Colin ‘Smiley’ Petersen has seen just about everything there is to see in show business, first as a child actor and then as the original Bee Gees drummer. He continues to keep the Gibb brothers’ legacy alive with his show, the Best of the Bee Gees, which comes to Geelong November 5. He spoke to Matt Hewson about his journey coming full circle.
When Colin Petersen was approached three years ago to join a Bee Gees tribute band by old friend Greg Shaw, former manager of country music star Keith Urban, he was understandably hesitant.
“Now, I don’t want to sound elitist here, but when you’ve been part of the real deal you’re a little bit wary of getting involved with anything that might be mediocre,” Colin said.
But Shaw managed to convince the original Bee Gees drummer to come and see the show in Townsville, and Colin was blown away by the tribute band’s performance.
“There were two things about that performance that convinced me,” he said.
“First, only two or three songs in I was already thinking to myself, bloody hell, this is a really great band. The voices are so close, they’re obviously all seasoned musicians, and they had a ‘let’s complement each other’ attitude, no ego trips.
“The second moment was when Evan, who sings the Barry parts in the show, asked before they went on if it would be okay to introduce me, acknowledge that an original Bee Gee was in the audience.”
Shaw had set up a spot in the aisle and a spotlight, and when Colin was introduced to the audience he received an overwhelming response.
“I was standing there, waiting for the spotlight to come on and I was thinking, my goodness, what’s going on here?” he said.
“I’d been out of the limelight for so long, 35 years, basically. I knew people, had the respect of people in the industry, but I’d kept a very low profile.
“Then suddenly I was introduced and the spotlight hit me and I got a standing ovation. I stood there, I couldn’t believe it. A couple of women came running up the aisle and grabbed ahold of me, big hugs, all that sort of thing.
“And Greg said to me later, ‘it’s about time you owned your past’. And really, that’s what I’m doing with this band.”
Born in Kingaroy, Queensland in 1946, Colin shot to stardom as the titular character in the 1955 20th Century Fox film Smiley, which was “big box office bonanza”, and went on to perform in other films with the likes of Sir Richard Attenborough and Max Bygraves.
“In the end, [Smiley] happened by chance, actually,” Colin said.
“I’d had tuition on the drums in Brisbane, and had been getting up with these big jazz orchestras at City Hall, venues like that.
“So I went into the audition all dressed up to the nines with my scrapbook of things from the press about these jazz concerts. And I got rejected, I looked nothing like the part.”
Some time later, barefoot and in street clothes, Colin was spotted by the director Anthony Kimmins outside the cinema where the auditions were being held.
“He didn’t recognise me from my audition, but we got chatting,” Colin said.
“We ended up sitting on the steps at the side of the theatre school and read through a scene from the movie. And later he confided in my mother that he decided then and there that I was the boy for the role.”
Colin and his mother went to England after Smiley, however, when Colin was 12 his mother decided he needed to focus on his education, that stardom would wait for him if he wanted to pursue it.
“I found that very hard, not leaving the fame so much, but no longer mixing with talented people,” he said.
“That’s what I love, right up to this very day, which is why I enjoy playing with this band.
“That’s what I missed when I went back to school, not being in that little creative family.”
They moved back to Australia and Colin finished high school at Ipswich Grammar, where he continued to pursue an interest in music, forming a band in Brisbane which then took him to Sydney.
“That’s where I connected with Maurice, and I did a couple of sessions with the Gibbs at Festival,” he said.
“Then I decided to head back to England to make a go with the film business again, but there was an understanding that when the Gibbs arrived in England that if the film thing didn’t work out I’d join their band.
“So I became the fourth Bee Gee, and that was obviously a big turning point in my life.”
Colin performed with the Bee Gees through the height of their first phase of stardom from 1967-69 before he left the band due to conflicts related to the band’s manager, Robert Stigwood, and moved back to Australia in 1974 with wife Joanne Newfield.
Until the Best of the Bee Gees, Colin has stayed out of the spotlight, becoming manager and then an artist, residing once again in Redcliffe, near Brisbane.
“I lived up here when I was a young child; it’s strange how the wheel of life turns,” he said.
“It’s a lovely place, and I’m really quite settled here. I’m determined not to have any regrets.
“I live day to day. I try to stay young mentally, I read a lot, do a lot of crosswords. And it’s just wonderful that I’m able to still do this, musically.
“I just can’t’ imagine living without music, without an appreciation and love for music. And I think what makes it even sweeter is that it’s come at this particular time in my life, out of the blue, so to speak.
“I’m just so happy at this time in my life that I’m involved with the band. It makes me feel whole.”
Colin and the Best of the Bee Gees will perform at Costa Hall on Saturday, November 5.
