Excerpt fromYou Should Be Dancing: My Life With The Bee Gees

I moved from the U.K. to America with the love of my life, my girlfriend Jenny, and our German shepherd, Babet, in 1978. Saturday Night Fever was already out in England, but it wasn’t as big yet there as it was in the U.S. I had just bought a beautiful Spanish house on Miami Beach for cash. And not just any house: a house on North Bay Road, the place to be on Miami Beach. Biscayne Bay was in my backyard, I had my own dock for fishing, downtown Miami was four miles straight across the Bay, and … the Concorde flew over my house every day. We had the most amazing sunsets every single evening. 

I had just bought a car back in England, prior to moving, a new BMW 320i, and it would take about six weeks to ship. One day the dock master in Miami called and said, “Mr. Bryon, your car has arrived.” Thrilled, I said , “Great, I’ll be right there!” Jenny didn’t drive or own a car so I took a taxi the five miles or so to the docks. As we drove over the massive Julia Tuttle Causeway leading to the mainland, I took a deep breath as I tried to take in how my life was changing. 

After I filled out all the paperwork and thanked the people in the office, I got in my new car and started driving back to Miami Beach. I’d been to Miami countless times recording and performing, so I knew my way around pretty well. 

In the car there was a Blaupunkt radio that had five presets, three FM and two AM. The first radio station I came to was playing “Stayin’ Alive” by our band, the Bee Gees. So I saved it to the first preset and kept tuning. The next station I came to was playing “Night Fever .” So I saved it to preset number two and continued tuning. The next station I reached was playing “More Than a Woman.” I saved it to preset three and switched over to AM. I had to go a long way down the radio but eventually I found a music station that was playing “Jive Talkin’.” I saved it to preset four and kept dialing and — sure enough — I came to a station that was playing “How Deep Is Your Love” from Saturday Night Fever. I saved it to preset five. I remember thinking how incredible this was and I wondered if “Stayin’ Alive” was still playing on preset one. I quickly hit the button and wouldn’t you know it … they were still playing “Stayin’ Alive.” 

Five radio stations in and around Miami … all of them playing songs by the Bee Gees from our most recent album, all at the same time. 

That’s when I knew this record was big. Very, very big. 

This was unreal. But how had this happened ? I was just an average kid from Wales who had a little luck with a boy band during my teens … well, big luck with the boy band Amen Corner in the U.K. and Europe. And suddenly it’s happening again, but in the United States, the place where every British musician dreams of making it. 

The old cliché warns: be careful what you wish for. I had no idea where this was going, only that I’ve always been lost in my dreams — as a child in school, throughout my early life, and when I’d played with Amen Corner. Now, suddenly, I was in a dream again! But sometimes dreams become nightmares … before turning back into dreams. 

This book contains the story of my life — all of it — up to now: prior to the Bee Gees, with the Bee Gees, and beyond the Bee Gees. I’ve lived long enough to know what it’s like to walk into a dream … then watch it disappear and return … over and over again.