Bent Rej shoots the rock band configuration of the Bee Gees in 1968
It wasn’t the global superstar version of the Bee Gees that took the stage in Copenhagen in 1968. The band of Australian brothers was highly successful, but there wasn’t a single bit of chest hair or disco fever anywhere to be found onstage. Instead, the Bee Gees were buttoned up and psychedelic – all five of them.
The Bee Gees had always centred around the Gibb brothers: older brother Barry and younger twins Maurice and Robin. But in their first incarnation, the Bee Gees were a self-sustaining psychedelic band also featuring drummer Colin Petersen and bassist Vince Melouney as full-time members. This was the version of the band that photographer Bent Rej captured when the Bee Gees arrived in Copenhagen in 1968.
The Bee Gees played Copenhagen on two separate occasions in 1968. The first was a two-night run for Valentine’s Day on February 14th and 15th. That initial run was supporting the Horizontal, even though much of the material was culled from their third studio album, Bee Gees 1st. By the time they returned in October, the band had a brand new album to promote, Idea.
The following year, the Bee Gees released Odessa, an ambitious concept album that led to the departure of Robin. The classic lineup of Petersen and Melouney with the Gibbs managed to record one more album together minus Robin, 1970’s Cucumber Castle. Petersen was fired from the group that year, and Melouney left, leaving the door open for Robin to return in time for their second album of 1970, 2 Years On.
Sporting Beatlesesque shags and flowery jackets, the Bee Gees were still riding their initial teen pop/psychedelic crossover when Rej captured them in action. The only member he didn’t photograph was Maurice, who is conspicuously absent from the pictures. Barry can be seen grinning as he wields his tobacco sunburst Gibson ES-335, while Melouney rocks a Gibson SG bass.
Petersen can be seen sitting at a drum kit that closely resembles the ones favoured by Ringo Starr. Although the manufacturer isn’t visible, the oyster shell design makes it likely that Petersen was playing a Pearl drum kit, just like Starr. Also comparable to Starr is Petersen’s cymbal placement: two crashes, both placed up high, with the smaller crash containing rivets to add an additional ring.
By the time Rej abandoned rock photography as a medium, the Bee Gees themselves were also looking for a new identity. Petersen and Melouney were out, with the Gibb brothers deciding to continue on as a vocal trio. A number of experimental albums throughout the 1970s followed, eventually leaning into the American R&B style that helped shape the band’s most commercially successful period.
