Australian drummer and actor Colin Petersen, 78, died on Nov. 18. He starred in the film Smiley (1956), also appearing in Strange Affection, A Cry from the Streets, and several other films and TV shows. After leaving acting he attended the Humpybong State School (gawd I love Australia), where he met three of the brothers Gibb, and eventually joined them as their drummer. Petersen played on six of the Bee Gees’ albums, leaving the group in 1969. He eventually went on to play with several other groups. “We’d often go into the studio without a song, which gave me the chance to experiment with tempos and rhythms,” Petersen told podcaster Jason Barnard. “Those tracks had a real spontaneity because we worked on them as a group. We never recorded our parts separately—it was all done together, with the orchestra coming in later. I wasn’t the most technically skilled drummer, but I think that sometimes less is more. When you’re limited, you have to get creative.”
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