DPA

LONDON POLITICIANS and pop stars on Monday paid tribute to Bee Gees singer and songwriter Robin Gibb who has died of cancer at the age of 62.

Tributes were led by Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who spent family holidays in Gibb’s villa in Miami Beach while he was in office.

“Robin was not only an exceptional and extraordinary musician and songwriter, he was a highly intelligent, interested and committed human being,” said Blair in a statement.

“He was a great friend with a wonderful open and fertile mind and a student of history and politics. I will miss him very much.” Gibb, a lifelong supporter of the Labour party, once said he got on with Blair ‘like a house on fire,’ and revealed that even Gordon Brown, Blair’s more dour successor, was a fan.