IT’S not the first time that Robin Gibb has teamed up with Barry.

But this time the Bee Gee has ditched his brother to team up with an unlikely pair from the Welsh town – Gavin and Stacey’s Uncle Bryn and Nessa.

The trio, along with Sir Tom Jones, have come together to record this year’s Comic Relief single, a cover version of the Bee Gees’ Islands in the Stream.

Bryn and Nessa – or their real-life counterparts, Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones – were yesterday at the London launch of the 2009 Red Nose Day campaign launch, along with co-star Joanna Page and a host of names from the world of comedy and music.

Sir Tom and Gibb serve as backing singers on the single, which will be available for download from March 8. They were thousands of miles apart when they laid down the tracks for the song, which was made famous by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, but more recently heard in the hit series as the characters performed at a barn dance.

Brydon and Ruth Jones travelled to the World Karaoke Championships in Las Vegas to film the video for the song and Jones admitted that recording the single had been something of a personal milestone.

The Porthcawl-born star said: “People really loved it when we did it in the series and they were saying ‘go and release it as a single’. We couldn’t quite bring ourselves to do it in all seriousness so we thought what a brilliant way to raise some money and do it for Comic Relief. We’ve none other than Sir Tom Jones appearing in our video.

“We filmed it in Vegas in November and it was one of the best experiences of my whole career. Recording a single with Tom Jones, it really doesn’t get any better than that.”

Brydon was just as starstruck, saying: “Tom Jones is just a legend. He’s on the single, he acts in the video. He acts really well. He’s like he’s in The Sopranos. He’s so cool. We were stood in the desert with him and he was telling us these stories about Elvis.

For Ruth and I it was just like we had died and gone to heaven. Quite seriously, it was the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done in my career.”

It would seem that Brydon’s impersonation of Tom Jones was so good, it fooled the man himself. “When we met him in Las Vegas he said ‘there was a tricky bit at the end (of the song) where they used you’,” said Brydon. “He thought that part of the song where he was singing was me. It doesn’t get better than that.”

Pontypridd-born Sir Tom has a lot to live up to with the previous Comic Relief singles, most of which have reached the number one spot, from the famous Tony Christie and Peter Kay’s “Is This the Way to Amarillo” to Hale and Pace and The Stonkers’ best-forgotten “The Stonk”. Sir Tom himself last had a number one single 43 years ago, with The Green Green Grass of Home.

by Lisa Jones, Western Mail