LONDON • The three Bee Gees siblings may harmonise effortlessly on record, but were not always in tune with one another outside the recording studio.

Eldest brother Barry Gibb once said: "I remember lots of intense arguments... (but) it doesn't stop you being brothers. We broke up in 1969, and yet, my brothers came to my wedding in 1970 and we started talking again - and suddenly, we were back in the studio."

On Tuesday, when he received a knighthood from Buckingham Palace for his services to music and charity, the BBC cited him as saying: "If it was not for my brothers, I would not be here. I hope and pray they are aware of what's happened."

The 71-year-old, who began the hugely successful pop group with Maurice and Robin in 1958, was knighted by Prince Charles as part of Queen Elizabeth's New Year's Honours list.

Barry is the last remaining member of the band, known for hits such as Stayin' Alive (1977) and To Love Somebody (1967), after the death of Maurice following a bowel operation in 2003 and his twin, Robin, in 2012 from cancer.

Barry is still performing - he played at the Glastonbury festival in Britain last year.

"I miss my brothers. I get nerves being on stage on my own because it is so new to me," he told the Sunday Mirror then.