Singer Robin Gibb, a founding member of the disco-era hit machine the Bee Gees, is in a coma at a London hospital after contracting pneumonia, his official website said."Sadly the reports are true that Robin has contracted pneumonia and is in a coma,” a statement said. "We are all hoping and praying that he will pull through.”An unnamed family friend told The Sun newspaper: "He has kept so positive and always believed he could beat this. Sadly, it looks like he has developed pneumonia, which is very bad in his situation.”Gibb’s wife Dwina, sons Spencer and Robin-John, daughter Melissa and brother Barry are keeping a bedside vigil.Gibb had emergency surgery in 2010 to treat a blocked bowel and further surgery for a twisted bowel - the condition that killed his twin brother Maurice in 2003 at the age of 53. He was diagnosed with colon cancer, which later spread to his liver.He was born in the Isle of Man between England and Ireland in 1949 with twin brother and fellow Bee Gees founder Maurice.The Bee Gees released their first record in 1963, but it was only in the 1970s that the brothers rose to worldwide fame, producing a string of disco favorites including "Jive Talkin’”, "Stayin’ Alive” and "Night Fever”.