Goss?‘it The latest I want to come home

He’s been in the States since Bros split up, but after that warts-and-all reunion film with his brother Luke, Matt Goss is heading back here – and looking for love

Brosmania swept the country in the late 80s after Matt Goss and his twin brother Luke shot to No 2 in the charts with their single When Will I Be Famous?. Their blond good looks quickly earned them an army of fans – called Brosettes – who copied their style of ripped denim and red bandanas with the tops from bottles of Grolsch beer attached to their bootlaces, and soon they were fainting in their thousands all over the world at the sight of the band.

Bros sold an estimated 16 million records, but things turned sour in 1992 as their fame began to wane and Luke, the drummer, decided he’d had enough. Both twins, now 51, have lived in America since the band dissolved. Matt lives alone in Las Vegas, where he’s enjoyed lucrative residencies at three casinos, while Luke is in Los Angeles with his wife of 26 years and has acted in a string of Hollywood films including the Hellboy and Blade franchises.

But the twins’ relationship has never been the same since the split, and viewers were privy to it in all its unfiltered glory in the 2018 documentary After The Screaming Stops (see right). ‘It was like having therapy in front of the world,’ says Matt today. ‘But it definitely humanised us in Britain. Ironically we had to go to another country to continue doing what we love. Luke has done so well with acting and I’m a singer, but people in the UK didn’t know us as human beings.

‘So the documentary was a relief – people got to see our lives were far from normal. My social media went absolutely bonkers the day after it went on iplayer – all these brilliant comments. So many people have connected with it, and it’s allowed me to reconnect with the British public. I want to come home with all my heart and soul now.’

He’s using this reconnection by releasing a cover of the Alicia Keys song If I Ain’t Got You to raise funds for meals for NHS carers. ‘I couldn’t go out of my front door and do the clap for carers because I’m in Las Vegas, so I decided to help feed them,’ he says. ‘My concern is that while the NHS continues to go through one of the most troubling times in its history, we’re all thinking about getting back to normality. But we must be aware this is their normal, so it’s our duty as British people to make sure this support doesn’t

stop. There is no end in sight for the NHS, they are our protectors.’

Born in Lewisham, south London, Matt was the second of the twins to be delivered, although his parents had thought they were only expecting one child until his mother went into labour. ‘I was shouting for my life,’ he smiles. He weighed just 3½lb and one of his lungs collapsed, leaving him in an incubator for three months. But it clearly didn’t affect his singing ability. Their

‘The film was like therapy in front of the world’

Matt today, and (above, left) with brother Luke as Bros in 1989 mum Carol and father Alan had played in bands together but split up when the twins were five, and Matt’s happiest memories are from time spent with their grandfather in Camberwell.

‘I loved singing with my family,’ he remembers. ‘My Auntie Anne was an opera singer, Aunt Sally was rock’n’roll, Grandad Harry was a crooner and my mum had an angelic voice. They’re my most beautiful memories as a kid – because we did have a tumultuous upbringing.’

It was when their mum met their stepdad Tony that the twins moved to Camberley in Surrey. They started playing in bands and when they recruited schoolmate Craig Logan to play the bass they started going places. When they turned 18 they signed a contract with the Pet Shop Boys’ manager Tom Watkins, and within a year they’d hit the charts with I Owe You Nothing. Their lives were about to change dramatically.

‘Luke and I always wanted to be in a band that created mayhem and Bros did that wherever we went,’ Matt recalls. ‘We’d land on the back of a boat in a helicopter or go from one TV show to another in a jet. We had No 1s in 32 countries. Imagine being from south London and getting off a plane in Japan, on to a bullet train, and every single stop all you see is faces waiting for your train.’

Yet even though they experienced fame at its most intense, Matt never went off the rails. ‘I’ve had some really incredible experiences and also tough times,’ he says. ‘But

I’ve never done a drug in my life and I’ve never even smoked a cigarette. I don’t need things to be altered. I’ve been tempted but when I’ve wanted to numb my pain, they’re the moments I’ve had absolute clarity and said, “No, I must feel everything.”’

Craig Logan left the band in 1989 due to his struggle with ME but Bros went from strength to strength until their third and final album in 1991. It reached number 18 in the charts, which Luke felt was the start of their demise. By 1992 they had split, and the full extent of their feelings can be seen in the documentary.

It was Luke’s wife Shirley Lewis, a former backing singer for George Michael, who approached Bros fan James Corden’s production company Fulwell 73 to make the film, which ended up being a warts-andall exposé of the twins’ tempestuous relationship. ‘We didn’t want it to be a promo piece,’ says Matt. ‘Some documentaMatt with his mother Carol in 2013 ries are so squeaky clean and that’s not the music industry.’

So how did it feel watching it for the first time? ‘I didn’t know Luke had so many issues about me being the singer,’ he says. ‘And I don’t think he knew I felt like I was always trying to apologise. Our relationship is tumultuous but it’s full of love. We didn’t speak for three years once, and our reasons for that are very different. Then after mum died of cancer in 2014 we didn’t speak for two years – we had a fight and I think we took the anger out on each other.

was painful to watch so many things, but me and my brother also saw ourselves find resolution with the reunion concert. We are far from being in a harmonious place and have horrible fights, but we are best friends and have each other’s backs. I think the documentary connected with people on a level of sibling disconnection and reconnection.

‘Now I just really want to come home. I’m missing getting on stage, and I’m working on so many things. There’s a musical based on the TV show Upstairs Downstairs and I have my new solo album. Bros were meant to be doing more this year so hopefully we’ll do some pretty remarkable things next year with another documentary around it. I just need to figure out what I can do so I can come home, put my brogues and threepiece suit on and just be a Brit.’

He admits that the one thing missing in his life is love. After dating the likes of Melanie Sykes and The X Factor’s Rebecca Ferguson and being engaged to American TV host Daisy Fuentes, Matt is still single. Surely he must be keen to find his Mrs Goss? ‘This is the part of my life I’m more perplexed about than anything,’ he says. ‘I’ve been in long relationships but they just haven’t worked out.

‘These times might encourage us to communicate more because I think we were starting to get terrified of each other. I’m not blinded by beauty or desperately looking for love but it would be nice to figure out that part of my life. I’m tired of doing this journey. I’d love to have my person and stay there.’

n‘Luke and I didn’t speak for two years after Mum died’

‘We wanted to create mayhem, and Bros did...’