What better name for a Bee Gees tribute band than “Stayin’ Alive”? After all, the music of Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb has obviously lasted the test of time. Last year, when Saturday Night Fever, the John Travolta-helmed coming-of-age tale, turned 40, there were celebrations and spontaneous disco dancing all over the country, all of it to the irresisitbly falsetto notes of “Night Fever,” “How Deep is Your Love,” “More Than a Woman” and “Jive Talkin’.”
Stayin’ Alive, a Toronto-based tribute, will be at the Foellinger Theatre Saturday, July 21, at 8 p.m., giving audiences a funky walk down memory lane. The band’s three leads play the three British-turned-Australian-turned British again brothers – Tony Mattina is Barry, Todd Sharman is Robin, and Joseph Janisse is Maurice – and they’re joined on stage by Smokin’ Joe Peeres on guitar, Cheryl Hardy on backing vocals, Chris Mullin on bass, and Tom Wolf on drums.
The Bee Gees are one of the best-selling musical acts of all time. Only the Beatles, Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Garth Brooks have outsold them. And they’re widely credited with giving disco a much-needed shot in the arm in late ’70s with their work on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Now, thanks to Stayin’ Alive, fans who hustled, bus stopped, lawn mowered, and disco fingered to the originals can keep the moves going and even teach them to their children and grandchildren.
And disco, like so many things that fell out of favor in ’90s and aughts, is cool again. How did the Bee Gees themselves put it? “The world has lost its glory. Let’s start a brand new story.” Something like that.