Andy Gibb

• Genre: Lite Rock
• Hometown: Manchester

About

Perhaps the leading Teen Beat poster boy of the disco era, Andy Gibb was a pop sensation in the late 1970s. The youngest Gibb brother, he was able to bypass the leaner times that his older siblings experienced as members of a tough, working class family of English musicians who immigrated to Australia. The only Gibb brother you could properly call an Ozzie, Andy possessed a laidback, beach vibe that was financed by his three elder brothers, as they became the Bee Gees and initially found great success as a Beatlesque pop act of unparalleled melancholy. After the brothers Gibb transitioned into a disco act, they helped their teenaged sibling enter the pop world. Starting with the Bee Gees clone "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" in 1977, Andy had a string of defining, Love Boat era hits that included "Shadow Dancing" and "Thicker Than Water." Andy's silk pastel jacketed teen appeal seemed bright enough to survive the demise of disco and he entered the 1980s with the stunning sex goddess Victoria Principal on his arm. Unfortunately, he also entered the decade with a mountain of cocaine up his nose, and a seriously stalled recording career. While his brothers career survived disco going on to conquer their own personal demons, Andy Gibb died in 1988, at age thirty, from a virus infection in his heart.

- Nick Dedina