Colin ‘Smiley’ Petersen: Bee Gees Drummer Dies at 78

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Colin ‘Smiley’ Petersen passed away on Monday, November 18, 2024, leaving behind a legacy that bridged the worlds of music and film.

Known as the original drummer of the Bee Gees, Petersen played an integral role during the group, contributing to their global rise. His time with the group included performances on hits such as ‘Massachusetts’, ‘To Love Somebody’, and ‘Words’ and their early groundbreaking albums including Bee Gees’ 1st. Beyond this, he first captured the public’s imagination as a young actor, starring in the Australian film Smiley, which gave him his nickname.

In recent years, Petersen had found a new audience through his work with The Best of the Bee Gees tribute show, for which he did a career spanning interview with Jason Barnard of The Strange Brew Podcast in July 2022:

The Bee Gees, 1967 (From left to right: Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Vince Melouney, Maurice Gibb, Colin Petersen.)

Colin on recording in The Bee Gees

As time went on we would arrive in the studio with no song and I would have that opportunity of just sitting with them suggesting different tempos and stuff like that. I think the fact that a lot of those tracks came from nothing gave the tracks a real spontaneity… We would work the songs up, the five of us as a team, and again I think that that’s why the songs sound so coordinated. We never recorded separately. The only separate thing was the orchestra coming in after we got all our overdubs done.

Oh my god, we spent some time in the studio I can’t tell you. Sometimes we would go in there for four hours, the Gibbs would come up with nothing and we’d just pack it in and go home. Then we’d try again another day and maybe the the creative juices were really running that night we might get down three backing tracks.

Colin on his approach to drumming

I was really quite imaginative with my playing, but there were a lot of lot of drummers at the time that were technically much more advanced than I was. Look, Chuck Berry only probably knew four chords, right? So sometimes when you’re limited you’ve got to be creative.. I think you can overdo the technique and you get to a stage where you can’t see the wood for the trees. I’ve always been a song guy with drumming.

He is survived by his ex-wife Joanne and their sons Jaime and Ben. He will be remembered for his warmth, wit, and unwavering passion for the arts.

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