Pop star brothers visit hospital
IN the late 1980s and early ’90s pop sensations Bros took the charts by storm, going on to sell around 16 million records worldwide.
31 years ago Bros, twin brothers Matt and Luke Goss, were in the Black Country. They were at Hayley Green Hospital in Halesowen, on Wednesday, February 6, 1991, to formally hand-over the keys to a minibus and to meet the youngsters and volunteers who had raised the money to buy it.
The cash for the bus had been raised by the members of a Halesowen youth disco organised by PC Barry Tolley.
The pop star brothers also met some of the patients at the hospital and presented its manager, Pat Gaskin, with one of their gold discs.
Bros was formed in 1986 by the Goss twins and their college pal Craig Logan. They released their first single, I Owe You Nothing, in 1987 but it stalled at number 87 in the charts. Their next record, When Will I be Famous? made it to number 2 and their album Push went quadruple-platinum.
Ill health forced Logan to quit the group in 1989 and the Goss brothers broke up the band in 1992.
Hayley Green Hospital originally opened in 1902 as the North Worcestershire Joint Isolation Hospital and was known for many years as the Stourbridge and Halesowen Isolation Hospital. Infectious diseases such as scarlet fever and diphtheria were treated there until 1948 when the hospital became a geriatric until. It closed in the mid-1990s and the site was redeveloped for housing.
Were you one of the disco kids that raised money for the minibus? Were you there the night Bros came to Hayley Green? Please share your photos and memories: email dshaw@blackcount rybugle.co.uk or write to the Black Country Bugle, Dudley Archives Centre, Tipton Road, Dudley, DY1 4SQ.