It’s always interesting when you get to meet someone you’ve admired for 30 years.  I had that opportunity this week and it just reminds you that however important you are, you are still just a human being.

Mark Leishman meets up with his idol, Robin Gibb - Photo Country99TV

The Beegees have always been a favourite band of mine, particularly in the very early days with great songs like Words, Gotta Get A Message to You, Massachusetts and To Love Somebody. The Saturday Night Fever era was also fun while it lasted, with How Deep is Your Love, Stayin’ Alive and Night Fever.

The period with the long hair, the lycra suits a la Elvis and the hairy chests made you question your loyalty, but then Abba had similar sartorial issues so I guess you just put that down to time and place.

What you can’t deny is the body of work.  The aforementioned songs plus all the other music they masterminded for other artists like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick.

So when you get the opportunity to meet someone responsible for a lot of great pop music, you make the effort.

Robin Gibb has been touring this week and a devoted full house loved every  minute of his concert this week.

To me, it was a bit like seeing Wham! without George Michael or the Beatles without McCartney and Lennon.

The music of the Beegees is based around the wonderful harmonies from the three brothers.  Sadly, only two now survive and the mainstay of the band, Barry, wasn’t in attendance.

So it was left to Robin.   He coped well with the old stuff, but struggled with any of the disco ever songs which of course featured Barry’s falsetto voice.

Still, after the show  we went to meet Robin in what’s called a meet ‘n greet.  Basically, it’s a photo op.   The artist generally does it as part of the contract.  It’s a shake of the hand and a happy snappy photo and onto the next one.

It felt a bit like an audience with the Pope. You were ushered in to this little room and everyone maintained a  hushed tone in a slightly awkward atmosphere.

So here I was, face to face with someone who was part of a band that I had looked up to for years. I had sung their songs in the shower, had played the drums to them as a kid, could remember the lyrics from 30 years ago or more.

And here he was - just a human being like everyone else in the room.

He was polite and friendly.   He didn’t have any sort of  small talk which surprised me because he must have been in this situation thousands of times before.  Mind you, that’s probably why he had no chit chat – he’s probably well over it.

I was introduced and we did have a conversation about the similarity between Auckland Harbour and Sydney Harbour and he became quite animated about the beauty of our great harbour, but that was really it.

And he was tiny.  A small 61 year old man who, alongside his brothers, has sold more than 200 million albums, shook hands and left the room.

Initially, I was underwhelmed, but thinking about it since, I concluded that just because he wasn’t larger than life in that back room, and was instead quite an ordinary, shy character, you cannot take away from his extraordinary achievements - those wonderful songs that have brought happiness to millions of people around the world.

To think that only only Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney have outsold the Beegees puts it all into perspective.