 After leaving school he played with several bands including Steve and the Board, and became acquainted with Maurice Gibb, who invited him to sit in on one of the Bee Gees' sessions in Sydney.He ended up becoming friends with the family and ultimately played on as many as a dozen of their early Australian sides.Petersen moved to England in 1966, little knowing that the Bee Gees would soon be doing the same and they recruited him as their permanent drummer shortly afterwards – the first non-Gibb brother to become an official member of the Bee Gees.