Bee Gees star Robin Gibb has regained consciousness after more than a week in a coma, the BBC reports.
Gibb, 62, has been hospitalized with pneumonia recently after a series of recent illnesses and surgeries. In January, Gibb published an essay in London’s Daily Mail newspaper revealing that he had been battling colon and liver cancer, but as recently as last month he said the disease was in remission.
Then he underwent another intestinal surgery in late March, and word that he had lapsed into a coma came as he was unable to attend last Tuesday’s London premiere of his classical work Titanic Requiem, which was written in memory of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ship.
Many fans feared the ’70s pop star was near death, but publicist Doug Wright now tells the BBC that Gibb is awake and able to nod and communicate with his family.
Gibb and his twin brother Maurice formed the Bee Gees with older brother Barry in 1958, the year the family moved from England to Australia. As a child-singing group, they performed on television and at vacation resorts before starting their recording career in the mid-1960s. They went on to become icons of the disco era with such hits as “Night Fever,” “Stayin’ Alive,” and “More Than a Woman.” The group dissolved in 2003 after the death of Maurice at age 53 from cardiac arrest brought on by a twisted intestine.
