Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb in a coma: reports
Posted April 14, 2012 2:49 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Singer Robin Gibb, a founding member of the disco-era hit machine the Bee Gees, is in a coma in a London hospital surrounded by members of his family, British media reported on Saturday.
A spokesman for the 62-year-old, who has been battling cancer and recently contracted pneumonia, was not immediately available to comment on the reports.
“Our prayers are with Robin,” an unnamed family friend told the Sun newspaper, which first reported the news.
“He has kept so positive and always believed he could beat this. Sadly, it looks like he has developed pneumonia, which is very bad in his situation.”
The tabloid said that Gibb’s wife Dwina, sons Spencer and Robin-John, daughter Melissa and brother Barry were keeping a bedside vigil.
In February, Gibb announced he had made a “spectacular” recovery from cancer, but in late March he underwent further surgery on his intestines.
He was forced to cancel all engagements, including the world premiere earlier this month of his first classical work, co-written with Robin-John, called the Titanic Requiem.
On Tuesday at the world premiere Robin-John confirmed his father was undergoing treatment in a London hospital.
“Of course these are all the periphery problems that occur when you have an illness like that. It’s not always the cancer that will get you and he has to always be treated and always keep good scrutiny on his health. Sadly that’s the way it is and tonight he would love to be here and we’re really at a loss because we really wanted him to see this and be able to see our baby come to fruition,” said Robin-John.
Gibb had emergency surgery in 2010 to treat a blocked bowel and further surgery for a twisted bowel — the condition that killed his twin brother Maurice in 2003 at the age of 53.
He was diagnosed with colon cancer, which later spread to his liver.
Gibb formed the Bee Gees in Australia with brothers Barry and Maurice. The group released its first record in 1963.
But it was in the 1970s that they rose to worldwide fame, producing a string of disco favourites including Jive Talkin’, How Deep Is Your Love and Night Fever.
The brothers never matched that success in subsequent decades, but wrote and produced a string of hits for other artists.
The band’s distinctive tight harmonies and falsetto vibrato delivery helped the Gibbs sell an estimated 200 million records worldwide.
