Two drummers for one of the iconic bands of the disco era, the Bee Gees, died within four days of one another, though none apparently as bizarrely as the Spinal Tap carousel. According to the New York Times, 78-year-old Colin “Smiley” Petersen, the drummer when the Bee Gees first went professional, died from a fall on November 18th, four days after one of his successors, 76-year-old Dennis Byron, died of unspecified causes.
Byron was one of seven tour drummers who worked with Bee Gees on tours during the years, but he may have benefited the most because he worked with the Gibb Brothers during the disco’s peak in the 1970s and early ’80s. Five other former Bee Gees drummers can still keep the beat.