09/01/2026
Barry Gibb turns 80 today ! 🍻🎂🎉
He wasn’t born in Australia, but his family moved to Redcliffe in 1958, so naturally we’ve claimed him.
Here’s a good story.. One of the Bee Gees’ first public performances was at Redcliffe Speedway. Barry was 12 and the twins were nine. They sang between the races while the punters threw coins onto the track for them.
Their instruments included a tea chest, bits of timber, fishing line, a fruit box and an old drum. Aussie ingenuity!! 😂
The promoter went to their house the next day and asked Barry how many songs he’d written.
“About 180.”
At 12 bloody years old!!!! FFS most of us were still drawing dicks on school desks at that age! Barry Gibb already had a bloody catalogue.
They went on to sell more than 200 million records, and Barry wrote or co-wrote enormous hits for everyone from Barbra Streisand to Dolly Parton.
In one week in 1978, he had a hand in writing four of the top five songs in America.
Four out of five!! Bit of a show off 😂
Australia later made him an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia, and rightly so. Pretty incredible!.
Happy 80th, Sir Barry. A genuine legend who is still Stayin’ Alive and still has more hair below his neck than I have on me bald chrome dome!
officialbarrygibb
