Stamps Honor Bee Gees

The Isle of Man issues a set of stamps October 12 honoring the Bee Gees, who were born there.

The self-governing territory within the British Isles has produced eight souvenir sheets, each one celebrating one of the pop trio's hits. It plans to issue 50,000 sets.

British postal regulations do not allow the stamps themselves to depict Barry Gibb and his younger twin brothers, Robin and Maurice. Members of the British royal family are the only living people allowed to appear on stamps. However, the Gibbses are shown in the margins of the sheets.

A new Broadway musical, Saturday Night Fever, which features their music, opens in New York City next month.

The songs cited on the stamps span all phases of their career: Massachusetts, Words and I've Gotta Get a Message To You from the 1960s; Night Fever and Stayin' Alive from the 1970s; You Win Again from the 1980s; and Ellan Vannin and Immortality from the 1990s.

Robin Gibb noted in a statement that his mother used to run a small post office on the Isle of Man, and said he and his brothers were "thrilled" to be immortalized on the stamps.

The Brothers Gibb ("B G's" or "Bee Gees") were born on the Isle of Man in 1947 and 1949, and entered show business soon after the family emigrated to Australia in 1958. They now live in Miami.