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Petersen, Colin (24th March 1946-Present)

He is an actor and drummer who was born in Kingaroy Australia, and was a successful child actor from the age of seven.  He appeared in the films Smiley (with Ralph Richardson),The Scamp (opposite Richard Attenborough) andA Cry from the Streets.

He went to school with the Gibb brothers and from 1967 to 1969 was the fourth member of the Bee Gees, playing drums, after he had been a member of the band Steve and the Boards.  He traveled with them when they returned to England and played on their first four albums. He and Vince Melouney were threatened with deportation from England because of an error in their visas, but it was solved via a publicity campaign that embarrassed the government.  Eventually though, he was dismissed from the band in 1969 from allegedly having lost interest in the group.  He took lawsuits out against the band to block them from using the name Bee Gees since it was supposed to be jointly owned by the partners, for which he had been one.

In the early 1970s he managed the singer Jonathon Kelley and then returned to Australia.  He is now a painter in Sydney .

Here he is performing on “Massachusetts” with the Bee Gees…

Sources:

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Petersen
  2. www.comingatyer.com/petersen.htm