Beeb Birtles was born on 28 November 1948 as Gerard Bertelkamp in
Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Gerard Bertelkamp, Sr (30 May 1923 – 4 May 2000), a carpenter and building contractor, and Elisabeth Hendrika (née Deubel; 8 January 1924 – 2 December 2015). He has a younger sister, Elisabeth H (born 17 September 1952). Birtles later recalled seeing his parents singing in an amateur operetta in Amsterdam, saying that "I was very young and I went with my grandparents. They took me to the theatre to see my parents, and, er, I was so young that I actually called out my mother's name from the audience!" The Bertelkamp family emigrated to Australia in September 1959 aboard
MS Willem Ruys. The family settled in
Adelaide where Birtles attended Netley Primary School – he was held back a year due to his language problems. He discovered a passion for music while attending
Plympton High School. His mother taught him to sing: "after dinner at night, we would sing together. And she would take the melody and I would take the harmony." While at high school he was nicknamed "
B. B. Eyes", after a
Dick Tracy character from the associated TV cartoon show, it soon became "BB" and later "Beeb". == Career ==