Bee Gees: Secrets behind the one band which ever came close to being 'bigger than The Beatles'

They were two of the of all time and now The Bee Gees and The Beatles are fighting for supremacy in a new Leading British stars Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan announced last month they were to play Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in four Sam Mendes films about The Fab Four.

But today, speaking exclusively to The , RJ Gibb, son of late star Robin Gibb, reveals that the eagerly awaited Paramount movie about the Gibb brothers will start shooting in September - sparking a box office skirmish between two musical megabands.

RJ Gibb claims Steven Spielberg has joined forces with Gladiator director Ridley Scott to make the movie, with the working title You Should Be Dancing. RJ, named after dad Robin John, says: "Our biopic is happening. Graham King, who wrote the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is writing our movie. Spielberg has a part of the action and Ridley Scott will be directing.

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"Our movie, hopefully, starts filming this September. We are all very excited, as it has been a few years in the making. The Beatles versus the Bee Gees, you don't get much bigger. Of course the Beatles sold more records... but The Bee Gees, well, they had longevity."

Shooting in London and Miami, the biopic will chart the rags to riches rise of the Gibb brothers - Barry, Maurice and Robin.

Born on the Isle of Man, before moving to and then emigrating to , it will follow their journey to chart success in Oz and beyond - after record producer Robert Stigwood introduced them to a worldwide audience.

Global stardom followed, with the Bee Gees selling more than 220 million records and making history in 1977, when their soundtrack album to the Saturday Night Fever movie became the biggest selling album of all time, selling 40 million copies.

RJ, 42, reveals that the biopic may also include newly unearthed early recordings made by the then penniless Gibbs in 1967, when they busked in exchange for their passage aboard SS Fairsky from Australia back to the UK.

He says: "We have just found songs they recorded on board that ship. We have some amazing things we want to show the for the first time. They were coming back to (the UK) to meet Robert Stigwood.

"My dad told me how they asked the captain if they could do a show each night to entertain the passengers in order to pay their fare." Busking on a guitar, they would slap a suitcase for drums.

"Thankfully, my grandfather Hughie recorded the sessions where my dad and his brothers can be heard covering songs by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Adam Faith.

"It is audio gold as these songs have never been heard before. My dad would have been 16 at the time."

RJ, who has just released his own single Let It Be You, says: "These new songs will be sought after, especially with the new biopic. The president of the Bee Gees fan club located them somewhere. My grandmother Barbara entrusted someone with the tapes and they have now given them back to us

"Thankfully, my grandfather recorded everything as he was always walking around with a tape recorder. He always had the latest bit of kit. The world has never heard the Bee Gees cover songs by the Stones or The Beatles before. Nobody knows they exist."

RJ, who is being consulted over the new movie with Barry Gibb, hopes the band's first live debut in 1957 will be included, when they were known as The Rattlesnakes, before changing their name to The Bee Gees.

Speaking from his dad's 12th century home in Thame, Oxfordshire, he shares his hope that the movie will include their first UK performance at the Gaumont Cinema in Manchester.

He says: "That night they were meant to be lip synching, but Maurice dropped the wax recording and it smashed so they had to sing for real."

RJ also hopes the biopic will reveal the secret behind the Bee Gees’ famous harmonies.

"They sang in toilets, as they used the tiled walls for the resonance and it helped tone their sound, “ he laughs. "My dad said they used to sing in the best toilets in Australia.”

His dad also told him how the engine noise as he flew over Germany helped him devise the rhythm to the song I Started A Joke.

“It was just like a Hoover or a fan sound ,but Dad heard the melody. It is incredible. These kind of stories need to go into the biopic," says RJ.

Casting is underway for the new movie and RJ believes rumours that Hollywood star Bradley Cooper will play Barry Gibb are true.

"Casting is always up in the air until the last moment,” he says. “The last I heard, Bradley was in line to play uncle Barry.

"I saw Rami Malek in the Queen biopic and he looked uncannily like my dad in the early 60s. I did put that forward for Rami to play Dad and, for a while, it was considered, but I don't think Graham King wants to use the same actors. I am sure there is someone out there who wants to play my dad."

Despite the Gibb brothers’ musical harmony, things could be less harmonious on the road, according to RJ. He says: "Creative brothers do row, but when it came down to it, they loved nothing more than being on the road together.

"The Bee Gees were an incredible team." Moving to other volatile brother teams, RJ is delighted to see the Gallagher brothers reuniting as Oasis.

Back in 2021, Noel spoke highly of the Bee Gees in the documentary How Do You Mend A Broken Heart, saying: "You can't buy that (Bee Gees) sound from a shop. When you have family members singing together it is unique. They are an important chapter in the book of music."

In a mutual show of respect, RJ says: "I was very pleased when I heard Oasis were getting back together. I think it is wonderful.

"I have met them a few times. They are fun guys, a bit off the wall but who isn't in this industry?. All geniuses are like that. Noel took it a bit to heart what happened (clash with Liam) but it is positive they are coming back.

"I guess when you are brothers you can speak your mind. You can say something when you are family, you can say the most terrible things but if it is your brother they will forgive you."

Hinting that he could have new songs on the way, which he recorded with his dad, before his death from cancer and intestinal surgery complications in 2012, aged 62, RJ says: "As well as carrying a torch for my dad I am finding my own voice.

"But I do have about six or seven songs that I wrote with my dad before he passed that have never been released. There are some musical gems with him singing along with me which I can turn into a mainstream song."

Writing up until his death, RJ says his dad even penned songs with brother Barry, who visited from his home in Miami, before he died.

"Barry and my dad were close at the end. I know they wrote together in the hospital room," says RJ.

"They were talking just before dad was diagnosed about working together again. So who knows? Those songs could come out at some point.”

Unashamedly proud of The Bee Gees and of his dad’s legacy, RJ adds: "The Bee Gees are the soundtrack to a lot of people's lives.

"My dad was my best friend. We were like brothers. That is why it was so hard to lose him. But growing up with the legacy has been a blessing. I mean, what better shadow to live in.”

RJ Gibb's new single Let It Be You is out now. The summer mix of Lose Control by RJ Gibb and DJ Kokiri is available on all platforms.

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