Mythology The Tour in Philadelphia - 05/19/2014 "My Bee Gees Story" with Guest Doug Sell

Bee Gees (And Me)

On today’s episode I talk with my good friend Doug Sell. I’ve known Doug since the late 90s when we met in college and have remained friends ever since, he was a groomsman in my wedding, he’s a great dude. AND, important to this podcast, back in 2014 he went with me to see Barry Gibb at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.

This was Barry’s Mythology Tour, his first solo tour! He had never toured without his brothers before. So it was a big deal, not only for his performance, but also for him personally. He had family on stage with him though, his son Stephen, and his niece, Maurice’s daughter Samantha. So that had to be a huge comfort. The evening paid tribute to the career of him and his brothers. It was quite emotional.

Of course, it was a big deal for me, because I had never seen the Bee Gees perform. It’s one of my biggest regrets, not making an effort to see them when I had the chance. I forgive myself because I was young, and there was also no way to know that I would have such a limited time to see them. I’m working on the invention of time travel to correct this, but that's a topic for a different podcast episode.

I would NOT make the same mistake of missing out this time around. I was going to be there, and I was going to get good seats, no matter the cost. Living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the closest show to me was across the state in Philadelphia. And my good friend Doug lived there. So it all worked out the way it was supposed to. We had some fun.

Now, a few things about the show.

I made a continuous effort to NOT be distracted on my phone the whole time. I didn’t want to be a distraction to the other people around me either. Like, would my grainy cell phone photos be that important? But now, 7 years later, I’m frustrated with myself because my memory is fading and I wish I took one thousand photos! Haha. AND Why the hell didn’t I turn around and take a selfie of myself with Barry in the background?!? Why didn’t I do that?!?!

I was just now for this podcast, looking through the photos that I did take (it was about 200 actually. Wrap your mind around that. Me being conservative with picture taking means I ONLY took 200 photos.), anyway I found a couple of those pics had my finger in the corner. SO, I don’t have a selfie with Barry, or a picture with Barry, but I do have a blurry finger in a grainy photograph from a concert.

I will be posting some photos and videos from the day onto my social media pages over the course of this week, and of course, on the anniversary of the show on the 19th. There’s one story specifically that I can’t wait to share the video. More on that later.

One of the things that I realized since recording this talk with Doug, was that the anniversary of Robin’s death was May 20th. We saw the show on May 19th, the day before the two-year anniversary of his passing. Which I’m sure Barry mentioned that night. And I remember the emotions being very strong in the arena, and I distinctly remember crying during the Robin tribute of the show. (I mean, let’s be honest, I cried a few times, but we don’t need to talk about that.) But it took me a little bit to remember the timing of the show, which I didn’t reference during my conversation with Doug. I wanted to point out the significance of that date here.

So, listener, get ready for two old friends chatting it up about the Bee Gees