The Bee Gees performing at Western Springs in 1999. From left: Maurice Gibb, Robin and Barry. Photo / John Sefton.
The Bee Gees performing at Western Springs in 1999. From left: Maurice Gibb, Robin and Barry. Photo / John Sefton.
A top international music writer has apologised to a New Zealand broadcaster for mistakenly copying his writing in a passage in his new Bee Gees book.
Broadcaster Tim Roxborogh can lay claim to being one of the biggest Bee Gees experts (and fans) in the world, let alone New Zealand.
The Newstalk ZB host has interviewed Barry Gibb seven times, was credited as an adviser in the Emmy-nominated Bee Gees movie How Can You Mend a Broken Heart and writes and comments frequently about the band’s music and history.
He was reading the new and much-feted Bee Gees book Children of the World in bed this week – “I don’t need much motivation to read Bee Gees books” – and was just about to turn out the light.
Roxborogh wrote in May 2021 on his website: “There’s the nervous energy of the intro, the fast phrasing of Barry’s pre-chorus, the woah-ohs of the first part of chorus, Robin in his upper-register for the middle chorus and the harmonies of all three brothers for the ‘ghost train’ refrain. The song structure is complicated and this is before we even get to the outro, complete with sound effects of a children’s playground, a cool military drum loop and then an abrupt end with a lit match and Barry defiantly saying, ‘right!’”
And the new book, written by Bob Stanley, has this passage: “… there was the nervous energy of the song’s intro, the fast phrasing of Barry’s pre-chorus, the woah-ohs on the first part of the chorus, with Robin in his upper register for the middle chorus and the harmonies of all three brothers for the ‘ghost train’ refrain. Even by Gibb standards, the song structure is complicated, and this is before we get even to the psychedelic outro, complete with sound effects of a children’s playground, a military drum loop and then an abrupt end with a door slamming and Barry defiantly saying, ‘Right!’”
The extract from the new Bee Gees book.
The extract from the new Bee Gees book.
Stanley is regarded as one of the best music writers of his generation. His book was reviewed by major publications including The Guardian, the UK Daily Telegraph, and The Times and he was interviewed on RNZ.
Media Insider approached the book’s publisher, Nine Eight Books and its publishing director Pete Selby.
“Thank you for bringing this to our attention,” said Selby in an email.
He said they took the matter seriously and were looking into it.
“We’re reviewing with our author and all of the team involved and will be communicating directly with Tim Roxborogh in due course.”
In emails to Roxborogh, Stanley said he was “incredibly embarrassed by this and I’m very sorry”.
“I’m mortified, and can only apologise. I would never have copied your work intentionally.
“I would have cut and pasted part of your piece on High Civilization and put it in a reference file. When I do this, I always highlight other people’s writing in blue so that if I revisit the file six months or a year later I will remember which lines were my original thoughts and which weren’t.
“In this instance, I must have forgotten to highlight your piece in blue.”
Stanley told Roxborogh he admired his writing on the Bee Gees.
“I… will give you a fulsome credit in all future editions of Children of the World, as well as rewriting the paragraph on Ghost Train so it is 100 per cent my writing, but with the description of Ghost Train attributed to you.”
Roxborogh says he has accepted the apology, and wishes Stanley well.
And he says of the saga: “At least people might finally discover the song Ghost Train!”
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.
