. Strange chap Aaron Gilmore. Do you know anybody else approaching 40 who uses expressions like "FFS" and "f***tard" in text messages?* He of the 21 page "finessed" CV (as my colleague Kerre McIvor put it), he of "don't you know who I am?" fame, he of accidentally texting Batman, he of "this will come back to haunt you," he of "I've made millions and never need to work again," and he of the clicking fingers.

Gosh his contribution to New Zealand pop-culture already exceeds his contribution to New Zealand politics (pop culture contribution count at least eight, political contribution count at least zero). The full-circle of this little soap-opera, in which someone has allegedly threatened to get somebody else fired, who will then almost certainly lose their job as a result (or be forced to resign), is almost beautiful in its tidiness.

In my opinion, Aaron Gilmore's eventual "apology" seemed not to be overflowing with the truth (how else could admitting to drinking a bottle and half of wine get reduced to merely three glasses plus a cheeky beer?) and yesterday's latest revelations regarding text messages he sent reinforce that. In his press conference he said sorry for being "rude and arrogant" and then refuted all the allegations that accounted for him being "rude and arrogant."

So if he was being 100% truthful, why and what was he apologising for? Just like the entire country of New Zealand and Gilmore, truth and Gilmore aren't especially good friends either. What he still fails to grasp is that all of us make mistakes and some of us fall into traps with our egos. But if you apologise properly (much like Shane Jones did a while back) it is remarkable (and good) how quickly people will forgive and move on. As it stands, Gilmore's redemption needs to be outside of politics because his political career is over.

For a summary of the best columns regarding Gilmore, click here to link to Bryce Edwards excellent Political Roundup. He also makes a very compelling case for why this scandal matters.

For now, it's back to the music with some of big Aaron's fave songs, featuring the Eagles, the Black Eyed Peas, Fleetwood Mac and the Bee Gees.

*Turns out my dear colleague Pam enjoys the expression "f***tard" from time to time too and to have lumped her into the same boat as Gilmore was bad and wrong. Apologies Pam as well as any other decent folks who enjoy this expression. FFS, what was I thinking!

Fleetwood Mac's First New Music In 10 Years - Extended Play

2013-05-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

Fleetwood Mac are back with their first new recordings as a band for 10 years. Particularly from the thinking man's guitar hero Lindsey Buckingham, there have been plenty of solo projects in more recent years and Stevie Nicks even managed an acclaimed solo album in 2011 (In Your Dreams).

But this is the first time since the whopping 18-track album Say You Will of 2003 that Fleetwood Mac have recorded new music. At this stage it seems very much like they are testing the waters because they've only released four songs on an EP with the nice little title of Extended Play. Word is Nicks is reluctant to release a full album if it's not going to sell and that her long time sparring partner / love / muse / ex Buckingham is more keen.

So the EP is kind of a hedging of bets. If it sells then Fleetwood Mac fans can expect a new album. If it doesn't, then expect them to keep touring as a collective but to only get new releases in the form of solo projects.

I hope they do a full album and that they realize the comparatively (for them) mediocre sales of their last album shouldn't dissuade them from attempting to further their legacy, rather than just maintaining it. Say You Will had some highlights (namely Bleed To Love Her and Steal Your Heart Away), but suffered from being too long and sounding a bit like the combination of two solo albums from Buckingham and Nicks. Without Christine McVie (who retired in the late 90s to the English countryside), this is always going to be a concern.

Fleetwood Mac as they look today.

But, that doesn't mean they shouldn't try. Live, Fleetwood Mac are still just as compelling as ever and listening to these quite excellent four new songs (albeit one that's a reworking of a 40 year old demo) makes me want to hear more.

The new songs are reminiscent of classic Fleetwood Mac in that the material is autobiographical. After all these years, there remains something very intriguing - as well as unique - about two people singing songs about each other, to each other. And while three of these songs are the songwriting works of Buckingham, Nicks should know that nobody produces her songs better than he can.

Written by Nicks and originally an off-shoot from the Buckingham / Nicks era (before they joined Fleetwood Mac) in the early 70s, here is my favourite of the Extended Play songs, Without You.

When A Cambodian Makes Landmine Jokes - Herald On Sunday Cambodia Article 2008

2013-04-30T01:31:00.000-07:00

Phnom Penh.

Here is another old (ish) Herald On Sunday travel article of mine which had previously been unavailable on The Roxborogh Report, this one about my first trip to Cambodia in 2008. Two years later I explored Cambodia in much greater detail and got to the scratch more than just the surface of places like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, as well as towns like Kampot, Kep and Sihanoukville.

That first trip was just five days, but together with the 15 days from 2010, Cambodia became one of the most compelling countries I've ever visited and if you click here, you can link to a piece I wrote in 2010 about the country's emerging middle-class.

This article, much like the article I featured in my previous post on Malaysia, was written in the style of a 26 year old. Which is fine because at the time, I was indeed a 26 year old, but five years on a couple of things jar. Namely the part where I claim Cambodian cuisine puts even Thai and Vietnamese to shame. Let's be honest, that may've been a fraction towards the hyperbolic, though I don't want to detract anything from our chefs in 2008. They must've cooked some stirling dishes.

The outstanding architecture of the Foreign Correspondents Club, Siem Reap.

Here is the link to an article I'm very happy for you to read, all about Siem Reap, the temples of Angkor and a local host who shocked his guests (us) with his love of landmine jokes.

Tioman Island Malaysia - Why I Went Back 3 Years In A Row - Herald On Sunday Article From 2008

2013-04-29T20:18:00.001-07:00

Tioman Island, Malaysia.

With winter just a little over a month away here in the Southern Hemisphere, I'm thinking where might be nice to duck away for a couple of weeks of tropical sunshine. I'm determined to go somewhere different, but it's amazing how Malaysia - the country I spent seven years as a kid - keeps pulling me back in.

Since leaving Malaysia in 1990 I've returned in 1996, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010 so looks like I'm about due again. Which may or may not happen this year, but in the mean time, here's a travel article I wrote for the Herald On Sunday back in 2008 about Malaysia's Tioman Island.

In the five years since I wrote this I've toned down the adjectives in my writing style, so apologies for my then youthful exuberance. But hey, it was Tio-freaking-man! I loved this jungle-covered island so much I ended up going back the following two years as well. I'd always explore a new part of the island, but base myself at the one and only Nazri's Resort. It's not the fanciest resort in the world, but click on the link below to find out what it was that made me stay there three years in a row.

Tioman Island travel article, published Herald On Sunday, November 2008

The Relaunched Roxborogh Report + Another Song From The All Saints

2013-04-29T03:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the relaunched Roxborogh Report. This site has been going two and a half years and has steadily grown from an average of 2000 hits per month in its first six months, to six thousand hits a month a year ago to 20,000 hits a month today (for a total close to 160,000). I felt it was time for a makeover and since converting to the new format, which is almost like an Advent calendar with its rotating panels, the number of hits from around the world has grown again.

To make best use of the new format, I recommend viewing the blog with either the "mosaic" or "flip card" options which you can select from a menu on the top left. The other substantial improvement is the search engine in the top-right of the screen which allows you to look for any topic you like. It's no secret I'm a massive fan of acts like the Bee Gees, the Commodores, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon (amongst many others). Just type in whatever band, country (if you're interested in travel) or topic you can think of and all relevant articles on the Roxborogh Report will immediately be displayed for you.

Thanks so much for visiting my website and to contact me please do follow me either on Twitter @timroxborogh or look for me on Facebook at the following address: facebook.com/timroxborogh

Generally on the Roxborogh Report I like to link articles with songs and being that X Factor New Zealand has become a borderline phenomenon, below is another song from judge Melanie Blatt's former group the All Saints. If you click here you can read my previous article regarding my reservations about the show on the one hand, plus my favourite song from each of the judges on the other.

Since writing that piece and crucially, having watched the show, I still may think Ruby Frost is a little green to be mentoring contestants, but geez it's hard to dislike her. And the production values of the show are at least 39 million times ahead of the hokey-tastic New Zealand's Got Talent.

In my previous X Factor article I highlighted the forgotten All Saints #1 Black Coffee, so here is the less forgotten Pure Shores which is still for me one of the best UK #1s of the previous decade. For anyone who, since the release of the movie version of The Beach (which included this song back in 2000), has at least once in their life allowed themselves to get lost in South East Asia, chances are this song has been part of their playlist. Enjoy.

PS. The "Music" and "Travel" links are in the process of being converted so that they actually work! Kindest regards, Tim.

Anzac Day & A Vietnam-Inspired Bee Gees Song

2013-04-24T21:33:00.002-07:00

The Bee Gees live in the early 1970s.

For Anzac day I was trying to think of an appropriate song and funnily enough, a Bee Gees song popped on my iPod and there it was, the perfect song. A slow, almost genteel acoustic ballad which ranks as one of the Gibb's greatest forgotten works from their transition period in the early 70s, King And Country has always been one of my favourites.

Released in 1973 as the B-side to the South East Asian #1 hit Wouldn't I Be Someone, this was a period in the Bee Gees career the brothers themselves have described as their commercial and creative nadir. It was in between the first wave of orchestra-backed, Beatle-esque success which produced countless hits like To Love Somebody and Massachusetts and before the even bigger second wave of R&B-infused pop, beginning in 1975 with Jive Talkin'.

But those in-between years of 1971-1974 were simultaneously more artistically fruitful and commercially successful than the Bee Gees may have realized. When I told Barry in an interview in 2009 that during this period they were still having #1 hits in South East Asia and top 20 hits in Australasia, Canada as well as parts of Europe, he said he'd never heard that. The oft-told tale of the stint at the Batley Variety Club in England in 1973 (where Maurice met his second wife Yvonne) is where the brothers said: "Right! This is the low-point, we will never be reduced to playing supper clubs again!"

And indeed, they were right. Within a couple of years they were back to being one of the biggest bands on the planet and within 5 years, they probably were the biggest band on the planet. But 1973/74 wasn't as bad as all that. Batley yes, but tours throughout Asia, Australasia and Canada during this point were all successful and in large venues. US and UK success was slipping dramatically, but in South East Asia they were still big enough to notch up two #1s with Saw A New Morning from Life In A Tin Can and Wouldn't I Be Someone from the unreleased A Kick In The Head.

Which reinforces the point that even if the Bee Gees weren't at the top of the US or UK charts anymore in 1973/74 (though How Can You Mend A Broken Heart had been a US #1 in 1971 and Run To Me a US top 20 and UK top 10 in 1972), they were still not only successful elsewhere, but prolific. Prolific enough to release no less than six studio albums in the first half of the 70s pre 1975 renaissance, not to mention the unreleased Kick In The Head album and three unreleased solo albums.

It's also worth noting that the Mr Natural album and title-track from 1974 were bigger hits in Australia than the following year's Main Course. This entire underrated period is filled with weird and wonderful songs, from the soul of Please Don't Turn Out The Lights, Method To My Madness, Mr Natural, Had A Lot Of Love Last Night and Dogs, the blues-rock of On Time and Somebody Stop The Music, the pop mini-masterpieces of Walking Back To Waterloo and Elisa, the country of South Dakota Morning and Come Home Johnny Bride to the almost folk-like stylings of I Can Bring Love and today's featured song, King And Country.

King And Country is a song about war and laying down one's life. It builds steadily and then fades out beautifully with an orchestra. The lyric twist of, "to be always like children / afraid of the night," which later swaps to, "to be never like people / afraid of the night," always intrigued me.

For Anzac Day (which for non Kiwis or Aussies is a joint public holiday / day of remembrance that the two countries share, giving pause for thought to our soldiers who fought in war), here is King And Country:

Barry Gibb has just announced that the second phase of his Mythology tour will be to the UK and Ireland in September and October. For details go to barrygibb.com

X Factor New Zealand - The Best Song From Each Of The Judges

2013-04-23T03:47:00.000-07:00

The judges: Bedingfield, Frost, Blatt and Walker.

X Factor NZ has begun and I can't pretend I haven't been a little iffy in my on-air discussions about a couple of things, namely the judges. This is a show where you not only have to judge talent, you have to be a mentor too and one of the judges, Ruby Frost, is just starting her career. X Factor is meant to launch careers, just not the careers of the judges. Relaunch in the case of Daniel Bedingfield and no problem with that and good luck to him if it happens.

And good luck to Ruby Frost too. Everybody says she is extremely nice and her career has started well with a grand prize win in the international John Lennon Songwriting Contest (2010) and her debut album Volition (2012) peaking in the NZ top 30. This is a promising start and I hope she goes onto huge things. I'm just not sure why she is judging and mentoring upcoming talent when she is an upcoming talent herself (who is yet to hit the top 20 of the singles chart). Here she is with her debut single Moonlight from 2010:

As for Bedingfield, he notched up three UK #1 hits a decade ago (Gotta' Get Thru This, If You're Not The One, Never Gonna' Leave Your Side) and three further top 10 hits before his career was curtailed by a near fatal car accident. I always liked the third in that trio of #1s the best and here it is, Never Gonna' Leave Your Side:

Stan Walker is easily the most recognisable name for local audiences with 11 NZ top 40 hits since 2009 including five top 10s. His latest song Take It Easy, taken from the film Mt Zion, has had its not inconsiderable momentum derailed by an unnecessary reggae remix which competed for airtime with the vastly superior original mix. The remix ignores the fact the song's tempo and singing style aren't really reggae, probably because its a pop / soul song and for me his best work yet. Unfortunately you'll have to take my word for this being the inferior version because I can't find the original on YouTube:

Saving the best for last, Melanie Blatt might not be a household name in New Zealand, but 5 UK #1s should mean that most people have heard of her group the All Saints. From the sounds of things she and Bedingfield are the judges offering the strongest critiques and she is the one with the most credibility in doing so.

The All Saints were a sexier, more R&B alternative to the Spice Girls and had a couple of the best UK#1s of the previous decade when both Pure Shores and Black Coffee hit the top spot back in 2000. Black Coffee, produced by William Orbit, deserves getting wheeled out again because despite its massive success, it was always going to be in the shadow of The Beach-associated Pure Shores. Both were excellent examples of the melacholy pop smash, were expertly produced and particularly in the case of Black Coffee, of unusual song structure. My favourite of their 5 UK#1s, here it is:

Sydney's Intercontinental - Why Oprah, Ellen, Pink & Barry Gibb All Stayed There

2013-04-09T00:29:00.003-07:00

The view from my Intercontinental hotel room.

Sunday evening on Newstalk ZB's The Two (with Pam Corkery) was my first show back after a couple of weeks holiday in Australia. I had to MC the wedding of friends I'd met back in 'Nam in 2008 (nothing but good flashbacks) which was held on the Central Coast (NSW) and decided to add on to that an adventure on Fraser Island (QLD) plus a week of exploring one of my favourite cities, Sydney.

As mentioned before on the Roxborogh Report, on Fraser Island I stayed at the award-winning eco-resort at Kingfisher Bay which really is such an intelligently designed place with its rooms, lodges, pools and lakes which merge with the natural surrounds - look out for the upcoming Herald On Sunday feature.

Also look out for another Herald On Sunday article, this one an extended piece with a page each about two of Australia's most luxurious and historic hotels, Sydney's Intercontinental and Melbourne's 130 year old Hotel Windsor. I had two nights at the Intercontinental and while I've been fortunate enough to stay in a few 5-star properties over the years, never before has it been one with a wraparound balcony on the 32nd floor where between 5pm-7pm you get complimentary food and drinks. This is only if you are a Club Lounge member (which we were fortunate enough to be) and with the views over the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, the Botanic Gardens, Elizabeth Bay and beyond, it was one of the most unique hotel experiences of my life.

The top floor wraparound balcony, complete with blankets.

Add to that the service at the Intercontinental which extends beyond their first-rate concierge team to blinds being turned down in your room if you are out in the evening, blankets being handed out if you are outside on the 32nd floor and it's getting a little chilly, unparalleled privacy entering and exiting (if you happen to be ridiculously famous) and free baggage storage several days after you've checked out, and you can see why guests like Oprah Winfrey, Ellen Degeneres, Pink, Russell Brand, Jennifer Aniston and Barry Gibb have all recently called her home.

The hotel's premier suite, the Australia Suite might have something to do with that too. A bathroom the size of most apartments, ditto the master bedroom, not to mention the property's only private balcony, a living room, a kitchen and but of course, a grand piano, it was fittingly extravagant for a 5-star property in one of the planet's most beautiful cities.

The Herald On Sunday articles about these places will be out soon - I'll keep you posted.

The Australia Suite bedroom.

Paul Simon Concert Review, Auckland 2013 - The Michael Jackson Song He May've Inspired

2013-04-08T21:47:00.001-07:00

Dare I say it, last night's Paul Simon Vector Arena concert in Auckland was even better than Simon and Garfunkel's show at the same venue in 2009. That concert was more rooted in glorious nostalgia, never more emblematic than when the lights silhouetted the two "old friends" and despite it being 40 years after the fact, the 60s-recalling image remained the same. And that image; that silhouette of the little guy with the guitar and the tall guy with the curly hair rammed home that Simon and Garfunkel really are just as famous as the Beatles.

Taking nothing away from seeing Simon and Garfunkel live, one of the greater moments of my concert going life, it's just that Paul Simon on his own delivers an arguably stronger set list. Sure, there's no need for him to cover the Beatles, Bo Diddley and Chet Atkins when he's left out American Tune, Homeward Bound and Bridge Over Troubled Water, but that is as minor a quibble as a quibble can get.

Without doubt, Paul Simon solo at Vector Arena April 8 2013 has rocketed into my all time top 10 concert experiences, up there with the likes of Springsteen, the Bee Gees, Stevie Wonder, Justin Timberlake, Lionel Richie, Alicia Keys, Coldplay, Fleetwood Mac and U2. See the article yesterday (which contains further links) as to the brilliance of Simon's songwriting, but in short, this concert was a near spiritual experience. There are so many reasons why, but let's try the unshakeable integrity of the songs, the rhythms, the melodies and some of the finest lyrics in popular music history, not to mention a crackingly funky and dexterous 8-piece band.

Simon's voice is a special little wonder too. In reality, he doesn't sing as high as he sounds due to the fact he has always sung quite quietly with the mic turned up higher than louder singers. This gives his voice a gentle purity which even in his early 70s sounds just as good as decades gone by.

As for the set-list, it's hard to beat one that includes genre-bending pop masterclasses like Still Crazy After All These Years, Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes, The Boxer, Sounds Of Silence, Hearts And Bones, My Little Town, Late In The Evening, You Can Can Me Al, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, The Only Living Boy In New York, Boy In The Bubble, Slip Slidin' Away, Gone At Last, Kodachrome, Me And Julio, The Obvious Child etc etc.

It's that last song I want to highlight for the purposes of this blog entry. Simon was always influenced by other genres and cultures and long before Graceland brought South African music to the world. American Tune was based on an old English hymn, Mother And Child Reunion was Jamaican-inspired reggae and El Conder Pasa was built on a Spanish melody. And for a Jewish boy, he always had a way with gospel, from the secular (Loves Me Like A Rock) to the spiritual (Gone At Last). Today's song is from the Brazilian-flavoured followup to Graceland, 1990's Rhythm Of The Saints.

Reaching the UK top 20, The Obvious Child has both a catchy melody and a thumping multi-layered rhythm track which is the song's hallmark. Just as Simon was openly influenced by others, I'm certain Michael Jackson had heard this because the dense Brazilian drumming is almost identical to that which appeared on his equally compelling They Don't Really Care About Us from his History album in 1995. Here they both are:

Paul Simon Live In Auckland Tonight - His Farewell Song To Art Garfunkel

2013-04-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

My all-time favourite lyricist is in town tonight and I can't wait. About 10 years ago I saw Art Garfunkel solo, in 2009 I saw Simon and Garfunkel together but tonight will be the first time I've ever seen a solo Paul Simon show.

I say favourite lyricist because I don't know of any other songwriter who has consistently been able to say so much with so few words, and with so much beauty. "Losing love is like a window in your heart, everybody sees you're blown apart," is one example which just popped into my head - a line from the title track to arguably Simon's greatest achievement, the Graceland album from 1986.

Graceland is one of three of his albums to win an Album of the Year Grammy, a record for most wins in that category he shares with only two other performers, Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder. Wonder's achievement is possibly the most remarkable because he won three out of four years in the 70s and for three consecutive albums. That feat of prolific creativity with equal commercial and critical success will almost certainly never be equalled (the albums in question being 1973's Innervisions, 1974's Fulfillingness First Finale and 1976's Songs In The Key Of Life), but Paul Simon's 16 year effort is only marginally less astounding.

As part of Simon and Garfunkel there was the Album of the Year Grammy for Bridge Over Troubled Water in 1970, 1975 saw him win for Still Crazy After All These Years in the year Stevie Wonder had a rest (something Simon joked about in his acceptance speech) and Graceland won in 1986. It is not unprecedented for an artist to have a more confined golden patch, but with a trio of Album of the Year wins stretching 16 years and including songs as rich and varied as all three title tracks, Paul Simon's longevity puts him in the absolute elite.

Here he is with his old mate Artie on the song Pam Corkery and I ended our show with last night. Written about his feelings of isolation when Garfunkel was away shooting a film "down in Mexico," The Only Living Boy In New York, much like So Long Frank Lloyd Wright was really Simon's way of saying goodbye not just to Garfunkel, but to Simon and Garfunkel. From Bridge Over Troubled Water, enjoy:

Click here to read an earlier post about why American Tune may be Paul Simon's most timeless song and click here to read my all time top 10 Paul Simon songs.

Newstalk ZB's "The Two" Stay #1 In Radio Ratings

2013-04-07T16:36:00.002-07:00

Pam, Tim & a corrugated iron shepherd.

UPDATED APRIL 15, 2013*. On behalf of Pam Corkery and myself, we want to say a huge thank you for continuing to listen to our show and being part of something so special to both of us. The latest radio ratings came out on Friday (they come out twice a year) and Newstalk ZB's The Two is still the #1 rated radio show on a Sunday evening with more than 22% of the entire available audience. Further to that, for the first time The Two has more than three times the audience share of the second placed show / station (The Edge - 6.4%).

None of this we take for granted. Thanks again, keep listening and feel free to give us a call once in a while on 0800 80 10 80 - The Two, Newstalk ZB.

*Thanks to our loyal listeners and of course our boss, Newstalk ZB's top-rated The Two has been extended (as of April 19) from just Sunday evenings (now from 8pm-11pm) to include Friday evenings 8pm-midnight as well. Again, thanks so much for being a part of our show.

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Elvis' Greatest Ever Song, As Featured On Newstalk ZB's "The Two."

2013-03-17T22:13:00.000-07:00

At the end of each episode of Newstalk ZB's top-rated The Two (Friday and Sunday evenings from 8pm) Pam Corkery and myself like to conclude with a song that means something. "Means" in the sense that it should never just be a song to wash over you and that there should be a reason for playing it. I still find it a mental brick wall that some radio hosts over the years ended their shows with the same song every time - why be so lazy?

That said, usually our reasons for song choice are fractionally stronger than last night's not particularly amazing 56th anniversary of the day Elvis bought the Graceland property, but who cares when it provides an excuse to play something as breathtaking as An American Trilogy?

Elvis never recorded a studio version of country singer Mickey Newbury's amalgamation of three American Civil War-era songs (Dixie, All My Trials and The Battle Hymn Of The Republic), but his various live performances of An American Trilogy in the 1970s ensured it became a favourite amongst his fans.

As for the general public, oddly enough An American Trilogy was never a hit in the States, but did become a substantial hit in the UK in the early 70s. Best known for its hair-raising "glory, glory hallelujah," refrain, I rate any one of Elvis' live versions of An American Trilogy as equal to If I Can Dream as his finest ever song. In all its jump-suited triumph, here it is:

The Genius Of Eminem, 2Pac & Elton John

2013-03-16T00:47:00.002-07:00

Tupac Shakur

Granted, the late night audience on Newstalk ZB is unlikely to be dominated by hip hop fans, but it still makes me laugh when I get calls like Mike's* last week where he mused that "rap was just missing the letter 'c' at the start." Haven't heard that before Mike!

Oblivious to the fact he needs new material, Mike then suggested rap and hip hop came about in the 80s because all good music stopped after 1979. As a result, an inferior genre was invented in this vacuum. Aside from missing the brilliance of many hip hop records, Mike's thesis oddly ignores mammoth creative and critical 80s hit albums like Born In The USA, Thriller, Purple Rain, The Joshua Tree and Graceland.

Mike then dropped the bombshell that some hip hop songs aren't even original. "Some of them are just rip-offs of old songs but none of the kids know it," warned Mike, unperturbed by a list of white singers who sing nothing but cover songs and me asking what the difference was.

Never one to end a music discussion with, "Oh well, that's your opinion and I respect that," I used brief clips of the following two songs as just one example of how artistically meritorious hip hop can be (possibly the whitest possible way to say I really like a lot of hip hop). This isn't ignoring the reality that Mai FM may not have ever played two good songs in a row, nor the increasingly pornographic nature of much hip hop. However, when you listen to these two songs: the 1971 original and the sampled modern day, 2005 hip hop hit, even if the genre isn't your cup of tea, it's simply not a matter of opinion whether a song like this is clever or not.

Elton John

The song? Ghetto Gospel by the late 2Pac, featuring Elton John. So the story goes, Eminem stumbled across the quite astounding early Elton John song Indian Sunset (from 1971) - a 6 minute epic of troubled historical Americana - and had the idea to cobble together a couple of different sections of the song into one chorus with a new melody. Say what you want about Eminem, this is nothing short of genius to take lyrics and melody lines separated by several minutes, to cut and paste and voila, new melody, new chorus.

Combined with a 2Pac outtake almost 10 years after the star's death, the song became a 21st century rarity: a hip hop song with no need for a warning label. With the kind of socially conscious lyrics which were once the genre's hallmark (think Grandmaster Flash And The Furious 5's pioneering The Message from the early 80s), Ghetto Gospel hit UK#1 in early 2005. One of my top five favourite hip hop songs for the rhythm, the skill of the rap, the power of the lyrics and the perfection of the sample, both Ghetto Gospel and Elton's original Indian Sunset are below.

*Mike's real name has been used to protect other people with different names.

Andy Gibb With A Country / Pop Song John Denver Would've Been Proud Of - 25 Years On

2013-03-05T03:44:00.000-08:00

I wrote a post yesterday about it being 25 years this week since the death of Andy Gibb and mentioned that many music fans might be surprised to learn much of his songwriting was in the country vein. This taps into the endless frustration I have with people's idiotic appraisal of late 70s music in that it either has to be "disco" or not.

The hang-up usually American music writers have over this word is startling. I once read a review of the Bee Gees-written 1980 Barbra Streisand album Guilty (incidentally her biggest selling album with 20 million copies sold and three US top 10 hits) which said she'd gone disco. There's not a single song on the album that could be considered disco. R&B maybe, pop yes of course. But just because the Bee Gees are involved doesn't mean it's disco! Is Massachusetts a disco song? To Love Somebody? Islands In The Stream?

The disco era really is one of the strangest phenomenons in the history of popular music. It's not strange for the music that was produced from 1975-79 (indeed much of what is considered "disco" is some of the greatest pop music ever), but strange because music journalists seemingly got walloped over the head with the stupid stick, leaving them incapable of comprehending that this was still pop music. Oddly enough, by the time the 80s rolled around and you weren't an act associated with music you could dance to in the 70s, you were off the hook. If, however, shock horror, you'd released a song or two which could attract people to the dance-floor and the decade this had happened had a "7" at the start of it rather than an "8," you were in serious commercial trouble.

This hangup, which had more to do with musical racism, homophobia, over-exposure and ignorance than anything else ("how dare black music dominate the charts - everyone knows white rock music is superior,") was embarrassingly black and white in its assessment of what bands were capable of. And like all the greatest bands and songwriting teams, the Bee Gees / Andy Gibb were never restricted to just the one genre. For further proof have a listen to this excellent Andy Gibb song from his first album Flowing Rivers.

Somehow Come Home For The Winter didn't make the cut on Andy's CD of the Gibb brothers recent Mythology box-set, though I'm certain John Denver would've hit US#1 had he recorded a version of it. Indeed "Denver" is even mentioned in the song. Enjoy.

First Person In The World To Be Cured Of HIV

2013-03-03T21:40:00.002-08:00

Paul Michael Glaser

In breaking news today there are reports out of the States that a 2 year old girl has become the first person in the world to be cured of HIV. It is too soon for this to be fully verified, but click here to read CNN's take on this potentially incredibly news.

Here are also two further links to articles of mine which discuss HIV. This first is one of the top 10 most read posts on The Roxborogh Report and is about the original Starsky Paul Michael Glaser from pioneering 70s cop drama Starsky & Hutch and how he dealt with the loss of both his wife and daughter to HIV / AIDS.

The second article is a more recent entry regarding a moral panic which enveloped a community in Northland, New Zealand when they discovered an HIV-positive child was attending kindergarten. At the time I wrote how it was curious that human nature means we let our ignorance dictate our fears rather than arming ourselves with facts.

2 Of Australia's Most Unique Hotels - Upcoming Herald On Sunday Travel Articles

2013-03-03T18:54:00.001-08:00

The Hotel Windsor, Melbourne

At the start of each year I generally begin to make some firm plans about mid-year overseas holidays to break-up the winter. There are thoughts of South Africa, though it will be the wrong season. I'd love to get to Brazil, particularly Rio with it's mix of jungle, beaches, skyscrapers, slums and stunning geography. Myanmar / Burma is now on the radar, so too India and Sri Lanka, not to mention the vast tracts of the States I haven't explored despite three trips there so far.

Before you know it, it's March and plans are still to be made, but in the mean time, I've decided to do a couple of quick trips to Australia to stay in a couple of truly unique hotels. Look out for upcoming travel articles in the Herald On Sunday's travel section (part of the Living lift-out) about the oldest luxury hotel in Australia, the Hotel Windsor in Melbourne, as well as Fraser Island's premier eco-resort, the Kingfisher Bay Resort (in Queensland).

I was in Melbourne in February and the 130 year old Hotel Windsor was everything a grand old hotel from a by-gone era should be. Here is a snapshot from my soon to be published Herald On Sunday piece:

Kingfisher Bay Resort, Fraser Island

The old adage, if it’s good enough for Katherine Hepburn, Muhammad Ali and Barry Humprhies, it’s good enough for me. Not surprisingly, in the 130 years the Hotel Windsor has been operating, some of the biggest celebrities in the world have made her their temporary home. And while a full refurbishment is still in the (near) future, the present day Hotel Windsor remains something to behold with it’s Victorian era grandeur – think Auckland’s DFS building or the Dunedin Railway Station but a hotel. With a proud notability as the only surviving Australian hotel of its era (and older than London’s The Ritz and New York’s The Plaza), this is no ordinary address.

As for the Kingfisher Bay Resort, I've never been to Fraser Island before and will be there for four nights just before Easter. Fraser Island has long fascinated me for its enormous sand-dunes, rain forests, fresh water lakes, ship-wrecks and dingos and yet, it's still not on most Kiwi's travel radar. It didn't take long to realise the Kingfisher Bay Resort is the best place to stay on the island, whether it's eco houses or more traditional hotel rooms. Can't wait.

25 Years Since Andy Gibb's Death - A Remarkable, Lost Song

2013-03-03T18:02:00.001-08:00

A little over a week since Barry Gibb's triumphant Mission Estate Concert in Napier (in front of 20,000 fans, see article below about my backstage experience), the Gibb family are in the news again today, specifically Andy. If he was still alive, today would be his 55th birthday and in just five days time, it will be 25 years since his death.

Andy Gibb's was a tragic life, as well as tragically short. I'm sure there are lessons for us all when you look at the picture of a young man, born into a loving family, who had looks, fame and money and still felt so dreadfully inferior. This was a guy whose first three singles all went to US #1 (not even Bieber's done that), who had the biggest hit of an entire year in the States (1978's Shadow Dancing), who sold 20 million records in just three years and who was once deemed pretty enough to have a doll made in his image.

But 10 years after his Shadow Dancing peak, Andy was gone. With the hits having dried up in the early 80s, he'd marked his 30th birthday on March 5th 1988 with just his Mum Barbara in a cottage on brother Robin's estate in Thame, England. Barbara knew her youngest was desperately depressed and all the family knew he was drinking too much so she'd flown from Miami to be with him.

The myth still persists that Andy took his own life, when in actual fact he died on March 10 1988 of an inflamed heart. It was a condition undoubtedly exacerbated by years of drug and alcohol abuse by a man who'd somehow lost his passion for life. And yet as Barry has pointed out several times, Andy had in secret obtained a pilot's license in the year before his death. There was talk he'd be joining the Bee Gees for their 1989 album, the followup to their 1987 comeback smash ESP and he'd also signed a new solo deal with Island Records.

Seemingly there was much to live for, but that last factor, the new solo album deal, may have been part of the downward slide. With serious writer's block despite three older brothers as prolific as any songwriting team in history, a desire on the one-hand to shed notions of only having been a teen-idol with possible doubts on the other that he even still wanted a career in music, Andy was in trouble.

Everybody who knew him said he was a kind, gentle soul with a genuine love of people. Not surprisingly, his death broke a lot of hearts, namely his Dad Hugh who himself died in 1992. The brothers often said Hugh was never the same again after Andy's death, speaking of a sense of relief that father and youngest son could be reunited again.

Fast-forward to the present with Barry now as the only surviving Gibb brother, but still with Mum Barbara (aged 93), sister Lesley and his wife and rock of more than 40 years Linda, it is rammed home just how much this family have been through to bring this music to the world.

So what of Andy's music? As a teen-idol in the disco-era, people might be surprised to learn that a lot of his own songwriting was in the country / pop vein which is so popular today. Music fans may also be unaware that his three studio albums (produced by Barry with Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson) featured crack musicians like Don Felder and Joe Walsh from the Eagles. The musicianship is excellent on all three LPs, Flowing Rivers, Shadow Dancing and After Dark.

For the trio of US #1s, I Just Want To Be Your Everything is a sunny piece of carefree pop while Love Is Thicker Than Water is just about as dark a horse of a late 70s #1 in existence. A slow-burner, the song took months to reach the pop summit, the sort of song you don't quite know what to make of until several listens, by which point the majesty of the two minute instrumental fade-out has become so addictive as to upset you if you turned on the radio and realized the song was nearly over.

The third and biggest of the #1s has somehow disappeared off radio playlists and yet it topped the chart for seven weeks and in 1978, the year of the Bee Gees, Andy outdid even his brothers (with Billboard's biggest hit of the year). That said, all four brothers wrote Shadow Dancing, whose lightly funky textures and expert craftsmanship (listen carefully to the lead guitar licks and the horn arrangements towards the song's end) make a mockery of claims the disco-era was catchy but simple.

To mark both Andy's birthday and the 25th anniversary of his death, I've chosen a song which snuck through in the period shortly before his life ended. Mired in writer's block while in those final days living in England in 1988, Andy had teamed up with Barry and Maurice in the Miami summer of 1987 to come up with a remarkable ballad. The song remained unreleased until 1991, three years after his death. Like literally dozens and dozens of songs in the brothers Gibb catalogue, this is a largely unknown piece of work which is not just a strong song, but sounds like a potential hit. This is Man On Fire:

Barry Gibb Mission Estate Concert Review - "The Two" Go On Tour

2013-02-24T23:50:00.004-08:00

Barry and me

The Two went on tour this past weekend and despite inept road-signs, several u-turns, a missing map-book and an embarrassing absence of modern phone / internet technology, we made it to Napier and back to Auckland in one piece. In the process Pam Corkery and I also had the most welcoming, humbling, human and enthralling backstage experience imaginable, all thanks to the Gibb family.

Yes, the Gibb family. The Gibb family who once numbered four brothers but now, only one. 66 is an unusually advanced age to be launching your first ever solo tour. Indeed, has their ever been another tour quite like the Barry Gibb Mythology tour? One where a singer / songwriter who has always been defined as a member of a group, the Bee Gees, sets out on his own in a triumphant and yet still sad celebration of his deceased younger band-members / brothers?

It's unlikely and while the notoriously "just play the hits" Mission Estate Concert crowd may have appreciated a little less With The Sun In My Eyes (a beautiful but largely unknown album track from 1967) and a fraction more Don't Forget To Remember (or Emotion, Heartbreaker, You Win Again, Too Much Heaven etc etc etc), they were still clearly enthralled by what was poignant pop masterclass.

The view Pam & I had of the concert

The reality is, when you are recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the second most successful songwriter in music history, you'd have to be onstage for at least six hours before you'd exhausted your list of top 10 hits. As it stands, in a two-hour show before a crowd of close to 20,000, Barry and his crack 12-piece band still managed to rollick through mammoth hits like show opener Jive Talkin', You Should Be Dancing, How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, Words, How Deep Is Your Love, Stayin' Alive, To Love Somebody, Night Fever and more.

Against both the odds and logic, Barry's voice, particularly his falsetto, sounds better than it did on the One Night Only tour of the late 90s. Reportedly the result of his quitting of smoking, his remarkable vocals plus the compliments of a soulful trio of backing singers (not to mention the lovely country-tinged vocals of niece Samantha Gibb and the Joe-Cocker-like stylings of son and lead guitarist Stephen) led to a full sound which somehow satisfyingly honoured the Bee Gees without feeling the need to directly duplicate those famous three-part harmonies.

During the concert, Pam and I sat onstage (stage-right to be exact) alongside Barry's daughter Ali (who was working the teleprompter), Barry's delightful and hilarious wife of 42 years Linda, Maurice's dear and fragile widow Yvonne (who'd in no time become Pam's best-friend) and Barry's manager / right-hand man Dick Ashby.

Before the show we'd been treated like honoured guests. Evidently Barry had told a few people about me and across our five interviews spanning eight years, it blows my mind to know he cites our chat at a London hotel in 2009 as the best of his entire career. As much as I'm tempted, I can't even think about getting big-headed about that because the man I was interviewing, Barry Gibb, remains the most humble superstar I've ever met. Barry posed for photos and hugged me, signing my Spirits Having Flown record with "To Tim, Thanks for caring, Love Barry Gibb."

Barry and Pam

Pam and I were the only two people backstage other than the 40+ tour / crew members and with Dick Ashby as a personal guide, we were treated to dinner, drinks and photos with the Gibb clan. But more than that, there were hugs, tears and laughter. Linda told me I was better looking in real life (stop it!) and Yvonne and Pam established a kind of sisterhood I knew only to observe than try to break in to. And all of this because I dared to support a band of brothers whose music had always meant the world to me.

Below is the set-list from Saturday night, followed by what I think would be the best Barry Gibb set-list. This takes into account the songs he feels uncomfortable singing since the deaths of Robin and Maurice, such as New York Mining Disaster, Run To Me, Nights On Broadway, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Massachusetts etc. Originally I kept it to the exact same number of songs from the Mythology tour, but ultimately I couldn't help myself and I've now added one more.

What is both obvious and exciting for me is that while the bulk of the set-list could stay the same, the lesser known songs which are dotted through the show could go on rotate to keep things fresh. If it's Kilburn Towers getting exposure this time, how about Marley Purt Drive next time? Or Come Home Johnny Bride, or Tomorrow, Tomorrow, or Nothing Could Be Good etc.

MYTHOLOGY TOUR SET-LIST:

Technicolour Dreams (studio version featuring Gibb video footage prior to Barry's arrival)
Jive Talkin'
Lonely Days
You Should Be Dancing
First Of May
To Love Somebody
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (duet with Samantha Gibb)
Fever / Stayin' Alive (slow version)
How Deep Is Your Love
On Time (Stephen Gibb - song repeated to rapturous applause after his guitar cut out first time)
The Long And Winding Road
I've Gotta' Get A Message To You (duet with Stephen Gibb)
Kilburn Towers
Playdown
Spicks And Specks
With The Sun In My Eyes
Morning Of My Life
Every Christian Lionhearted Man Will Show You (duet with Stephen Gibb)
I Started A Joke (duet with the late Robin Gibb using video footage from Sydney, March 27 1999)
Islands In The Stream (duet with backing singer Beth Cohen)
Guilty (duet with backing singer Beth Cohen)
Words
If I Can't Have You (Samantha Gibb)
Night Fever
More Than A Woman
Ordinary Lives
Immortality
Stayin' Alive
Massachusetts (band only)

TIM ROXBOROGH'S BARRY GIBB SET-LIST:

Ordinary Lives (studio version featuring Gibb video footage prior to Barry's arrival)
Jive Talkin'
Lonely Days
You Should Be Dancing
First Of May
To Love Somebody
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (duet with Samantha)
Too Much Heaven
How Deep Is Your Love
On Time (Stephen)
Heartbreaker
I've Gotta' Get A Message To You (duet with Stephen)
Chain Reaction (Samantha solo?)
Emotion (duet with Samantha?)
Spicks And Specks
Don't Forget To Remember
Morning Of My Life
Marley Purt Drive (duet with Stephen?)
I Started A Joke (duet with Robin on video screen)
Islands In The Stream (duet with Beth Cohen or Samantha)
Guilty (duet with Beth Cohen or Samantha)
Words
If I Can't Have You (Samantha)
Night Fever
More Than A Woman
Grease
Immortality
You Win Again (tough to sing but they can find a way)
Stayin' Alive
Spirits Having Flown (instrumental, just the band)

With the Australian concerts plus the Mission Estate concert here in New Zealand having been attended by more than 80,000 people and being such a success, Barry is reportedly interested in carrying on touring in the States and possibly beyond. With arguably the best band behind him since the heady days of the Spirits Having Flown tour of 1979 and the endless possibilities of songs now Samantha and Stephen are now alongside him, it must be so healing for a man who has been through so much to know good days are ahead. I cannot wait.

You can listen to "The Two" (Pam Corkery and Tim Roxborogh) every Sunday on Newstalk ZB from 9pm-midnight. It is the top-rated show on the number one rated radio station in New Zealand.

Barry Gibb Mythology Tour Concert Review - Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne

2013-02-14T22:37:00.001-08:00

Barry Gibb at Rod Laver Arena, February 12.

Because one Barry Gibb concert was never going to be enough, I decided to jump across to Melbourne for a whirlwind couple of nights to see the second most successful songwriter in music history* play Rod Laver Arena just 11 nights before he'll be here in New Zealand. On his first solo tour, Barry has sold out five shows in Australia's three largest indoor venues - Rod Laver Arena, Sydney Entertainment Centre (x2), Brisbane Entertainment Centre (x2) - for a combined audience in excess of 60,000 people. When you add to that the almost sold out Mission Estate concert in Napier on February 23rd, more than 80,000 people will have seen Barry on his Mythology tour.

Which is not bad by anyone's standards, let alone a 66 year old who had never performed a full solo concert until last year. But this is not just any sort of tour, indeed this is equal parts a spiritual, emotional homecoming as it is a tribute to Barry's three younger brothers as it is a testing of the waters to see what the future may hold.

For Barry, Australia has always represented home. As much as he his proudly Isle of Man born, Manchester raised and a longtime Miami resident, it was in Australia from 1958 to the end of 1966 that the Bee Gees formed and made their first strides to fame. Settling in Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, it was there Barry told Robin and Maurice it was either to be a life of crime or a life of music. And with that, Barry instructed the twins they were to throw everything they'd stolen (usually from Woolworths and normally pen knives, rings etc) off the pier and to never steal again.

"Fulfill your destiny, it's there within the child," is a line from Immortality, "the last great song we wrote together," said Barry on Tuesday night before singing the song he Robin and Maurice had written for Celine Dion back in 1997. It was a line which never hit me when Celine sung it, but when Barry first performed it at a concert in Miami about a year ago, it finally did. These were three kids who plotted their destiny and set about fulfilling it. And through every set back and every tragedy, they never gave up.

2013 sees Barry alone - the last remaining Gibb brother - and perhaps for the first time he's able to appreciate that despite everything, the dream came true. They made it. 220 million albums sold, 21 different songs as songwriters to hit US or UK #1, 9 Grammy awards, success in every corner of the globe and now, a bronze statue erected where it all began.

Unveiled yesterday in Redcliffe in a ceremony attended by the extended Gibb family and more than 3000 fans was a life-size statue of the the Bee Gees as they were 50 years ago: big brother Barry with the guitar and the twins Robin and Maurice at his sides, all three barefoot. This was key for Barry as it represents the love of Australia tattooed in his memory as a kid from cold Manchester who arrived in a land of palm trees, sunshine and no necessity for shoes.

But more than the statue is now a full Bee Gees walk (called "Bee Gees Way") set against a backdrop of memorabilia and plaques of classic song titles from the Gibb back catalogue - plucked from an estimated 2000 recorded works. Tears flowed and 92 year old Babara Gibb said she couldn't be more proud of what her boys achieved.

Which brings us to the present. What is a solo Barry Gibb in concert like in 2013? For a start, at roughly 130 minutes it's longer than Bee Gees concerts by about half hour and longer than a solo Robin Gibb concert by 40 minutes. As for the set-list, there are the traditional arrangements of mammoth hits like Jive Talkin', Lonely Days, You Should Be Dancing, Stayin' Alive and How Deep Is Your Love, but for the first time the Barbra Streisand duet Guilty is performed in full (with backing singer Beth Cohen stepping in for Babs), How Can You Mend A Broken Heart becomes a country-tinged duet with niece Samantha Gibb (Maurice's daughter) and I've Gotta' Get A Message To You sees Barry's son Stephen take the place of Robin on the verses in an almost Joe Cocker style.

Number one hits written for other artists like Islands In The Stream and If I Can't Have You are there, with the latter an outstanding Samatha Gibb solo, as is a soulful To Love Somebody and the haunting First Of May. Perhaps the real treat is that while the huge hits dominate the set-list, throughout are a handful of lesser known fan favorites like Maurice's hard-rocking solo song On Time (this time sung by Stephen), In The Morning and Playdown from the Australian days, 1968's Simon and Garfunkel-esque Kilburn Towers and the reflective and possibly autobiographical Ordinary Lives from 1989.

The falsetto remains intact and I noticed little deterioration in Barry's natural voice from the One Night Only era of 1997-1999, possibly due to him giving up smoking 12 years ago. Rather than trying to recreate the famous Bee Gees three-part harmonies, Barry has opted instead for a 12-piece band with three soulful backing vocalists as well as the vocals of Stephen (who also plays lead guitar) and Samantha. In other words, the sound is full and as Barry told me in our last interview in October, "it's a great band Timmy!" He's right about that and for me, this band is the most proficient he, the Bee Gees or Robin have fronted since the glory days of the 1979 Sprits Having Flown tour.

Further to that, the way Barry chats to the crowd in between songs is the most extensive and rewarding of any previous Gibb concerts I've seen. However! I don't really want to give away all the surprises (though with full knowledge you can now find them on YouTube), but I will reveal it's fair to say I Started A Joke is the emotional highlight of these Mythology concerts. As for why, resist the Internet and make sure you're in Napier on February 23rd.

*The Guiness Book Of Records lists Barry Gibb as the second most successful songwriter of all time after Paul McCartney.

My Favourite Memory Of Paul Holmes, 1950-2013

2013-01-31T17:55:00.000-08:00

This morning Sir Paul Holmes passed away, succumbing to a heart condition coupled with the prostate cancer that first reared its head to him just over a decade ago. Aged 62, he was too young. But when you are regarded as arguably the greatest broadcaster in your country's history and few are arguing about it, it's not hard to say with conviction he'd lived a great life - a full life - and perhaps it's time for a rest.

Like the most captivating broadcasters, Holmes was anything but bland. He knew he was a star and he loved it. Why not? He'd worked hard for it and because he hadn't grown up with a silver spoon he always seemed to appreciate the benefits of his success. He got married (the first time around) on the roof-top of one of Auckland's swankiest hotels in the early 90s with the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition in attendance, not to mention swirling helicopters with paparazzi. 20 years later he was mock aghast when a staff member at his local DVD store asked him for his name when he forgot his membership card. "You mean you haven't heard of me? How is that possible!?"

And just a few of weeks ago, it's been revealed he virtually campaigned to former Prime Minister Helen Clark to get his knighthood (during a phone call she had made to him broaching the subject). When he did get the title in a highly moving investiture at his property in Hawkes Bay, he proudly insisted all call him "Sir." Good on him.

If all of that had been anybody else, it may sound like the description of a person out of touch with the common man, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In his final interview, broadcast this past weekend on the Sunday program, Holmes regarded his love of people as perhaps his greatest strength. The thing so often said about him was that he could be interviewing anyone, be it a politician, a Hollywood A-lister or a sickly child and whoever it was, he would be there with passion, compassion, humour and empathy. And if the interview was with someone struggling with some sort of fight, you'd never notice the Rolex on Holmes' wrist.

Indeed, I don't even know if he wore Rolex. The point was he gave everyone the time of day because he genuinely cared. He also sensed from an early age that a place for him on the very upper tier of New Zealand broadcasters was to be his, but that he'd have to go off and have a few adventures first. From selling fruit on the roadside in Australia, to gallivanting across the Americas to forays into radio in Europe to near death experiences back in New Zealand, he'd had so many experiences he could always draw on.

My favourite memory of Holmes is most likely a speech he made at the New Zealand Radio Awards a few years ago just after his longtime producer Phil Armstrong had died. He had a room full of hundreds of type-A personalities, a good chunk who'd thrown back a few shandies, completely silent as he ad-libbed his way through a love letter to a friend he never socialized with. Apparently Holmes and Armstrong never felt the need to see each other outside of Newstalk ZB, but the love he had for this man was immense and the manner in which he could stand before an auditorium and ad-lib a tribute made me think he was also an orator without peer in this country.

Together, Armstrong and Holmes built a radio breakfast show that was floundering at #7 in the radio ratings and took it to #1 - a position it never lost. When you add to the mix that he was for the bulk of his radio career also presenting a nightly TV current affairs show, not to mention his beautifully direct abilities as a writer, he was truly one of a kind. And I hate cliches.

Holmes rang me after my first week on Newstalk ZB with words of encouragement. Talk radio is the most challenging job I've ever had and to think that the best in the business (another cliche) took the time to ring me to wish me well won't ever be forgotten. RIP.