The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

It opens with the world-beating guitar line from Stayin’ Alive, the second of six consecutive US chart-toppers for songwriting Mancunian siblings the Bee Gees: falsetto Barry, vibrato Robin and peacemaker Maurice Gibb.

Emigrating from Manchester to Queensland in 1958, the band of brothers started out playing skiffle then had mature hits in the UK under impresario Robert Stigwood. Drugs, booze and profligacy (Maurice: “I had six Rolls Royces before I was 21”) reduced them to the Northern club circuit, until Eric Clapton recommended a move to Miami, where they discovered soul: Barry heard the beat to Jive Talkin’ while driving over a ramp and Saturday Night Fever bestowed interplanetary fame.

Even younger Gibb brother Andy had three number ones, but died of drugs at 30. The Bee Gees brought worldwide pleasure, but last survivor Barry would “rather have them all back here and have no hits at all.”