Isle of Man Bee Gees statue unveiled on Douglas seafront

A statue of the music trio Bee Gees has been unveiled in the Isle of Man, where the brothers were born.

The bronze depiction of Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb on the seafront in Douglas would "go viral very quickly", council leader David Christian said.

The £170,000 project was commissioned in 2019 but was delayed due to Covid.

Artist Andy Edwards said the statue, inspired by the video for the group's 1977 disco hit Stayin' Alive, had been "huge fun from day one".

Mr Edwards, the man behind The Beatles statue in Liverpool, said the location on Douglas Promenade was important to show the group "walking back into the town, coming back from across the sea".

Mr Edwards said he had aimed to "capture that swagger" of the three brothers in the statue.

He said the most challenging part of the project was recreating the trio's "very distinctive hair".

"That's one of the nicest things to do in sculpture because that kind of captures some of the movement and spirit that music normally gives," he added.

"I wanted to make it feel like something like that is moving through them, and they're walking in time, they're walking to a rhythm, the boys have returned".

Mr Christian said "many tens of thousands of pictures" had been taken by visitors alongside similar statues of George Formby and Norman Wisdom in the town and interest in the new sculpture would probably be "tenfold again".

It would be a "great added attraction", he added.

The birth of the iconic brothers on the island was previously celebrated with a blue plaque at their former home in St Catherine's Drive in the town 2013.

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