THAME: The sole surviving member of the Bee Gees paid tribute to his bandmate and brother Robin Gibb at his funeral on Friday, mourning the loss of his “magnificent mind and his beautiful heart”.

Barry Gibb said that legendary singer and songwriter Robin had finally been reunited with his twin brother and fellow Bee Gee Maurice, who died in 2003, when he lost his battle with cancer on May 20, aged 62.

“Life is too short. In Robin's case, absolutely too short,” Barry told mourners in a eulogy at the local church in Robin Gibb's home town of Thame in Oxfordshire, central England. “We should have had 20 (more) years, 30 years of his magnificent mind and his beautiful heart.”

He said that Robin and his brother Maurice were “both beautiful” and added: “When you're twins, you're twins all your life. You go through every emotion.”

“And they're finally together. I think the greatest pain for Robin in the past 10 years was losing his twin brother, and I think it did all kinds of things to him. And now they're together.”

Friends and family, many of them in tears, paid their last respects at the church to the sound of some of the Bee Gees' most famous songs.

As the Bee Gees, Barry, Maurice and Robin helped turn disco into a global phenomenon in the 1970s with hits such as “How Deep Is Your Love”, “Stayin' Alive”, and “Night Fever”.

But their elderly mother Barbara, who was in the congregation at St Mary's Church in Thame, has outlived all but Barry, after the death of a fourth brother, Andy, from cocaine addiction in 1988.

Robin's wife Dwina and their son Robin-John, known as RJ, plus his daughter Melissa and son Spencer from his previous marriage, led the black-clad mourners at the private funeral, which will be followed by a memorial service later in the year.

Gibb's white coffin entered the church to the sound of the Bee Gees' hit “How Deep Is Your Love” after being brought in a horse-drawn carriage from his home of 19 years.

Hundreds of fans and locals lined the streets of Thame as the white, glass-sided hearse, covered with red roses and accompanied by a bagpiper, was drawn through the town by four black horses plumed with black feathers.

They applauded as the coffin, draped with the flag of Gibb's birthplace the Isle of Man, was carried up the aisle inside the church, where two candles flickered at the front.

Lyricist Tim Rice and entertainer Uri Geller were also among the guests.

Gibb's wife had been due to read a poem during the ceremony and the teenage classical singer Isabel Suckling to perform “Don't Cry Alone”, from Gibb's Titanic Requiem, which was first performed weeks before his death.

The mourners were to leave the church to the sound of the Bee Gees' classic “I Started A Joke”, which includes the line “I finally died, which started the whole world living”.

His family said it was Gibb's wish to “say a final goodbye to fans and his home town of Thame”. He will be buried in Thame churchyard.

Barry said it was “a very strange experience, having lost two brothers and now Rob... The three of us have seen a lot of crowds but I've never seen as much love in one crowd as I'm looking at today -- for Rob, for the music,” he said.

Although originally from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, the Gibb brothers grew up inManchesterandAustralia, and were singing publicly from childhood.

Born on December 22, 1949, Robin was 17 when he sang lead vocals on the Bee Gees' first British number one, “Massachusetts”, in 1967, before they switched styles to disco in the 1970s.

The trio's sharp songwriting and immaculate harmonies helped them notch up record sales of more than 200 million.

Uniformed cadets from 594 Thame Squadron of the Air Training Corps also lined up outside the church on Friday in recognition of Gibb's campaign for a memorial to members of Royal Air Force Bomber Command who were killed in action.

The stone monument to Bomber Command, a key element of Britain's forces in World War II, has been completed in Hyde Park in London but Gibb did not survive to see it unveiled later this month.