October 12, 2003

For one night in Karachi, disco was king…again. All the troubles that plague this moribund age were checked at the door for an evening of nostalgia and non-stop boogying to the tunes of those mainstays of the 1970s disco scene, the high-pitched Bee Gees. At least that was the premise behind ‘Night Fever’, a show hosted by a local hotel, which featured the ‘talents’ of the Bees Knees, a tribute band of sorts that came all the way from the UK to entertain locals who still have a fix for the decade of bell-bottoms, Studio 54 and Disco Duck.

Tribute bands are pretty big in the United States and Europe. Everyone from Frank ‘Old Blue Eyes’ Sinatra to Jim Morrison’s volatile Doors to Elvis has many doppelgangers that keep the memory of these great artists alive by performing their acts. Some tribute bands are quite good, often mimicking the nuances in expression of the chosen artists down to a tee, while others are almost comical. The Bees Knees fall somewhere in between the two extremes. Though they did a good job as far as dressing up like the original trio goes, as soon as they opened their mouths, one realized it was all play-acting, that they couldn’t come anywhere near the careening falsettos the Bee Gees were notorious for.

 

To their credit, the Bees Knees gave a little taste of the whole career of the Brothers Gibb, not just their hot-steppin’’70s heyday. From ‘Massachusetts,’ a song dating back to their early folk-pop days to ‘Alone,’ the lead single from their late ’90s effort ‘Still Waters’ and everything in between, the group practically covered the entire span of the Bee Gees’ musical career
 

The show, hosted by Mariott, got underway as the trio kicked off with the horn-inflected You Should be Dancing, though it was a pity when one realized that they were singing to pre-recorded tracks, pretending to play their instruments. It was a little odd as most of the songs in their repertoire that night were recorded back-to-back on the CD that played in the background. A few times the band was taken by surprise, as a song would start before they even had a chance to catch their breaths.

As the Bees Knees launched into Tragedy, it was clear that the programme was warming up. One of the band members tried their hand at Urdu, which seemed to get a rise out of the crowd. The performers tried their best to spice up the atmosphere with their in-between songs banter, with the occasional joke thrown in for good measure.

To their credit, the Bees Knees gave a little taste of the whole career of the Brothers Gibb, not just their hot-steppin’ ’70s heyday. From Massachusetts, a song dating back to their early folk-pop days to Alone, the lead single from their late ’90s effort Still Waters and everything in between, the group practically covered the entire span of the Bee Gees’ musical career. The Bee Gees’ influence on modern pop is underrated, as the Bees Knees performed Words, the soft ballad that was blandly rendered by plastic boy band Boyzone, or even Tragedy, which was crudely covered by bubblegum pop group Steps.

Considering the vastness of the Bee Gees’ catalogue, the tribute band played along with a medley that highlighted not only some of their earlier gems such as I Started a Joke, but also songs the Bee Gees had written for other artists, such as Islands in the Stream, which became a smash for Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. Incidentally, the chorus part of that song was again redone in the late ’90s by Pras and Mya for the urban-flavoured hit Ghetto Superstar.

But it was the ’70s that held the key to working up the crowd. With Jive Talkin’, things started getting interesting, but the momentum slowed a bit with How Deep is Your Love, the sugary sweet ballad from Saturday Night Fever. Suddenly, as a faster number started, a brave chap from the audience stepped onto the dance-floor in his attempt to set it alight. At first he looked like an English Morris dancer, but as soon as he loosened up and got into the flow of things, he turned the floor into a real disco inferno. Even the band members were impressed with the gentleman, dubbing him a “budding Travolta.” But the man’s courage (for lack of a better word) broke the ice and enticed people of many different age groups, from geriatrics to grade-schoolers, to step on to the floor and strut their proverbial stuff.

The highlight was definitely Stayin’ Alive, the track that defined the tail-end of the ’70s from the movie Saturday Night Fever, that beautiful tale of disco-fuelled urban release. John Travolta’s blue collar jive-talkin, smooth walkin’ Brooklyn disco hero swagger has become the stuff of cinema and music legend.

The Bees Knees rounded off the night with Night Fever, which was followed by an encore of You Should Be Dancing. By this point, the crowd was fully charged, in the mood for non-stop jamming. But, in the adjoining hall, dinner waited, along with the fact that the performers had to rest their voices for subsequent performances in Islamabad and Lahore.