Two Bee Gees Drummers Have Died Days Apart

In the popular imagination, the Bee Gees were simply the three Gibb brothers, two of whom are no longer with us. During their run, however, the Bee Gees were a band, and those three brothers were supported by musicians who had years-long runs with the group. Today brings the strange news that two longtime Bee Gees drummers have died within the past week.

The Age reports that Frederick Colin Petersen, the Bee Gees’ original drummer, passed away on Monday at the age of 78. Peterson, an Australian former child actor who starred in the 1956 film Smiley, was schoolmates with all three Gibb brothers, who moved to Australia from the UK as kids. In 1966, around the time that the Bee Gees started, Peterson became an official member of the band — the first who wasn’t part of the Gibb family. He moved to London with the band in 1967, playing on their early records and joining them when they performed on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968.

Peterson left the Bee Gees in 1969, sued the group over royalties, and formed the short-lived duo Humpy Bong with Irish folksinger Jonathan Kelly. After Humpy Bong broke up, Peterson returned to Australia and became a painter. In the later years of his life, he performed with a Bee Gees tribute act.

Peterson’s death come just four days after the passing of Dennis Bryon, another former Bee Gees drummer. The Cardiff-born Bryon was originally known as one of the founding members of Amen Corner, a Welsh band who had a few UK hits in the late ’60s. Bryon joined the Bee Gees in 1973, and he remained in the band until 1980, playing with the Gibb brothers on all their tours and records. That means that Bryon was in the Bee Gees during their incredible hitmaking streak for the entire late-’70s disco era. Eventually, he moved to Nashville, played on folk records, and published the 2015 memoir You Should Be Dancing: My Life With The Bee Gees. Bryon, like Peterson, was 78.