December 1, 2013

In honor of Stephen and Michael Gibb and their birthday celebration, I’m posting a birthday story from a fan

who started her Bee Gee birthdays at the age of ten!

Susan

Syracuse, NY

My Bee Gee life goes back to my 10th birthday. I was a little girl with a crush on a pop group that most people didn’t really know too much about. My older sisters loved the Beatles and the Kinks and The Byrds. My sister Melissa moaned over the Beach Boys. My Mom and sisters watched me mope around like I was a love-sick doggie because my life revolved around Barry, Robin and Maurice and their music. I had heard “Massachusetts” at my girlfriend’s house when I stayed overnight for her birthday pajama party, and I was hooked. For my birthday in December, my family got tickets to see the Bee Gees concert in Albany, New York. It was 1971. My world changed that night. Seeing them in person is not something I can describe. I remember crying tears of excitement knowing they were REAL, and my two sisters fell in love (Melissa with Maurice and Carolyn with Robin). All three of us thought Barry was beyond perfect because no one really looks like that!! He looked like a god. After that concert, I was a life-long fan with blinders on. They could do no wrong, no matter what the music was. Every single birthday from the age of 10 involved Bee Gee gifts. My collection included posters, framed photos, mugs, pencils, lunch pails, t-shirts, magazines and everything that could be bought in a record shop. As I teenager, I would ignore my friends who didn’t understand them, and then “Night Fever” happened. Now they got the point, although I’d been a fan for more than half of my life when I got tickets for another birthday for the “Spirits” tour. My boyfriend in college was shocked when he saw my Bee Gee shrine I had erected in my dorm room. No, I didn’t marry him, but the boy I did marry (Jason) lives with my addiction to this day. He has given me a Bee Gee gift for every birthday for 30 years, and he has weathered every Bee Gee storm with me and comforted me through the grieving I have experienced, starting with Andy in ’88. Fifty years of my life have involved the Bee Gees, and Jason still marvels at my loyalty. I tell him it’s not about loyalty. It’s about the best group that ever existed. Some people don’t get it, but Bee Gee fans know exactly what I mean. This year on my birthday I’m waiting for concert tickets for 2014. It will happen.