Bee Gees fourth member Colin 'Smiley' Petersen brings The Best of the Bees to Albury

The former Bee Gees drummer was asked to be centre stage in a dramatic prank at Brisbane City Hall by his beloved childhood music tutor.

Having crawled inside the bass drum before the audience entered the building (there was no curtain in the mid-1950s), Petersen had to wait up to an hour for his surprise entrance.

"I had to crouch down inside that bass drum for at least 45 minutes," he said.

"When I broke through the paper, 3000 people stood up; I hadn't even played yet and I got a standing ovation! I have been trying to live up to that moment ever since!!"

Queensland-born drum protégé and child actor (Smiley, The Scamp and A Cry From The Streets), Petersen was the official fourth Bee Gees band member. He performed on four albums with the three brothers including the iconic No. 1 singles Massachusetts, To Love Somebody, New York Mining Disaster and I Started A Joke.

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Having gone to the same school as Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, Humpybong State School, Petersen connected with them again in Melbourne.

"I stayed with the Gibb brothers before I set sail for England in late 1966," Petersen said.

"We ate baked beans on toast and had endless cups of tea. They planned to go to England too and had said to me that if I didn't crack it in the film industry, they'd welcome me as the fourth member of the band."

Now based at Margate, Queensland, Petersen's life had come full circle.

"I live within walking distance of my old school and the little block of fibro flats where I lived on Evelyn Street," he said.

"I had a happy childhood and I was very fortunate for that. We didn't have wealth but we were comfortable. My uncle Billy McLeod, who was a Brisbane bookkeeper, bought me a Premier kit of drums, which was valued at about $15,000 in today's terms.

"I had to prove I was committed to it within six months or he'd sell the kit!"

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