Honour Is Music To Ears Of Bee Gees

Illawarra Mercury

Friday May 14, 2004

TWO Bee Gees returned to their home town this week to accept honorary music doctorates, and a similar posthumous honour for their brother Maurice, who died from a heart attack last year.

During a formal ceremony at Manchester University, Robin and Barry Gibb received their degrees from chancellor Anna Ford.

``The ceremony was completely overwhelming and wonderful," Barry Gibb, 56, said afterward. ``Maurice would be very proud. He was applauding as well. He's looking down on us and I bet he wishes he was here."

Gibb said he and Robin, 54, Maurice's twin, were opening a recording studio at a Manchester school in honour of their brother.

Born on the Isle of Man, all three brothers moved to Manchester in the 1950s.

Barry Gibb said the awards were not based on the brothers' academic ability or their education, but on their recording and music and what that meant to people.

The Bee Gees have sold more than 110 million copies of their 28 albums.