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READY TO BE GOSSIFIED?
Inside the wacky life of Strictly’s Matt Goss from drinking in the Tower of London to giving pals makeovers
AFTER living in Las Vegas for more than a decade, Matt Goss is back in Britain with a bang – and he’s not afraid to pack a punch.
The 53-year-old Bros singer has swapped Sin City for London, where he is preparing to take part in Strictly Come Dancing.
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And the time spent away from his beloved Britain has given Matt plenty of food for thought — notably the lack of pride that Brits show for their country, and the risk of being shouted down if you do try to express it.
He says: “I think it is OK if you were born here to say, ‘Please respect our country’.
“I don’t think it is in any way controversial. I think it is fine. This is our home — contribute and love it.
“If someone continually complains to me about this place it does rub me the wrong way.
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“There are things that need to be corrected about this country. Everyone is terrified to say it and I’m not.
“I am a civilised gentleman and I will always treat people with kind- ness. But I also think there is a need for . . . we need to be less afraid of ourselves and say how it is.
“Imagine this — it is OK to be proud of where you are born. There is no racial connotation to that, it is being proud of where you were born.
“If I was born in Iceland I would be proud of Iceland.
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“It is somehow in my mind moronically controversial — and it shouldn’t be. It should be a very easy thing to say, but obviously it isn’t.”
Matt, who found fame in Bros with his twin Luke and pal Craig Logan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, says political correctness here is just as irksome.
His forthright views first found a wide audience after the release of cult Bros documentary After The Screaming Stops in 2018.
It included a bizarre scene in which Matt furiously demanded that kids be allowed to play conkers without having to wear goggles.
He fumed: “Please can we start a petition as Bros for this ridiculous thing where you can’t even play conkers, you have to wear goggles?
“That is the biggest problem — you can’t play conkers in England.”
And some of Matt’s comments sparked unintended hilarity on social media, such as: “The letters H, O, M, E are so important because they personify the word home.”
And: “I have a rule in my house — you break it, you fix it. But you can break anything you want.”
Now, in a chat with Dom Joly on his — to be broadcast this Sunday — Matt explains that getting annoyed about conkers was born out of his anger.
He adds: “I think the conker thing was my disgust at how politically correct this world is becoming.
“We are notorious for our sense of humour, we take the p*** out of each other perfectly well.
“What I am witnessing is there is always someone saying the wrong thing, and we are meant to at times.
I have a lot of fellas I help out with where to get stuff. It is Gossified. I get great pleasure, whether it be getting them into the right barber or the right-fitting clothes, I get great pleasure.
Matt Goss
“Kindness and respect is the bedrock of how we communicate and then it is OK, but we must deliver information in a much more frank way.”
Then he added: “There is a 20mph speed limit — what p***es me off is we are driving 600-horsepower cars that really are driving the speed of two.”
Matt, who says he is now back in Britain for good, adds that while appearing on Strictly may not have been one of his dreams, it was for his late mother Carol, who died in 2014.
She was a huge fan of the BBC dance contest and Matt chose the week of her birthday to announce he would appear.
He says: “We all take ourselves a bit seriously, including myself, and I have to get out of my own way.
“And for me to actually do as my mother asked and smile from my eyes and get out of my way with my grief and get out of some of the stuff I have been through, I have to jump off this cliff.
“Otherwise I will end up being a reclusive person, and I don’t want that for me. “I have not watched a lot of Strictly but I understand what a cult following it has.
“You win Baftas and you play the O2 and Vegas — and I came back and I am very comfortable at home with my dog, reading and drawing and just being quite reclusive.
“This is not the life I want. I want to be more engaged in pop culture.
“I want to talk about things that are risky, like art and politics.
“I want to be socially aware, and the only way to do that is to dive head-first into the biggest show in the world.”
And once his turn on the dance floor is over, Matt is already lining up some more big plans. With Bros he scored eight Top Ten singles, including a No1 with I Owe You Nothing, in 1988.
The letters H, O, M, E are so important because they personify the word home.
Matt Gosss
Now he is planning new music — as well as branching out in the lifestyle arena.
He says: “My dream is to have a lifestyle brand, homeware and clothes for men and women, stuff that looks and feels beautiful but won’t break the bank.
“I have been around people in my life who created great brands, and for me, that is the dream.
“It’s not just about financial gain, it is something I can leave behind as well as my music.
“I would call it Matt Goss for now.”
And somewhat improbably, he reveals that alongside his sell-out Las Vegas shows, he has spent the past two decades in the US giving his pals makeovers.
The term, according to his friends, is being “Gossified”.
Matt says: “I have a lot of fellas I help out with where to get stuff.
“It is Gossified. I get great pleasure, whether it be getting them into the right barber or the right-fitting clothes, I get great pleasure, whether men or women, seeing them feel good about themselves. I enjoy it a great deal.”
And he adds: “I think people know I shoot from the hip. I am passionate about the love of fashion and the love of how there is a symbiotic relationship between fashion and music. And I think I have affected fashion along the way.
“I have become less ashamed about being more knowledgeable about things because I will never be crass. It is a hobby of mine, I collect watches.”
A move into the film industry is also on the horizon, after he was bitten by the acting bug while making After The Screaming Stops.
I want to be socially aware, and the only way to do that is to dive head-first into the biggest show in the world.
Matt Goss
His brother Luke has been in more than 50 films, including Hellboy II: The Golden Army in 2008.
Yeoman friends Matt adds: “I am doing a movie at the end of the year. It is a psychological thriller.
“I play a very sinister character, which is something I have always wanted to do. I don’t necessarily want to encroach on anyone’s territory or p*** anybody off.
“And now I realise that we are simply not here long enough, you must follow your dreams.”
Matt says he and Luke are also still dealing with the after-effects of opening up their hearts in the documentary.
He says: “Being the frontman of the band, I didn’t realise how much that had affected my brother’s perspective.
“But I found myself being too subservient just to keep the peace, and that isn’t healthy either.
“What it did, as they say in the US, it tore the Band Aid off.
“What happens then, stuff starts to bleed and you have to address those issues.
“We are still trying to learn each other’s language. I think, as twins, you pine for your own identity.
“For me, genuinely, I don’t feel resentment, I just feel a longing to have some understanding.”
With his move to the UK almost done, Matt is settling back into London life.
That is the biggest problem — you can’t play conkers in England.
Matt Goss
A house sale in the US will clear out most of his possessions, leaving him with only the important things that mean the most to him.
And his beloved French bulldog Reggie, who he said last week was stuck in the US due to worries over whether he could cope with a flight, will now definitely join him.
Matt tells how he celebrated his UK move with some unlikely pals — a group of Beefeaters, or Yeomen Warders from the Tower of London, and had been drinking with them.
He says: “I went to a mate’s at the Tower of London. I have a couple of Yeoman friends.
“There is a pub inside the Tower where you can have a pint. There are fewer yeomen than there are people in space.
“They do come, undercover, to the shows, they come to Vegas.
“I have been there for 11 years, four shows a week, and on stage everyone is equal.
“Everyone gets treated exactly the same. I think that is how I have met so many people from so many walks of life.”
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He adds: “I’ve met Muhammad Ali and the President of the United States. You’d be amazed at where this voice takes you, and where this brain takes you.
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“You have conversations, they are a universal platform and it isn’t limited to being a singer of Bros.”
- Dom Joly’s Sunday Session can be heard every Sunday from noon to 2pm on .
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