Funeral and other News
Barry and Robin Talk Right After Death of Maurice
01-12-2003
bbc: This, this cannot be easy for you. How are you both coping right
now?
Robin: Umm, I think the, the answer to that is we're both devastated.
We've actually been in shock for the last few days since Maurice has
been ill. And so this is all going too fast for us. So we
actually{crosstalk}
Barry: Yeah, in a very strange space, but I think it's really good
that we have each other, you know. And we're taking a lot of, umm,
strength from each other right now. You know.
Robin: mmhmm, mmhmm. {agrees}
bbc: Could you just talk me thru the past 24, 36, 48 hours. How did
you find out he was ill and then talk me through the course of events.
Barry: You see, whatever I tell you is still subject to question
because I wasn't there, you know, and I think that umm, and Robin was
in London at the time. And I got the, I got information from Dick
Ashby that Maurice didn't feel very well. and umm. And wanted to go
down to the hospital to be checked out. And they did that. And they
kept him overnight, but about 4 o'clock in the morning umm he
suffered, suddenly, cardiac arrest. And uh, between 4 and 8 o' clock
that morning the physician arrived, the doctors arrived, the surgeons
arrived and decided that whatever caused the cardiac arrest was, was
the reason that they should act immediately even though Maurice was in
shock. And so they, they did that. They made that decision to go and
examine what was going on inside Maurice's stomach and uh. This is
only my version once again. That his intestines were twisted and this
may indeed be a birth defect, and uh it may not be, but as far as we
know it's a birth defect of some form. And, so consequently they
removed 80 percent of his stomach. And, that's the percentage they
put on it. And so there's very little left and umm he suffered the
cardiac arrest and the fact that they have to operate on Maurice
during the shock of cardiac arrest (
Robin: is questionable) is very questionable and we will pursue it,
every factor, every element, every second of the timeline of the final
hours of Maurice's life. We will pursue that relentlessly. That will
be our quest from now on.
Robin: Yeah
bbc: Do you believe he may, should have never been operated on and
Barry: No, we believe that mistakes were made. Period.
Robin: We believe mistakes were made and time was wasted.
Barry: And negligence occurred. And, and whatever happened, and we
allege, we don't, we don't, umm we don't condemn. We allege that
things went wrong. Protocol was not followed. Someone is responsible
for the death of one of the world's, to our mind, one of the world's
greatest recording artists, (
Robin: that's right. and totally unnecessary) and our brother. And it
wasn't necessary. We will question it to the end of our days. We
will question it, we will examine it, and we will bring the truth out
no matter what it takes.
Robin: and someone will be held to account.
Barry: and somebody will be, will have to account for this.
bbc: When you say it is unnecessary, what part are you, do you
believe, that the wrong decision
Barry: The immediate action, I think. It had been
Robin: Maurice was, Maurice went in at 5 o'clock Wednesday
afternoon. He was still not being treated, foolishly.
Barry: Which we shouldn't go {quick crosstalk} We really shouldn't.
Barry: But the point is, the point is that Maurice was, Maurice is not
the kind of person, Maurice is like every other guy. He won't go near
a hospital. He won't go near a doctor. Not because he didn't love
them, but because (laugh) none of us want to go to a doctor or none of
us want to go to a hospital. So, for Maurice, you know Maurice. It
would take an awful lot for Maurice to go to a hospital. So, he felt
in distress. And we feel that he should have been attended to
immediately. And someone should have had a diagnosis within the first
hour as to what was going on with Maurice. And somehow, none of the
timelines, none of the minutes, none of the sequence of events have
yet made sense to us. We will make sense of that.
bbc: And Robin, it must have been incredibly difficult for you being
so far away from him at the time.
Robin: Yeah
bbc: How did you find out.
Robin: I found out, I was being kept abreast of everything by phone.
So, almost by the hour so I knew everything that was going on. But
obviously yes, very difficult. And I still can't come to terms with it
now. It's just almost like a dream. It's like a nightmare that you
wake up to every day. That's all you can say. It's just
devastating. It's going to take a long time even just for it to sink
in.
bbc: And even more difficult for you because he was your twin.
Robin: Yeah, of course. You know we just had a birthday, he was, you
know he had the whole future ahead of him and all I can say is he was
just one of the most beautiful people in the world. And a very gifted
man. And it's a loss for the world. And that's {note: faded away}
bbc: People know Maurice as a member of the Bee Gees. They know him
as one of the world's greatest recording artists, as you say. But
describe to me Maurice, the man. The man that you knew.
Robin: He was the most sweetest, generous people you could ever meet.
Barry: Maurice, Maurice was a silly man. Maurice liked being silly.
His whole, I think his whole grasp of life was silly. And I think we
all are, but Maurice really excelled. He was an extrovert. He would
always be the person. He would never walk into a room Maurice.
Maurice would prance into a room. You know. And his presence was
immediate, full out, 'are you waiting for me?' That's Mo. {lots of
'yeah' agreements from Robin}
bbc: And millions of people around the world have taken his death very
badly. They're very shocked
Barry: Yes
bbc: by it. What do you think it was about him that people loved and
people
Barry: Cause he was the average guy. Mo was. I think?
Robin: Yeah, I agree.
Barry: He reflected everyman. He didn't reflect the glamour side of
the pop business.
Robin: Very down to earth.
Barry: He was very down to earth person. And you would see that
sometimes in his performance. And in his normal attitude to life. He
never really lost his Lancashire accent. He never lost his roots.
You know? Maurice was the one who, as bad as Robin and I were,
Maurice was the one who would never steal. And when we were kids, we
were always stealing. But Maurice was the one who never would. And I
think that says something about the spirit of his person. {lots of
'yeah' agreements from Robin}
bbc: It must have been very important for you to have your family
around at the time in the hospital when he was laying there{some
crosstalk - yes's}
Robin: There's no question.
Barry: There's no question that Robin and me are completely pole-axed
by this whole episode. But that can't be anything compared to his
wife, Yvonne, his son, Adam, and his daughter Sammie who are, you
know, this has really just decimated their lives. It's just destroyed
them. It's going to take them years to come to terms with the loss of
Mo. You know. He was everything to them. He was their world. You know?
And as we've all got different families, that's what happens.
bbc: He did have a number of health problems earlier in life. He had a
well-documented problem with alcohol. But in recent years he was very
fit. He was very healthy. Lot of people say they saw him. He was
tanned and he was full of life.
Robin: Maurice had a very routine life. You know, he was a creature
of habit. And he was into paintballing. He'd go paintballing every
weekend. And he'd do things in such a routine way. His lifestyle, he
had a good, clean, kind of wholesome lifestyle compared to other
people in the music business. He didn't push the boat out. Nothing,
nothing in at least the last ten years. So this comes, I guess,
absolute shock.
Barry: The last person you would expect. Robin or me, yeah, you
expect that (laughter) Just because we're both rebels. But Mo, he's
always toed the line. He's always tried to look after himself.
Robin: He's always tried to keep people happy. {garbled} even beyond
the point where you even have to. He was always {garbled}
Barry: And we're not just saying that. This was an extremely sweet
person. An extremely sweet person.
bbc: And he was still working, he was still working.
Barry: Always still working, always still working.
bbc: Are you working quite recently on a new venture.
Barry: Well, we're not really doing anything at the moment except
writing songs. We think at this point in our lives the sooner we get
back to what we think our gift is, is writing songs. And uh, it will
be, Maurice will be a void always in our lives. And we will always,
he will always be featured as the third member of the Bee Gees no
matter what we do. But, one thing I will tell you is that the Bee
Gees will go on.
Robin: That's right, we will.
Barry: The Bee Gees will not stop here. The Bee Gees will not
disintegrate, because we've lost Mo.
bbc: What does that mean for the group
Barry: It means that we will go on and make another album.
Robin: You're looking at the Bee Gees right now.
Barry: You're looking at the Bee Gees. And we will do it in Maurice's
name.
Robin: Yeah
bbc: So it isn't the end?
Robin: No, not at all.
Barry: No. It's the end of the beginning.
Robin: Right.
bbc: So you're determined to carry on.Robin or
Barry: yeah
bbc: with the group you'll
Barry: It'll, it'll emerge as an abstract form of the Bee Gees. It'll
emerge as Robin and me being the best we can.
Robin: And Maurice would have wanted it
Barry: And I think Maurice would have wanted us to.
bbc: Do you think that's what he would have wanted, for you to carry
on as normal?
Robin: Absolutely. Absolutely and it's what I would have wanted.
Barry: And if it had been me, it's what I would have wanted Maurice
and Robin to do.
bbc: What do you think is his legacy?
Barry: He brought a great spirit to the pop business. He just was a
really great spirit. You know, I mean he was never a negative spirit.
And
Robin: I would probably, it would probably been the songs that he
wrote with us.
Barry: his melancholy, his pathos. And when Maurice touched a
keyboard it was like something from a movie.
Robin: It was magical.
Barry: You knew it was gonna be something from a movie and you'd go,
what did you just play.
Robin: Really inspirational. Delightful. It was amazing. That's what
we're going to miss.
Barry: Yeah, we're gonna miss that.
bbc: And what's your most endearing memory of him.
Robin: Maybe a memory of him is when, my whole life.
Barry: That's what happens at this point, when you lose someone that's
close to you like this. Is you get like a thousand visions at once.
You get thousands of things that have happened to you with Mo. Things
that
Robin: It's hard to just pinpoint one memory when you know it's the
whole person.
Barry: Maurice walking along a two-foot ledge in Japan.
Robin: Yeah
Barry: Six stories up. {crosstalk}
Barry: We both were there
Robin: We both were there
Barry: But it's true, I mean it's just crazy moments.
Robin: And there's moments when you're little kids. You know, cause
together we were little kids as well. So it's like the whole person.
The child as well.
Barry: We've lived in each other's pockets our entire lives.
Robin: That's right.
bbc: And how's your mother coping
Barry: Surprisingly well. You know. I think..
Robin: This is the third person she's lost inside 14,15 years.
Barry: Yeah
Robin: So I mean she's bearing up a lot, probably a lot better than we
are.
Barry: She's holding things in and it'll come out in her way. She's
that kind of woman.
bbc: For a man that was obviously full of life and very talented how
did you feel when you went in and saw him lying there in that hospital
bed
Robin: Well, I mean, it's devastating. It's, even I would say, it's
just too soon for it to sink in. I mean these are, these are visions
that are just myself so new to us. So you have to realize it's just a
very hard thing to even talk about. It only happened a few hours ago.
and it's still so so... so very devastating.
Barry: A sense, at least, was that he wasn't there.
Robin: Yeah
Barry: He wasn't really there.
Robin: I think for anybody, any family, and I know there are families
out there that are going thru this even now, but it is the hardest
thing in the world. Nobody is ever prepared for it.
bbc: Thousands of fans from all over the world have been sending their
support. They've been sending floral tributes, they've been emailing,
websites. How does that make you feel? Is that any comfort?
Robin: It is a great comfort.
Barry: It's a great comfort and very very overwhelming.
Robin: And it makes us feel that Maurice's life has meant something.
Barry: It wasn't in vain.
Robin: And it makes us feel better that everyone out there is thinking
of Maurice.
Barry: I think you always felt like he was the third man on the
pole. You know. You always felt like there was me and Robin or Robin
and me, and then Mo. And maybe he felt like he was the last UFO in
close encounters. Or left one of the band. There was that feeling
about him. This will be time for him. This will be his time. The
time that he gets the respect and the admiration of his peers and the
sense of loss that is occurring right now.
bbc: Do you think that would have surprised him, the sense of loss
that people
Barry: I think he'd be blown away. (laughs) Absolutely blown away.
bbc: If you could, speak to the many fans who will be watching this
and wishing you all the best, what would you say to them.
Robin: We'd say that we just, we thank them whole-heartedly for their
support. We're feeling as devastated as they are. And nobody will
ever take Mo's place. And he'll go on with us. And he'll go on in
our music. He'll go on as a Bee Gee and always will be with us.
(Barry agrees throughout)
bbc: Barry, just general??
Barry: We're numb. That's it.
Wednesday, 15 January, 2003, 21:05 GMT
Private funeral for Maurice Gibb
Family and friends of Bee Gees singer Maurice Gibb have attended his private funeral in Miami, Florida, following his death on Sunday.
The ceremony - held at Riverside Gordon Memorial Chapel on Miami Beach - was followed by a cremation service.
The only stars reported to be attending the service were Michael Jackson and Scottish singer Lulu - who was married to Gibb for four years from 1969.
Gibb died from a
heart attack after being admitted to hospital for an operation on his
intestines.
Barry and Robin Gibb have been talking to officials at the hospital where their brother died, after expressing their concern over his treatment.
Speaking to the BBC, the brothers - who are British - questioned whether doctors had been right to operate on him after he suffered cardiac arrest.
In an emotional state soon after Maurice's death, the brothers said they were "devastated" and "completely pole-axed" by their loss and paid tribute to the "most sweetest, generous" man.
Barry Gibb confirmed he had not been present at the Mount Sinai Medical Centre for many of the key moments of his brother's treatment and said he had been told much of what he knew second-hand.
But he said: "We
will pursue every factor, every element, every second of the timeline, of the
final hours of Maurice's life."
The brothers, who have been performing together since the late 1950s, made almost 30 albums together and sold more than 110 million records in their career.
Their 1977 soundtrack to the film Saturday Night Fever sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling movie soundtrack ever.
Maurice Gibb Autopsy Shows Twisted Intestine As Cause Of Death
Gary Graff
(1/17/03, 10 a.m. ET) -- Maurice Gibb of the
Bee Gees died of a twisted intestine, an
inherited condition he might have had since birth, an autopsy has revealed.
Gibb, 53, died on Sunday (January 12), Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach three days after suffering cardiac arrest prior to undergoing emergency surgery for intestinal blockage.
The autopsy, conducted by the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's office, showed that the intestinal twisting--called volvulus--was a congenital condition, notes CNN. In other words, the blood supply to Gibb's intestines was cut off by a twist in his intestine that was probably present when he was born. Gibb's family had raised questions about his death and the decision made by doctors to perform surgery after Gibb had suffered cardiac arrest.
Dr. Jeffrey Raskin, the interim chief of gastroenterology at the University Of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, was not involved in Gibb's treatment. However, he did review the autopsy and explained that it does not indicate whether or not Gibb's death was preventable, saying, "It's impossible to say whether Gibb should have died. The doctor who treated him is the only one who can answer questions about his (Gibb's) care, and why he (the doctor) did what he did."
Raskin said the autopsy indicated that the surgeons removed most of Gibb's small intestine, likely in an effort to avoid cutting off the blood supply. He also said that the autopsy shed no light on how Gibb's cardiac arrest affected his prognosis.
Bee Gees Laid To Rest With
Death Of Maurice Gibb
Billy Johnson Jr
(1/23/03, 4 p.m. ET) --
Robin Gibb has said that the
Bee Gees will no longer continue following
the death of his twin brother Maurice Gibb on January 12.
Robin Gibb told U.K.'s GMTV that he would continue to make music with brother Barry Gibb, but that they would no longer use the Bee Gees name out of respect for their brother. He said, "Anything Barry and I do, we will do together, but it'll be as brothers and not under the name of the Bee Gees. That will be reserved in history as the three of us."
He continued, "The music goes on--Maurice would want that. Maurice wouldn't want me to stop working, and it's something I will need for my own mental health."
Robin said that he was still in disbelief about his twin brother Maurice's death, whom he described as his "soulmate." He continued, "I have never known life without him. We were always doing something together, writing or singing."
Robin also said that he and Barry were still "angry" about their brother's death, and repeated their earlier concerns about Maurice's treatment at Miami Beach's Mount Sinai Medical Center: "We are not satisfied with what we have been told. We believe that this didn't need to happen."
Maurice Gibb, 53, died January 12 after suffering cardiac arrest prior to undergoing emergency surgery for an intestinal blockage. The autopsy report revealed that he died from a congenital condition that caused his small intestine to twist, cutting off blood supply.
For more than 35 years, Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb performed as the Bee Gees, which was short for "the Brothers Gibb." Throughout their career, the Bee Gees sold more than 110 million records, garnered nine Number One hits, and won seven Grammy Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1997. The Bee Gees' most recent studio album was 2001's This Is Where I Came In.
Maurice Gibb Leaves Bulk Of
Estate To Wife
(8/20/03, 5 p.m. ET) -- The estate of the late
Bee Gee Maurice Gibb is currently being
administered in Miami, Florida, with $2 million and six homes going to his wife
of 29 years, Yvonne. Gibb--who died on January 12 after emergency surgery for a
blocked intestine--also bequeathed to his wife the ownership of all his
copyrights and musical compositions.
His will, which was drawn up in 1991, also establishes trust funds for his 27-year-old son Adam and his 22-year-old daughter Samantha, who both live in Miami Beach, Florida.
The Gibb family homes include two each in Miami Beach and England, and one each in Spain and the Bahamas. The Miami Herald reports that Yvonne Gibb has placed most of them up for sale.
Gibb's brothers and musical partners, Barry and Robin, have threatened to sue Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, claiming that--according to Barry Gibb--the doctors there "completely screwed things up." They have not begun any legal proceedings yet, however.