Matt and Luke Goss’s scenes are ones of gratitude and humility; contemporary scenes with respect for the virtues of the past. The 80s popstars from BROS have a much calmer scene these days compared to the widespread BROSMANIA they had inspired around the world from 1987-1992. The hysteria began with their smash hit When Will I Be Famous, continued with their 7 x Platinum debut album PUSH, amassed to worldwide touring and accumulated to BROS playing 19 shows at Wembley Arena and being the youngest band to ever headline Wembley Stadium.
Nowadays, Matt describes his scene as “living in the present. learning from the past but not living in the past”. He explains: “My scene is a contemporary one but an absolute admiration again for the great generation, of my granddad’s generation that wasn’t afraid of hard work, and admiration of the style of ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s, early ’70s, and the ’80s. And living in a place of gratitude. That’s my scene. My mantra is: civility in life costs nothing.”
Luke states that his scene is “kind of the same as Matt’s”. He continues: “I live in a place where the people I hang out with look each other in the eyes when they shake each other’s hands, when you leave the table no one’s talking smack about each other, open doors for ladies, be respectful of people older than you, have a great work ethic, work bloody hard, if you get knocked down … if you’re gonna cry make it quick, dust yourself off, get up again. Don’t get mad at anybody during the day just because you are having a crappy one. My scene is one of respect and compassion. It’s a hip scene, but it’s a contemporary one in a sense of a confidence of observation. It’s a confident observation of life because it’s a beautiful journey but it’s got to be respectful one, and full of love. That’s my scene.”
Though these days have calmer scenes, the twins are still wowing, and wooing, audiences. Both Matt and Luke have achieved tremendous success in their respective music and film careers. Matt began his solo career in 1995 and since then has sold more than 5 million albums, has a Las Vegas residency at Caesar’s Palace and recently headlined Wembley Arena. His current single Gone Too Long is out now. Matt’s influences began early. He states: “As a singer, without a question, Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Michael Jackson. I would say they were the three main singers, and George Michael. Soul singers really. My aunt Sally would show me incredible records. But ‘Talking Book’, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, Song in the Key of Life – those three albums probably shaped everything I did. Even now I think those three albums are the best consecutive albums ever written. Those guys taught me how to be a singer in some ways. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I just sang from the heart. I never trained. I just sang songs I loved to sing and I was just lucky I had an aunt who introduced me to some of the best soul records ever made, and I think it just embedded itself in to my heart and into my spirit.”
Alternatively, Luke left his music career behind after Bros. Currently, he is enjoying a hugely successful acting career in both film (Hellboy II, Blade II, The Man, Deathrace 2 & 3) and TV (Red Widow and Emmy award-winning mini-series Frankenstein). His directorial debut ‘Your Move’ is due for release in October. Luke’s influences were: “Stewart Copeland, The Police, Phil Collins as a musician”. He continues: “Omar Hakim wasn’t an influence to get me started but he was always one of those drummers I wished I could play like; one of those players you look at and you have to accept pretty quick that you’re never going to be that good. The thing about the drumming for me was that it was as much about music as it was travelling around the world promoting it. I just didn’t know how much I wanted to do that anymore. I’d had enough for the minute. That’s why acting found me and it became, and is still, my huge passion. It’s my day job as I say to Matt.”
Elaborating on how acting found him, Luke explains: “I had quite a success in the West End in London on stage, and then I did a little movie, and then another, then BLADE II and then that kicked it off, I formed a relationship with Guillermo del Toro in Hellboy II and Universal’s Death Race 2, along the way learning how to do it. Obviously you learn from stage a lot, but you’ve got to make some movies to work it out. It was a love affair that found me; it was really really very organic and I’m super thankful that it did. I’ve just directed my first movie now. After 50 plus movies, I’m now finally directing. It’s not out yet, it’s called Your Move, I wrote it, produced it, directed it, starred in it. It was quite a personal thing. It’s a thriller, and in a weird way it’s about love.”
The sibling connection is powerful during this interview. Matt and Luke bounce ideas off each other and compliment each other’s work and success. Both interject at stages, with compliments. Here Matt states: “I have to say, obviously I’m a big fan of my brother’s movies, but I will tell you, I’ve seen clips of this movie and what he’s created is nothing short of a masterpiece, it’s beautiful, beautifully shot, and I can’t wait for the world to see it. I’m very proud of him. You’ve done an amazing job brother.” A beautiful bonding moment, with a peaceful silence, which Luke quietly interrupts with: “Thank you man. I get a little bit shy about that, I’m not being ungrateful. I just get rather shy about it all.” Now, back to drumming, Luke laughs and states: “Thank goodness I wised up.” Matt states: “Luke is an amazing drummer. He is incredible – I’ve been watching him play and he’s a better drummer now than he ever was.”
In regards to shyness, there’s a difference between pride and arrogance, and Luke states: “I think it could be misunderstood sometimes.” Matt concurs: “Absolutely. The best way to describe us is that we’re very confident men, probably two of the most confident men you’ll ever meet. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have humility in our bodies. We come from a place of such gratitude based on our mum and our grandfather that we don’t feel entitled. We are proud of what we do and what we do is always of high quality and I think that we’re both proud of who we are.”
Both are inspired, and led, by gratitude, honesty, truth; traits they acquired from their mother, Carol, who sadly passed away in 2014. Luke states: “She was a wonderful woman, she raised us right. She taught us how to stand up for ourselves and to keep going but also we were never encouraged to embrace anything but compassion, kindness and respectfulness. She was incredible. I think her and my grandfather were both utterly responsible for setting the standard that we live by and I miss her deeply. It’s a painful painful thing as I’m sure anyone who has gone through it will understand.” Matt continues: “She was my best friend. She was incredible. After she passed away, I realised how much she was literally my best friend. Both me and my brother are very private people. She was somebody that I confided in everyday, three times a day we spoke. She was a very strong woman and, as Luke so rightly and accurately said, she installed absolute courage in us. We felt like we were part of the royal family. I mean we didn’t have much. We came from very humble beginnings. We didn’t want for anything. We didn’t have money and a somewhat tumultuous upbringing but we never wanted for love. She was a very strong woman but the beautiful thing about my mum is that she was a very shy person. It was a good thing and a bad thing for my mum. She was very very public and loved by all of our fans. I can say that with absolute clarity that she was a loved by our fans but she was painfully shy as well. She was just such an incredible human being. It’s a massive loss and if there was ever a time that I wished she could be here to see this reunion, it would be now. But me and my brother will be making her proud, whenever we were on stage together.”
Matt is also inspired by “the truth”. He states: “If you’re not prepared to undress your soul, then you shouldn’t write songs. The reality is there’s not a lot of men singing for men anymore. Doing 200 shows a year, you learn very quickly that men receive the lyrics very well and emotion very well. Women are in some ways more advanced emotionally. They have the luxury of women understanding words and feelings so it’s almost like a natural instinct. But there aren’t a lot of heartfelt words that come from a man’s perspective and the stuff I’m writing at the moment, they’re very truthful and come from a very real place. I have a tattoo that says ‘never waste good agony’. It’s quite true too. Be truthful, undress your soul and then try to attach great melodies to the little stories that you try to compact in to three and a half or four minutes.”
Matt still maintains romanticism and idealism with love and finding a soulmate. He proclaims: “If I’m ever lucky enough to find a woman that will be my wife she’s going to be have to compassionate and loving and prideful as I want to be loving compassionate, loving and prideful towards her. Unfortunately, what’s happening now and what I’ve noticed, as a single man, women are becoming the men that they want to date. And they’re so tough to the point where chivalry is almost an endangered species. For me, I don’t want to date a woman’s ex-boyfriend or husband. I want to date a woman who is courageous enough to believe that love exists, even if she has been hurt and even though I’ve been hurt in my life. I want to believe that the woman I’m going to meet won’t hurt me, as I won’t hurt the woman I’m going to find. I say when you know you’re going to break someone’s heart remember how it feels when you had yours broken. You just have to be conscious and present. I think romance is the fuel of love; it’s the rocket fuel that gets you to the moon and beyond. Love is a beautiful thing and I see that with my brother and I know Luke wishes that for me too. I do like being single right now. I’m enjoying that I can make the choices without being beholden to anybody. But I would love to find my best friend and my lover and make love in every single place I can find around the world. I really do hope that I find my best friend that we want to make love everywhere. That’d be great.”
Luke wishes Matt finds true love as he has, but is not comfortable with being seen as a role model. He states: “Please please please never put me in that place of having to be a role model.; that’s a scary place to be, Oh my god, I don’t want to live up to that. But yes, I’m very lucky. I met an incredible woman. You got to work at it. Relationships aren’t always rosey and lovely. They’re about whether they worth fighting for. It has been a glorious experience for me. But as Matt said ‘You have to be in the present’. You have to wake up in the morning and ask yourself, ‘How can you make them happy’.”
https://youtu.be/emDQek6-cjc
After selling out shows in the UK, their next stop, without question, was Australia. Matt states: “We are proud British boys. We can’t wait to play the gigs back home. But after that moment, there is not one country that can even come close to the way Australia made us feel. I mean we, simple London lads, dreamed of coming to Australia, and not only that, we were told we would be playing arenas when we got there. But we didn’t know what that meant. [pullquote]there is not one country that can even come close to the way Australia made us feel.” – Matt Goss, BROS[/pullquote]Again there was no social media so we had nothing to gauge it by and we turned up and there were thousands and thousands of people at Sydney airport. And then everyone, from the police to the promoters to the public… everybody just made us feel at home. It was like family. Some of our most extraordinary memories of our lives. Australia to me is still without question, not just because you’re on the phone, I’ve said it in many many interviews over the years, Australia has been responsible for some of the greatest memories I have had in my life from music, just the way that people in Australia treated me my brother Luke.”[pullquote] I don’t have a reference, whether it be in my film career or music career, nothing compares to how we were treated in Australia. If we were treated like that in every damn country, I think the band would have probably stayed together.” – Luke Goss, BROS [/pullquote]Luke continues: “What Matt said I agree with – even to the point where we had an hour down time in a day when we had no down time; the promoters, the people around us, the Australian crew, were like: ‘Hey lets arrange something for the boys to take a moment to chill’. It was so thoughtful. I don’t have a reference, whether it be in my film career or music career, nothing compares to how we were treated in Australia. If we were treated like that in every damn country, I think the band would have probably stayed together. So, thank you so very much.” Matt adds: “We genuinely can’t wait to get there.”
As for the brothers only doing one Australian show, Matt humbly states: “We do not want to run before we can walk. Again there’s that place of humility, we want to gauge the territory. Listen you can over extend yourself, this is where, unfortunately, business comes into it. You can overextend yourself – we want to put on a big show and it’s extremely expensive but it’s not about the money. It’s the other way round. We want to put on such an amazing show, but if you overextend yourself, you can end up cancelling everything. We guarantee we are definitely coming to Australia and we are playing Qudos Arena. And that’s because we want to gauge the territory and if, in fact, what you’re saying is true, [that there is demand for more shows] we have the beautiful highbrow problem of adding more dates, and if this is the case, nothing would make me and my brother more happy. But first things first, walk before we can run and show some humility and respect for playing the arena. And then hopefully have happy days.”
BROS will play a special Australian show in Sydney on Saturday 4 November at Qudos Bank Arena. Tickets will go on sale on Friday 5 May at 12noon through Ticketek.
29 YEARS TO THE DAY….
BROS REUNITED AND RETURNING TO AUSTRALIA FOR ONE SPECIAL EVENT SHOW ON SATURDAY 4 NOVEMBER!
Australian BROS fans demanded it and now TEG DAINTY can confirm the most highly anticipated pop reunion tour of the decade will visit Australia!
BROS will play a special Australian show in Sydney on Saturday 4 November at Qudos Bank Arena. Tickets will go on sale on Friday 5 May at 12noon through Ticketek.
This exciting event marks 29 years to the day since BROS played the Sydney Entertainment Centre in the height of BROSMANIA.
When BROS toured Australia in 1988 their presence caused pandemonium with thousands of fans turning up at airports, instore appearances and hotels to catch a glimpse of the pop superstars. Reminiscing of this time Matt Goss said “One of the most memorable moments for me in BROS was our Australian tour, we were so welcomed, it felt like home and the fans were fantastic, we hope to see them all in Sydney this November.”
“BROS has been part of my life for 30 years,” Luke Goss said. “I’m deeply proud of BROS and our 1988 tour of Australia with thousands of fans greeting us every step of the way was an absolute highlight.”
Brothers Matt and Luke Goss have not played together since 77,000 fans packed into Wembley Stadium on August 19, 1989.
Propelled by their classic smash hit ‘When Will I Be Famous’, BROS ruled the world from 1987-1992.
In that time they rewrote the pop history books:
- BROS played 19 shows at Wembley Arena
- They were the youngest band to ever headline Wembley Stadium
- Their debut album ‘Push’ sold 10 million copies worldwide
- The album was number one in 20 countries
- Australia was the band’s biggest market outside of the UK
- BROS had three Top 10 hits in Australia
- They toured Australia in 1988 and smashed sales records with sold out shows
Prior to their Australian date BROS will play 2 shows at London’s O2 Arena in August which sold out in just seconds.
Both Matt and Luke have achieved tremendous success in their respective music and film careers. Matt began his solo career in 1995 and since then has sold over 5 million albums, played a Las Vegas residency at Caesar’s Palace and headlined Wembley Arena earlier this year. Luke is enjoying a hugely successful acting career in both film (Hellboy 2, Blade 2, The Man, Deathrace 2&3) and TV (Red Widow and Emmy award winning mini-series Frankenstein). His directorial debut ‘Your Move’ will bow in select theaters October 2017.
Both Matt and Luke remain friendly with Craig Logan who left the band in 1989.
BROS return to Australia to perform live:
Saturday 4th November – Qudos Bank Arena
Tickets on sale Friday 5th May at 12noon from
For more information, please visit: http://www.tegdainty.com
This was a cool read. Any mention of Craig would have been a bonus though. Luke’s getting better with every film.