Customer Reviews

Bee Gees - One Night Only / The Official Story

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This kind of combination of DVD's at this price is almost unheard of. You will pay more if you buy either just, "One Night Only" or "The Offical Story" separately. They are virtually the same discs. The Gibbs decided to release this special package as, obviously, with the terrible passing of Maurice Gibb, this is the last concert and last series of interviews about the famous siblings and their families.

As the final Bee Gees DVD (officially) this set includes the entire MGM Grand concert from Las Vegas, Nevada (1997) and the brilliant 'life story' interviews of the Gibb family history from their humble beginnings in Manchester, England to the year 2001. If you ever wanted to really know what the three brothers are like, this is the most intimate interview they have ever done. To this day, they remain unjaded and still have the urge for that next big song or album. The overall atmosphere is upbeat and cheery. It's the kind of interview interspersed with film clips, song tracks and video. This is the ultimate Bee Gees keeper. Enjoy!

"The Official Story" DVD is a concise and well-documented Bee Gees biography, but it glosses over a few details concerning the departure of former guitarist Vince Melouney and drummer Colin Petersen.

The "One Night Only" DVD is of the Bee Gee's last live performances with songs from their entire career. Unfortunately, Barry was suffering from a back injury and you can see he's in a lot of pain. I could do without the "special performance" of Celine Dion.

This kind of combination of DVD's at this price is almost unheard of. You will pay more if you buy either just, "One Night Only" or "The Offical Story" separately. They are virtually the same discs. The Gibbs decided to release this special package as, obviously, with the terrible passing of Maurice Gibb, this is the last concert and last series of interviews about the famous siblings and their families.

As the final Bee Gees DVD (officially) this set includes the entire MGM Grand concert from Las Vegas, Nevada (1997) and the brilliant 'life story' interviews of the Gibb family history from their humble beginnings in Manchester, England to the year 2001. If you ever wanted to really know what the three brothers are like, this is the most intimate interview they have ever done. To this day, they remain unjaded and still have the urge for that next big song or album. The overall atmosphere is upbeat and cheery. It's the kind of interview interspersed with film clips, song tracks and video. This is the ultimate Bee Gees keeper. Enjoy!

If you're a Bee Gees fan,and own a DVD player,this item is an absolute must! You'd pay more if you purchased these DVD's,if they were packaged separately. You get the ONE NIGHT ONLY concert,whether or not you were in attandance at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Hotel and Casino on November 14,1997. You'll hear songs and a few spoken words that didn't make it to the album. Although the trio no longer had their brass ensemble,The Boneroo Horns,they had Celine Dion,who performs IMMORTALITY,with the trio supplying the background vocals. We also see Olivia Newton-John in attendance,when they perform GREASE,Barry Gibb's personally penned hit song from the 1978 Paramount musical of the same title. Also the trio performs OUR LOVE(DON'T THROW IT ALL AWAY) with previously recorded vocals of their late former teen idol baby brother Andy Gibb. "This is our song for Andy.",quipps Barry. The Bee Gees themselves later recorded the song after Andy(from Andy's 1978 album SHADOW DANCING). The song also appears on Barbra Streisand's new album,GUILTY PLEASURES,which commemorates the 25th anniversary of the release of GUILTY(GUILTY and GP were both produced,with others,by Barry). The trio also perform GUILTY,HEARTBREAKER(a hit for Dionne Warwick),and ISLANDS IN THE STREAM(a hit for Kenny Rogers with Dolly Parton). They also have their fans getting down to YOU SHOULD BE DANCING,from 1976's CHILDREN OF THE WORLD,and from the 1977 Paramount film SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER,STAYIN' ALIVE,HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE,NIGHT FEVER and MORE THAN A WOMAN. Stephen Gibb joins his father Barry and Barry's brothers fraternal twins Robin and the late Maurice in this concert. Maurice introduces at one point in the concert,the members of the trio's back-up band. An excerpt of YSBD precedes ALONE,from the trio's 1997 album STILL WATERS(SW was released six months before the recording of ONO). ONO is a sequel to HERE AT LAST...LIVE which was recorded in 1976 at the Los Angeles Forum. The second DVD,The Official Story,is a documentary of the group. Barry got his first guitar a half-century ago. He was nine years old at the time. Before the Gibb brothers made it big,they would perform at various talent shows. Barry played his guitar and Maurice and Robin would sing(Barry sang as well). Robert Stigwood was to the Bee Gees what Brian Epstein and George Martin were to the Beatles,the group's business manager and producer. The trio's association with Stigwood ended in 1981 though. The Manchester,England natives lived in Australia for a few years,returned to England and in 1967,made their debut,musically,in the United States. The Bee Gees were a quintet then,the other two members being Australians Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney. One was the drummer and the other was the bass guitarist(I'm not sure who played what). Robin left the Bee Gees in early 1969 and returned to the group around the summer of 1970. Minus Robin,Barry and Maurice put out CUCUMBER CASTLE and Robin released his solo debut ROBIN'S REIGN. Petersen and Melouney were out of the group by then,and the Gibbs carried on as a trio. In 1975,with disco still in its infancy,the Gibbs released MAIN COURSE,spawning one of their biggest all-time hits,JIVE TALKIN'. The brothers had then entered the world of R&B. By the way,Otis Redding was supposed to record TO LOVE SOMEBODY,but was killed in a plane crash before he had the chance to do so. So the Gibbs recorded the song themselves. The brothers spent the next four years in the R&B world,releasing COTW,their songs for the SNF soundtrack and SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN. In that time period,they jumpstarted Andy's career which would falter due to drug use(Andy's drug addiction led to his death in 1988). As the 1980's began,they took time out to write and produce songs for GUILTY,Warwick's HEARTBREAKER album and Rogers' EYES THAT SEE IN THE DARK album. However,the brothers released LIVING EYES in 1981. In 1983,the same year that ETSITD was released,the brothers put out five new songs:THE WOMAN IN YOU,I LOVE YOU TOO MUCH,BREAKOUT,SOMEONE BELONGING TO SOMEONE and LIFE GOES ON for the STAYING ALIVE soundtrack(SA was a not-too-popular sequel to SNF). Also Barry and Robin were recording and releasing solo albums throughout the 80's. The Bee Gees also wrote and produced songs for Diana Ross. 1987 saw the brothers' Warner Bros. debut,E.S.P. which spawned only one Top 20 hit,YOU WIN AGAIN. Following E.S.P. two years later is ONE,with only one Top 20 hit,the title track. HIGH CIVILIZATION followed in 1991,and again,only one Top 20 hit,SECRET LOVE. The brothers were dropped from WB afterward and moved to Polydor,the label that bought out RSO(Robert Stigwood Organization) in or around 1984(both labels were divsions of PolyGram). RSO originally released MC,COTW,SNF,the GREASE soundtrack,SHF,LE and SA. RSO also released the SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND soundtrack(the 1978 film,based on Beatles songs,starred the Gibbs and Peter Frampton). Polydor distributed,originally,SIZE ISN'T EVERYTHING in 1993 and STILL WATERS in 1997(sorry,the documentary stops at 1997 since this documentary was released then). The Bee Gees legacy died with Maurice Gibb in January 2003. The cause of 53-year-old Maurice's death was an intestinal blockage. Maurice died at a Miami hospital(the Florida town where he last lived). Barry and Robin are Miami residents as well and have been since the 70's. The Gibbs' mother,the former Barbara Pass,gave interviews on the documentary also. Barry and Robin are continuing their musical careers today,but not under the Bee Gees name. They believe that without Maurice,there is no Bee Gees although the group once briefly existed without Robin. I dedicate these items to the memories of Andy,Maurice and the Gibbs' father Hugh.

This is a fantastic 2-disc set and a must-have for all you Bee Gees fans out there. Apart from the terrific live concert, the biography itself is worth the price of the 2 discs. I've seen another biography "Keppel Road - The life and music of the Bee Gees" which is available as a region 2 DVD on the UK amazon site. But the "Official Story" beats it hands down in terms of richness of content and presentation.
A few earlier reviewers have talked about the discs being mislabelled, but the discs I received were correctly labelled. So either those reviewers unfortunately received items from a bad batch or else the publishers have rectified the error.
Anyway, go ahead and buy this 2-disc set - you'll be glad you did!

If you love the Bee Gees, you can't go wrong with picking this one up.

First the "One Night Only" DVD...
Filmed at the MGM Grand in Vegas and instead of doing a full-length tour at a time when they were writing a lot of songs, they decided to do one show in '97 promoting the "Still Waters" CD for TV and eventually for home video and CD. They used tapes of Frankie Valli and Andy Gibb's voices during a couple of the songs, and had an "unplugged" portion of the concert going through some of the older stuff as well as the songs they produced and wrote for Dionne Warwick, Kenny Rogers, and Barbra Streisand.

Celine Dion does a song with them, and isn't her usual over the top self.

The surround mix is decent, mostly used for crowd noise over music, the video itself is crisp, clear and brings out the stage lighting to nice effect. The concert DVD has an "extra" interview which seemed more in place with the other DVD. I think the "Live By Request" surround mix might be the better buy for the audiophile (which was 90 minutes of singing and anecdotes and more of an "informal" setting), but the crowd and brothers' energy in this setting and set was better.

The Bee Gees themselves sound in fine form, although Barry's falsettos seemed strained at times, even though he hit them. By the time he does "Stayin' Alive", it's almost 2 hours later, but that's minor nitpicking. The fact that they take pride in harmonizing live is evident. It's one you can have the TV on or off for and still enjoy either way.

The documentary covers most bases of their career from a skiffle trio to master singers, songwriters and performers, the good, the bad and the tacky, and includes a promo of "This is Where I Came In". The brothers, Robert Stigwood, George Martin, and others tell the tale of the Bee Gees, a lot of footage that hasn't been seen for the most part. The "extras" break down the interviews between the brothers, most of which isn't in the documentary itself. Maurice mentions that he would have loved to have had an Oscar for "Saturday Night Fever", which at that time wasn't even nominated. Face it, they cracked open the field for soundtracks that sell in the tens of millions nowaday.

They talk about sudden fame, reinventing their image, drugs, touring, family spats and bonding, breaking up and getting together, Andy Gibb, Sgt. Pepper, songwriting, the disco backlash and how they've managed to stay together and stay sane through 4 decades, not too different than the Beatles "Anthology" except the length of time is far shorter. Hardcore fans will think it being too glossed over, but people who have been fans for years will love it, esp. the early footage of when they were kids.

They also show that their humor was also a glue in keeping them together. They are notorious for having X-rated humor (they did grow up in some pretty rough neighborhoods and were delinquents themselves) which would have been funny to see on here, but I guess they wanted to avoid parental advisory stickers...

What I would love to see the Bee Gees put more of the archive footage out without narration over it. They have a major advantage of having done promo videos since the 60s up to 2001, TV appearances and having their concerts filmed. I think that with some editing, digging up the multitrack recordings, and digital mastering, it would be a treasure trove for fans old and young alike.

Also, if you haven't picked up "The Record", a 2 CD set of most of their hits, it should be next on your list. And then get "Birth of Brilliance" which compiles all their early stuff. And then get all their CDs, starting with "1st". Listening to it now, it is almost a shock that kids that age (they were pretty much the age Britney Spears was when she became popular) could write such songs, without one cover song on it, and were able to continue to making over 30 albums including solo projects and writing songs for others, almost all of which are worth picking up.

If you love harmonies, have an overall love of music, or an up and coming singer-songwriter, do yourself a favor,ignore the polyester suits forget about the disco era, start from the beginning and learn from the masters. It's a hell of a legacy they've left us.

With this DVD/CD set you get a great concert by one of the greatest song writing and performing groups ever. Having enjoyed the music of the Bee Gees for almost 40 years, and never seeing them in concert, it was a real treat.

While I have enjoyed their music I was never aware of their story. Learning about the many profesional and personal ups and downs and the impact these events had on their music and lives, and in many cases resulting in some of their best songs, gave me a greater appreciation for their music.

Get this set.

I have an extensive range of concert DVD's, I must say this is my favorite. I was surfing Amazon and came across One Night Only. I have always enjoyed the Bee Gee's, but after watching this I have to say, they are truly unsurpassed! They are song writing legends and magnificent performers. This DVD is a must have. I enjoyed this DVD so much, I have bought 3 other copies for friends. Every song on this DVD takes you back in time, I had forgotten how many countless number one hits they had amongst the array of top 20 songs. This DVD is a must have to anyone that merely liked the Bee Gee's. You will not be disappointed

This is a great combination of two dvd's with one chronicling the group's history and background and the other is one of their final live performances. One Night Only has many touching moments that span from their early music, their family, and their many movie soundtracks. A display of different generations who enjoy their music.

What a great set this is. A fantastic two hour biography from the beginning of their career to their last studio album to date. Also, a concert from a couple years before including a line-up of their greatest hits plus some new cuts from Still Waters. Great performances!
Anyone who appreciates good music from one of the best and most underrated groups in rock and roll history needs to see this DVD set. I would think that even if you aren't a fan of the Gibb brothers or if you only like one period of their music, you will still appreciate and enjoy this collection.
Another incentive is the price. For two discs and nearly four hours of fun, it is one of the best buys out there.
Put this collection in your cart now!!