{"id":12543,"date":"2020-07-11T05:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-07-11T05:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=12543"},"modified":"2020-07-09T22:22:06","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T22:22:06","slug":"pop-culture-schlock-at-rpm-exhibit-l-andy-gibb-disco-dancin-with-the-stars-doll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=12543","title":{"rendered":"POP CULTURE SCHLOCK at RPM: Exhibit L \u2013 Andy Gibb \u2018Disco Dancin\u2019 With The Stars\u2019 Doll"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>Hello again, RPM-people, it\u2019s been a while. A limited skirmish with a failing hard drive meant that I lost the first attempt at this article for the cultured readers of this fine web-based tome and, as with all tortured artists, I found myself shaking a fist at the Gods of technology rather than simply getting back on the horse and writing it again while the effortless cool (possibly) was still fresh in my mind. This article\u2019s featured item was going nowhere, however, so new words about old stuff came easy.<\/div>\n
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Now, if you\u2019re hitting up this webzine regularly then I would imagine that you are well-versed in all forms of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll rebellion; trouble is, many of those rebels that litter our record collections are now asking for new dress socks on gig riders or peddling butter on shit TV channels. With that in mind I have had to roll back the decades to find, not only a true rebel of the music business, but also an item of music memorabilia that is as decadent as it is delicious.<\/div>\n
And that\u2019s where Andy Gibb comes in.\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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\u201cAndy Gibb?!\u201d I hear the RPM head honcho exclaim as this hits his inbox like the late Scott Columbus hit those cymbals in Manowar\u2019s \u2018Blow Your Speakers\u2019 music video, the Double Diamond tearing at the neck of his Maiden shirt, Ozzy-style. Hear me out: Andrew Roy Gibb was a true rock \u2018n\u2019 pop tearaway, and the ultimate piece of merchandise released to tie-in with his all-too-short career is collectable excess par plastic excellence. But let\u2019s not get ahead of ourselves…<\/div>\n
Andy Gibb was the youngest of the Gibb kids: brother to Barry, Robin, Maurice, and forever-forgotten sister, Lesley. He was born in Manchester, was raised in Australia until the age of eight before the Family Gibb returned to the UK. When his brothers were looking nailed-on for pop stardom, Andy was looking for trouble: he quit school at the age of thirteen and, armed with an acoustic guitar given to him by big bro Barry, he toured the clubs of Ibiza and the Isle of Wight (both places where his parents lived at some point). He was married, divorced, and had fathered a child before he was even out of his teens. Minor pop stardom came a-calling when he returned to Australia, but it was when Bee Gees manager, Robert Stigwood, signed him to his label and persuaded him to relocate to Florida that things really started to take off for Andy Gibb.<\/div>\n
With Barry producing, and Joe Walsh guesting on guitar for a couple of tracks, Andy\u2019s debut album, \u2018Flowing Rivers\u2019, sold over a million copies and, by the time the lead single from his second long player, 1978\u2019s \u2018Shadow Dancing\u2019, hit the top spot, he had become the first male solo artist to have three consecutive Number One singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He dated Dallas star, Victoria Principal, starred on Broadway in Andrew Lloyd Webber\u2019s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, sang with Queen (on a version of the song, \u2018Play The Game\u2019, which has never seen commercial release, with some believing that a recording doesn\u2019t actually exist), and co-hosted American television music show, Solid Gold. He would, however, be fired from both the television and Dreamcoat gigs due to absenteeism, with the blame laid firmly at the door of his cocaine binges. The fall was rapid. Guest appearances on US shows Gimme A Break! and Punky Brewster followed, as did gigs in Vegas, but Andy was now tabloid fodder; the Betty Ford Center now a date on his tour itinerary.<\/div>\n
In early 1988 it was announced that Andy would become an official member of the Bee Gees – the six-legged tooth machine mutating into quite the quartet \u2013 but it was never to be: just two days after his thirtieth birthday in March of that year, Andy was hospitalized in Oxford complaining of chest pains. He died on March 10th as a result of myocarditis; an inflammation of the heart muscle caused by years of cocaine abuse.<\/div>\n
Dying young is a sad by-product of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll excess the history of which many of you are well-versed in, I\u2019m sure; but I am here to wax lyrical on music-related memorabilia (I had to get there eventually!) so I have to roll everything back to 1979, when Andy was on the covers of teen magazines, on the walls of pop-smeared children\u2019s bedrooms, and on the Toy Fair brochures of the Ideal Toy Company.<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>Now, there\u2019s a saying amongst the elite of vintage toy collectors that goes, and I\u2019m paraphrasing here, \u201cbuy mint and you buy once, buy not mint and you buy many times.\u201d I\u2019m not sure of the exact words because I always scoff when I hear it as, in my humble opinion, it is utter bollocks. Who wouldn\u2019t pick up something \u00fcber-cool for their shelf because some bloke on the internet has one in better condition? Not me, and that\u2019s why I back-flipped all the way to Nerdtopia when I found myself a vintage Andy Gibb doll.<\/div>\n
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In 1979, Ideal graced the toy shelves of the coolest US stores with the Andy Gibb \u2018Disco Dancin\u2019 With The Stars\u2019 doll. There is, in collector circles, many a debate over whether a toy is a doll or an action figure: never call a middle-aged white guy\u2019s Action Man a doll for Gawd\u2019s sake! Well, let me tell you, the Disco Dancin\u2019 Andy Gibb toy is a doll. He came packaged in neon-littered box art with the supreme tagline: \u201cmove him to a disco beat on his dancin\u2019 disc!\u201d Yes, the disco dance stand that came packaged with the doll would actually move mini-Andy\u2019s feet so that it looked like he was actually disco dancing. Sublime Seventies innovation, right there.<\/div>\n
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Thing is, I don\u2019t have the box. Or the stand. Forgive me, men in sensible footwear in village hall toy fairs the length and breadth of the UK. I do have a mint condition Andy Gibb \u2018Disco Dancin\u2019 With The Stars\u2019 doll still attached to its original box inlay, though, so I guess I\u2019m still a winner at life. Also, someone, in their confused wisdom, decided that penning \u201cone of the Bee Gees\u201d on the back of said box inlay was going to help with the identification of this toy. All it did, however, was make me love it even more. Who needed to read that curious inscription anyway? The doll is wearing a lurid pink waistcoat with the \u201cAndy Gibb\u201d logo printed on it!<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>So let\u2019s recap: a mint condition (save for a few age-related garment marks) Andy Gibb doll, still attached to its original cardboard inlay, wearing a white jumpsuit and pink waistcoat, and with a piece of inked graffiti completely lacking in irony administered to its forever home? Who the frig wouldn\u2019t want one of those?! Not me!<\/div>\n
This toy sits happily in my collection alongside the Sonny Bono, Cher, ABBA, KISS, Boy George, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Sex Pistols, and Elvis toys and, do you know what? They all get along. Now, if we all just got along a little better then this revolving rock that we call home would be a little easier to negotiate. Not those people who told me not to buy the Andy Gibb doll because it didn\u2019t have the box, though \u2013 they can fuck off.\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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I\u2019ll be back as soon as possible, technology permitting, with more curios from the Pop Culture Schlock collection. I might even get my studded wristband back out for the next installment. Thanks for reading, keep watching the skies and, most importantly, don\u2019t be a twat!<\/div>\n
Follow Pop Culture Schlock on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> & Instagram<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello again, RPM-people, it\u2019s been a while. A limited skirmish with a failing hard drive meant that I lost the first attempt at this article for the cultured readers of this fine web-based tome and, as with all tortured artists, I found myself shaking a fist at the Gods of technology rather than simply getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[5299,63,5308,5302,5304,5307,5300,5298,5301,2113,523,5306,2266,706,2267,5305,449,5297,5303],"class_list":["post-12543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-abba","tag-alice-cooper","tag-andrew-roy-gibb","tag-andy-gibb","tag-barry","tag-bee-gees","tag-boy-george","tag-cher","tag-elvis","tag-gaz-tidey","tag-kiss","tag-maurice","tag-pop-culture-schlock-365","tag-queen","tag-rob-zombie","tag-robin","tag-sex-pistols","tag-sonny-bono","tag-victoria-principal","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12543"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12549,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12543\/revisions\/12549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}