As the 1980s commenced, The Bee Gees were ensnared by a fervent backlash stemming from their unparalleled late-1970s commercial halcyon. Undeserving of the anti-disco ire that came to an eruptive peak in 1979, the Gibbs found themselves embargoed from the same airwaves that propelled their musical contributions to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and their most successful studio album, Spirits Having Flown, into the stratosphere. Thwarting their detractors, Barry, Robin, and Maurice shifted their focus to writing and producing for other artists, working both collectively and individually to mint some of the decade's most successful records. By 1987, the brothers returned The Bee Gees to form as global hitmakers, galvanising their status as industry icons.
The Bee Gees would go on to sell over 200 million records, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time; they would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Australian Recording Industry's Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and receive lifetime achievement awards from the British Phonographic Industry, the American Music Awards, World Music Awards and the Grammys. According to Billboard magazine, the Bee Gees are one of the three most successful bands in its chart history.
Based in Wales and the United States, Andrew Môn Hughes and Grant Walters have many decades of combined expertise and history tied to the Bee Gees' legacy between them, amassing a lengthy list of credits for their contributions to CDs, DVDs, books, tour programmes, articles, television documentaries, and official websites. In 2000, Andrew co-authored the expansive biography Tales of the Brothers Gibb. Andrew's expert contributions can be seen and heard in a myriad of Bee Gees-related productions for the BBC, ITV, A&E, and VH1 networks. Grant is an award-winning freelance arts writer for Columbus Underground and Albumism, for which he has penned nearly 300 features since 2015. He is a prolific music interviewer, conversing with a diverse roster of artists, including Dionne Warwick, Midge Ure, Melissa Etheridge, Edie Brickell and Bryan Adams.