These are the fans who know every nuance of the original band.

They appreciate hearing the hit songs again, but the tribute band had better be sincere in their approach.

Just ask the guys in the Australian Bee Gees Show.

Michael Clift (who plays Barry Gibb), Wayne Hosking (Maurice) and Paul Lines (Robyn) are now considered the world's premier Bee Gees tribute show.

They're back in Australia for a new tour, after three years and more than 1000 shows on the Las Vegas strip.

But it was tough going in the early years because of the assumption from some fans that their show was a parody.

"It was a big issue when we started," Michael Clift told The Lakes Mail on the eve of the band's performance at Gosford this Saturday night.

"The Bee Gees were parodied quite a bit in the '80s.

"And we found that the hard-core fans stayed away from our shows at first, and didn't want to be a part of it.

"It was only when the word of mouth got back to them from people who actually saw the show that convinced these fans that we were really trying to do justice to the Bee Gees."

Clift admits that the band at first went a little too far the other way to prove their sincerity.

"When we first started doing the show we were a lot more serious than we needed to be because we were trying to compensate for that [misconception]," he said.

"We were really conscious of the parody thing."

But three years down the track, Clift and his bandmates are comfortable portraying the Gibb brothers as they really were - and that means enjoying a joke.

The band researched the men behind the music, and aim to bring the essence of their personalities to the show.

"They were funny guys on stage who liked to have fun, and Maurice was like the class clown up there," Clift said.

"To be true to that, we needed to get that across in the show, so now we do that with confidence."

Stayin' Alive - The Australian Bee Gees Show features a rocking five-piece band, while Clift and Hosking play instruments, too.

There's also a video screen as part of a multi-media presentation that captures the memories and mood of the Bee Gees' era.

The show features all of the big hits, including I Started a Joke, Massachusetts, Night Fever, Stayin' Alive, Tragedy and Too Much Heaven.

■ See the show at Laycock Street Theatre, Gosford, this Saturday night. All tickets cost $55. Phone 4323 3233.