What are we going on about ?
We are trying to convince Rhino, a member of the Warner Music Group and distributors of Bee Gees compilations, that a DVD or multiple DVD's if required, of all the Bee Gees film and video footage from the 1960's would be a profitable idea. Rhino has both the legal and financial persuasive power to make this happen. It all depends on us, the fans, to show how many of us would commit to buy such a product.
Who has the footage we want ?
It is a messy and convoluted affair. The Bee Gees material has multiple copyrights ranging from the Bee Gees themselves, the artists they did covers of and of course the many television stations that filmed their performances. In Australia their performances were on Brian Henderson's Bandstand, Johnny Young's Go!Show, Billy Thorpe's It's All Happening, The Country & Western Hour, Sing Sing Sing, The Johnny O'Keefe Show, Desmond Tester's Strictly For Moderns and others. They also performed on Top Of The Pops, Beat Club, The Ed Sullivan Show and I'm sure many others. The footage itself is located in the Australian National Film & Sound Archive (NFSA), Channel 9 Aus, Channel 7 Aus, Channel 10 Aus, ABC Aus, in private hands and other locations throughout the world. This is not really our concern, but is something that Rhino will have to contend with and so we must be as persuasive as possible in getting them to commit to this project.
What do we want on the DVD ?
I am not going to put myself in a position to speak for everyone, but here is what I want, any further ideas are always appreciated.
All visual material of the Bee Gees from the 1960's including any interviews.
Quality in both sound and image are a must. This exercise should result in the surrender of all the filmed material. This has not happened as yet, so if you think you have a good copy of any early material you are probably mistaken. None of the Aussie Bandstand film has as yet been scanned into a computer, only refilmed on outdated inferior video equipment.
Commentary from either the Bee Gees or their contemporaries from the time. Both would be best.
A chronological presentation of the material.
NO watermarks or ID logos on the visually displayed content. We are going to pay for this product and do not deserve to have our viewing of this material disrupted by crap on the screen. You must include this point in any email you send to Rhino or they may not get the point.
There is possibly a film of an outdoor concert, held on a beach in Newcastle Australia by the Bee Gees in the mid 1960's, in existance. It was most likely filmed by Hugh Gibb and there is a chance that Newcastle radio station 2HD, may have a copy of the sound from the concert. It would be unbelievable if this could be made available to the public.
What to do ...
You need to send an email to Rhino. The email address is drrhino@rhino.com and the subject should be "Bee Gees In The 1960's". Your email should contain wording that expresses your desire to see this product made, what you want to see in this product and your commitment as a fan to purchase this product when it becomes available. I cannot construct a demo email for you as this would have no impact on Rhino at all. However, the key points to mention are that you would like all the Bee Gees 1960's film and video made available from the best quality source material. That you would be happy to pay for a multi DVD volume set but would like to have additional material on the DVD's including interviews, insight and commentary.