Gerard Bertelkamp AM (born 28 November 1948), known professionally as Beeb Birtles, is an Australian musician, singer, songwriter and guitarist.

He has been a member of various Australian groups including Zoot (1967–71), Mississippi (1972–74), Little River Band (1975–83) and Birtles Shorrock Goble (2002–07).

[4] The family settled in Adelaide where Birtles attended Netley Primary School – he was held back a year due to his language problems.

[6][8][9] During 1966, Down the Line played regular gigs in their home town, Adelaide, including a Friday night residency at Scot's Church, performing covers of English Mod groups: the Hollies, the Move, the Who and the Small Faces.

[8][10] After Zoot, Birtles and Cotton performed together as an eponymous pop, soft rock duo, Daryl and Beeb, which were renamed as Frieze for their sponsors – a clothing company.

[8][10] In July 1972, Birtles was asked to join a folk rock band, Mississippi, which like Zoot had moved from Adelaide to Melbourne.

[13] In London they met with fellow Australian musicians Glenn Shorrock (ex-Twilights) and Wheatley – both expressed a desire to return to Australia and work on a new version of Mississippi.

[13][16] In early 1975 Mississippi band members Birtles, Goble, and Pellicci, had returned to Australia where they recruited Shorrock on lead vocals and Wheatley as their manager.

[14] Their lead single, "Curiosity (Killed the Cat)", which was written by Birtles,[17] appeared ahead of the album in September and reached No.

[14][16] Soon after LRB moved to the United States and became "the first Australian band of the 1970s to gain significant international success, paving the way for AC/DC, Air Supply, Men at Work and INXS".

[16] From 1978 to 1980 while still with LRB, Birtles & Goble also performed and recorded together as a duo, they issued three singles "Lonely Lives" (February 1978), "I'm Coming Home" (April 1979) and "How I Feel Tonight" (June 1980).

[16] In a magazine interview, he told music industry writer Debbie Kruger: "I never felt 'pressured' to write hit songs because I've always written from my heart.

[18] Birtles wrote or co-wrote several singles for the group; in addition to early hits "Curiosity (Killed the Cat)" (#15 AUS), "Everyday of My Life" (#29 AUS) and "Happy Anniversary" (#16 US, co-written with David Briggs), Birtles also co-wrote 1983's "You're Driving Me Out of My Mind", which was Little River Band's final top 40 US hit.

After a run of major international chart and critical successes from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Birtles left LRB in October 1983.

They briefly settled in Donna's hometown of Jefferson, before moving to Nashville, where he and his wife still live – both daughters graduated from college in the US.

[20] However, they were not entitled to use the name Little River Band as it was legally owned by Stephen Housden, the group's guitarist from August 1981 to 2006, after previous members had been paid out upon leaving.

[20] Kruger described this situation coming about "due to clumsy paper work and general disinterest on the part of original band members as they each left the group in the 1990s".

[21] In 2004, Birtles Shorrock Goble won Classic Rock Performers of the Year at the 2004 Mo Awards[22] and was induction into the Australian Songwriters Association Hall of Fame.

[26] Beeb was inducted into the South Australian Music Hall Of Fame on 24 November 2017, alongside Zoot bandmate Darryl Cotton and Barry Smith of the Town Criers.