In the United States, Rare Precious & Beautiful debuts on the album charts. Over the next 12 weeks it will hit a mild #99. In Britain, Disc publishes an interview with departed guitarist VinceMelouney. “I felt I wanted to play a different type of music,” says Melouney, “Write my own material and do more production. When I was on stage, I felt guilty at getting applause because I wasn’t adding anything to the group. When I was offstage I was paid for sitting around doing nothing while the Gibb brothers were working hard at songwriting. And the bigger the group has become, the less concerts there have been and the more time I’ve spent just twiddling my thumbs.”
Barry tells the NME: “Vince has been a big blues fan since we started. He felt stifled because the rest of us are really only interested in playing commercial numbers and it’s no good having somebody in the group who’s not really with you. Obviously he’ll be a great loss to us, but Vince will be a great gain to another group, because he’s a brilliant guitarist...” Says Barry of the band’s next project: “We’re going to bring out a double LP in January. We thought of the double LP at the same time as Cream, but everybody will say we’re jumping on The Beatles’ bandwagon again. We want to do a double album because we’ll be able to develop our ideas and it’s more value for money. It won’t have an over-all format, songs should be left separate with a beginning and an end and they should have heart. There won’t be any sound effects, just ballads with an emotional message.” As for the title, Barry explains: “In fact, it’s Master Peace, P-E-A-C-E. Master as in recording the disc others are pressed from, and Peace. It’s going to be a very unusual cover – red velvet with gold lettering.”
Saturday, December 14, 1968 In the United States, ‘I Started A Joke’ enters Billboard’s Hot 100 Bound listings at #103. It will ultimately rise to #6 over 11 weeks, becoming their highest charting stateside single of the ’60s.
Saturday, December 21, 1968 Disc & Music Echo reports that The Bee Gees have completed sessions for their fourth album, now called Odessa. Their next proposed single will be the title track (“described as an eight minute long pop symphony”). The group is set for holidays until January 19th. Their motion picture debut (retitled Lord Kitchener’s Four Drummer Boys) is due to start shooting in March. Meanwhile, the NME pegs January 17th as the date for the single release of the title track from their album, ‘Odessa’.
Thursday, December 26, 1968 The Bee Gees are seen on a special Boxing Day edition of television’s Top Of The Pops performing ‘I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You’. Barry Gibb flies to Sydney.
Saturday, December 28, 1968 Maurice Gibb appears on his girlfriend Lulu’s television program, Happening For Lulu. During the show, she announces they are engaged to be married. The couple also performs a song written by Donovan, called ‘What A Beautiful Creature You Are’.
Monday, December 30, 1968 In Sydney, a vacationing Barry suffers a theft of jewels and cameras (reported to be worth £8,000) from his suite at The Chevron Hotel. According to an interview later published in Melody Maker with Chris Welch, during this trip Barry hopes to scout new talent from Down Under and possibly buy a hotel in Queensland.
In London, Maurice suffers a throat infection and in Germany, the group is seen once more on television’s
Beat Club (in a pre-taped segment). 1969
Wednesday, January 1, 1969 Jewellery stolen from Barry Gibb is recovered by police. Three men are charged with theft and receiving. The 18-year-old youth who broke into Barry’s hotel suite will receive a two- year sentence in March.
Saturday, January 4, 1969 The NME reports that The Bee Gees have decided not to release ‘Odessa’ on January 17th as a single. Instead, it will kick off their long player, to be issued on February 14th. The paper claims a new single will materialise when The Bee Gees return from a Japanese tour in mid-February.
In Melody Maker, Barry tells Chris Welch of the change in singles: “Robert makes the choice about which songs to release as singles. We didn’t want to record ‘Massachusetts’ but he insisted and it was our biggest seller…We’ve just finished Odessa, which is a double album. We planned this six months ago, then The Beatles did their one, so we’re not copying. Our next single was going to be eight minutes long but we cut that out because it would really have started a scene after ‘Hey Jude’.
“The songs are varied and there is a hillbilly song we did in America. There are a couple of songs even I don’t understand. The lyrics don’t mean anything, so don’t start looking for meanings. They are just words we like the sound of… I can’t even remember the titles, there are so many tracks. Oh, one called ‘Edison’ is a comedy song all about the inventor of light bulbs.
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