Two years after Robin Gibb released his
Magnet album,
he hit the road for a tour. Robin Gibb Live
is his first ever live album but, like
Magnet before
it, this is a missed opportunity.
Robin Gibb once said in an interview that he
is a "today and tomorrow person", implying
that he is interested in creating new music
and continually moving forward, not wishing
to waste time looking to the past. Since the
release of the last Bee Gees album (This
Is Where I Came In) in 2001, Robin
Gibb seems to be doing nothing but looking back.
His
Magnet
album, whilst contemporary in sound, had
only one new track composed by Mr Gibb, the
remainder being songs written by others or
cover versions of old songs. Then came his
single with Fame Academy runner-up Alistair
Griffin, a cover of a 1997 Bee Gees song,
'My Lover's Prayer' (from the
Still Waters
album). Now he goes on tour and, instead of
mixing new and old Robin Gibb songs with a
few old Bee Gees classics, it is simply
another Bee Gees Greatest Hits tour, with
barely any acknowledgement that this is
actually a Robin Gibb tour. This even
extends to the fact that he selects more Bee
Gees songs that were originally sung by
Barry than those that he sung lead on
himself.
What is worse is that, when singing up-tempo
Barry Gibb-led tracks like Tragedy, Stayin'
Alive and Night Fever, he just sounds like a
karaoke singer, trying to keep up. These
songs don't work for Robin at all.
It isn't all bad, though. There are nice
versions of 'Please' and 'Love Hurts' from
the
Magnet
album, and 'My Lover's Prayer' is a welcome
addition, as it is a Robin Gibb hit single
(and I believe that his version is better
than the original Bee Gees version). And, of
course, there is his 1969 Number 2 solo hit,
'Saved By The Bell', which is also a good
addition. 'Massachusetts' and 'New York
Mining Disaster' (the latter reworked and
beefed up, making it an interesting track)
also work very well. But it would have been
nice to have heard some more tracks from his
How Old Are
You album, plus anything at all from
the Secret Agent and
Walls Have Eyes albums,
which are completely ignored.
And tracks such as 'How Deep Is Your Love',
'Words' and 'You Win Again' could have been
easily left off the list in favour of
'World', 'My World' and - one song that
should not have been omitted - 'I Started A
Joke', Robin Gibb's finest moment.
The highlight of the CD, though, is
'Juliet', Robin Gibb's European mega-hit
from 1984, which really gets the crowd going
wild. In fact, at the end of the CD, as
Robin leaves the stage, they are still
chanting the 'Juliet' melody.
Yet again, I have to give a relatively poor
review to new material from Robin Gibb. This
concert could have been something really
special, a chance to hear Robin's excellent
solo work live, interspersed with classic
Robin Bee Gees songs, such as 'I Started A
Joke'. That would have been something really
unique and would have made this a must-have
CD. Instead, we get another run-through of
the same Bee Gees hits that sounded much
better when the Bee Gees sang them (on
Here At
Last...Live or
One Night Only).
The sound quality isn't great either.
The concert is also available on an
accompanying
DVD.
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Where to Buy
Buy CD (released 2005)
Buy Import CD (released 2005)
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