Fly-on-the-wall film After the Screaming Stops provoked hysterics among critics when it was shown this week
WHEN Eighties pop sensation Bros decided to make a comeback, they probably expected No1 hits and screaming fans.
What they produced instead was a comedy masterpiece.
Best known for singles When Will I Be Famous? and I Owe You Nothing, twins Matt and Luke Goss and bassist Craig Logan in 1989 became the youngest group to headline Wembley Stadium.
But a documentary on last year’s bid to return to the limelight after more than a quarter of a century shows the 50-year-old twins to be a couple of cry babies with egos the size of planets and a turn of phrase to rival Ricky Gervais’ David Brent.
When the fly-on-the-wall film, called After The Screaming Stops, was shown to critics this week, there were hysterics every time either twin opened their mouths.
Describing his relationship with his brother, Matt says: “He was a rectangle and I was a rectangle, which therefore made a square, which became a fortress.”
Discussing his later solo material, he says: “We have a song called We Are All Kings, which is basically about if I see a man sweeping the road he is a king to me. He’s one of my kings, because I’m grateful I don’t have to sweep the roads.”
And explaining how they decided to reform the band, he says: “There was 15 one-way streets and one solitary two-way street where me and my brother got to meet in the middle.
“Two worlds definitely collided. When two worlds collide, two things happen: Destruction or the genesis of new beginnings, and you created water on a new planet.”
Bros formed in 1986 with drummer Luke and school friend Craig.
I lived through hatred like a mass murderer
Luke Goss
After Matt joined as lead singer, they hit the big time, topping the charts in 1988 and amassing hordes of teenage fans screaming their names.
But Craig quit in 1989 suffering with ME and their third album flopped in 1991, leading Luke to call time on the band in 1992.
Craig, 49, who went in to music management, working with Robbie Williams, Tina Turner and Pink, wanted no part in the comeback — which started with big ambitions.
The twins originally talked of a world tour, but a lack of interest meant this dwindled to a UK tour — then to just two shows at the O2, South London, in August last year.
The documentary — which is in cinemas from November 9 — follows the build-up to the gigs.
At one point in the film tempers flare over how soon the keyboard should be played at the start of one song.
Matt screams at his brother: “I am willing to put my head through that f***ing wall right now, that’s how I feel.
“I am broke emotionally. I am completely not over it.”
The duo also spend a lot of the documentary complaining about their harsh treatment by critics and the music industry.
Luke grumbles: “One of the few things I can’t understand is the hatred me and Matt went through. The kind of hatred I lived through was reserved for mass murderers.”
Luke also bitterly recalls how their record company had the computerised drums programmed before he even got in the recording studio, meaning he was sidelined and redundant.
Within days of him quitting in 1992 he had all his cars taken away and had to sell his wife Shirley’s engagement ring to make ends meet.
Even though they sold 17million albums worldwide, the Goss brothers were left with debts of up to £500,000 after blowing £12million on chauffeur-driven cars, bodyguards, holidays, parties, jewellery, clothes and gifts.
At their height, Luke’s weekly expenses were £70,000.
But they had been living on credit, and when it ended there was a colossal bill to pay.
“We generated six million quid as Bros,” Luke explained. “We ended up with nothing. Less than nothing. We ended up with minus nothing.”
Part of the problem was the contract they had signed with former Pet Shop Boys manager Tom Watkins when they were just 18 guaranteeing him 20 per cent of the gross earnings.
For example, a gruelling UK tour in 1988 that grossed £1,623,600 left just £4,860 to be split between the brothers and Craig after the costs and commission came out.
When the party abruptly ended in 1992, Matt and Luke both headed for the States.
Matt recalls: “I remember people saying to me, please don’t go, please don’t leave Britain.
“But I had this sixth sense in my blood that it was time to get out of this war zone.”
Luke now lives in Los Angeles and works as an actor. His roles include Prince Nuada in horror sequel Hellboy II.
Matt is based in Las Vegas and has a residency at The Mirage casino performing big band tunes.
They have also both written autobiographies and Matt appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s reality show Hell’s Kitchen.
Tension for the past decade
Matt Goss
But despite both being Stateside, the brothers rarely speak.
Luke’s resentment about playing second fiddle to Matt festers on, while Matt is still angry that his twin put him out of work by quitting the group.
Matt, whose previous partners include model and TV host Melanie Sykes, says of his sibling: “We’re not as close as I’d like. He is busy doing his career and I’m busy doing mine.
“There’s been tension for the past decade.”
With insights on life that could have come straight from the mouth of The Office’s cringeworthy boss David Brent, here are some gems from singer Matt . . .
“If I don’t feel informed, I don’t feel I can go about my day properly. CNN is my thinking man’s reality show.”
“I’m proud that I came to another country as a complete unknown and started to chip away with a butter knife at a very big tree. And I’ve said ‘timber’ on quite a few trees with that butter knife and I can assure you, it’s quickly turning into a very efficient tool.”
“Hindsight is the philosophy of fools. You learn nothing in some way because sometimes you have to do the same again. ‘Oh, I’m not going to do that again’ – it’s bad advice.”
“I have crystals everywhere. I am not a hippy, but I believe in energy with every part of my soul.”
“You know once bitten twice shy? Twenty times bitten and a little shy.”
“The letters H O M E are so important because they personify the word home, which means the place where you come home and feel safe.
“There was no shame in having no money. We had one toy, a dart. We didn’t have a dartboard to go with it.”
But he tells the camera crew that arguments are not allowed in his spotless home, where he keeps crystals for their “energy”.
Aware their truce is shaky, Matt says: “I want to make sure he has all the room he needs, but at the same time I don’t want to lose my identity to the point I become subservient.”
But in no time they are rowing about who has the final say on their comeback. Matt interrupts his brother to make clear: “Everybody has to be on the same page, otherwise you don’t get to turn the page, someone gets left behind and somebody has lost the key to the story or the whole entirety of the journey.”
Brooding on this in the green room before an appearance on ITV’s This Morning the next day, the pair drown each other out during a tearful row.
At the end of it Matt runs out, slamming the door behind him and shouting: “Go f*** yourself. Go f*** yourself.”
While the screaming of their fans has stopped, the wailing of the self-obsessed brothers clearly has not.
After The Screaming Stops is in cinemas on November 9.
