Robert Stigwood Death Announced

Robert Stigwood, who managed Cream and the Bee Gees before producing the rock musicals Saturday Night Fever and Grease has died at the age of 81.

The Australian impresario’s death was confirmed on Facebook by Spencer Gibb, son of Bee Gees star Robin Gibb.

A cause of death was not immediately available.

Andrew Lloyd Webber was among those paying tribute, describing Stigwood as a “great showman” who “taught me much”.

Spencer Gibb called him “a creative genius with a very quick and dry wit” adding that “Robert was the driving force behind The Bee Gees career”.

Stigwood started out as an advertising agency copywriter in his native Australia before moving to the UK at the age of 21

There, he made his name representing English singer John Leyton, securing him a role on the TV show Harpers West One. The deal allowed Leyton to perform a song – Johnny Remember Me – which spent 15 weeks at number one in 1961.

By 1966, after a period of bankruptcy, he became a booking agent for The Who, luring them onto his own Reaction Records label, where they recorded the hit single Substitute.

He went on to manage Cream and Eric Clapton, before signing the Bee Gees in 1967 and steering them to international success with an intensive promotional campaign for the single New York Mining Disaster 1941.