Chart entered : 21 September 1991
Chart peak : 27
The Goss brothers' reign at the top was short. They peaked in 1988 when "I Owe You Nothing" reached number one in the summer and won a Radio One poll for Best Ever Single. At the start of 1989, bassist Craig Logan, whose position in the band had looked precarious from day one, quit the band ostensibly on health grounds as he was suffering from M.E. Nonetheless, he received a substantial severance payout and watched from the sidelines as the duo's fortunes rapidly declined. Singer Matt Goss didn't help matters by giving a tabloid interview where he claimed that the pressures of keeping the band afloat were making him impotent, reinforcing the public perception that the band were drowning.
"Try" was the second single from their as-yet-unreleased third album "Changing Faces". They had cut the umbilical cord with writer/producer Nicky Graham and were now writing their own material. It isn't their worst record but the band's shortcomings are still very obvious. Matt is still completely in thrall to Michael Jackson as a vocalist and the lead in to the chorus sounds like Bad . The lyrics of environmental concern suggest that his Man In The Mirror was the main inspiration. The pop-funk sound is firmly rooted in the eighties with a funky bass and synth sound that could have been lifted from a Kajagoogoo album. Though a hackneyed choice, the gospel backing vocals do give the chorus a boost which makes it tolerable but not much more than that.
Number 27 wasn't good enough as a launchpad for the album and CBS put it out a couple of weeks later with no great promotional push. "Changing Partners" isn't outrageously bad, just mediocre and formulaic. That formula is borrowed once more from Jackson with a similar mix of uptempo pop-funk, glutinous ballads like previous single "Are You Mine " and a Beat It flirtation with hard rock on "Shot In The Back". There are attractive moments but no good songs. The album came in at 18, went down to 59 in its second week then was gone. So was their record contract.
Bros never formally announced their dissolution but they had become a joke. I remember a jibe on Only Fools and Horses when Racquel berates Del for piling up useless stock and lists Bros albums among the items and that might actually have pre-dated this single. They had little choice but to go and lick their wounds for a while.
Matt lay low for a few years, moved to Los Angeles and then re-emerged in 1995 with a solo album, "The Key". Matt sounds even more like Michael Jackson than before but at least the Fairlight funk sound has been ditched for more contemporary R & B arrangements. One or two tracks such as "Peace of Mind" and "Take The Demon" have some depth and are worth a second listen though he played safe with the singles, the tuneless funk-pop of "The Key" and faithful cover of Alexander O Neal's "If You Were Here Tonight". Although these were both medium-sized hits, the album itself didn't chart and his solo career looked to be dead in the water.
His next recording venture was a collaboration with Italian dance producer Giuseppe Troccoli as Co'Bra. "Love Sweet Love" a bubbly electro-funk number was released as a single here and a poor cover of Stevie Wonder's "Living For The City" in the Antipodes but the album "One" was only released in Italy.
Matt then went underground again, only re-emerging in 2003 with a single "I'm Coming With Ya" . It's a likeable enough pop reggae number similar to Peter Andre with bleepy electronic backing and Matt seems to have finally dropped the Jackson-isms and found his own singing voice. It's his biggest solo hit to date reaching number 22. He also appeared on the shortlived TV show Gamesville that year.
In May 2004 he appeared in the first series of Hell's Kitchen, coming third in the contest. He released his next album "Early Side of Later " a few weeks after the show finished and was rewarded with a single week at number 87. The opening track "Fly" made number 31 as a single around the same time and is typical of the album as a whole which re-casts Matt as a modern singer-songwriter embellishing his acoustic strums with low-key electronica. "Carolyn" re-visits the death of his sister referenced in the Bros hit "Sister" but that apart it's a bland affair that sounds like Gary Barlow on the cheap.
Later in the year, he made his last appearance in the singles chart to date as featured vocalist on an electronic dance track "I Need The Key" by Minimal Chic. It stalled at number 54 and is pretty forgettable.
In 2005 he published his autobiography More Than You Know which enjoyed healthy sales. There were rumours of a Bros reunion in 2008 which Matt encouraged but which his brother Luke quashed.
Matt released the self-funded album "Gossy" in 2009. Matt played everything himself except the horns and financed it himself too. For the most part it continues where the previous album left but for the single "Evil" he adopted a big band sound and appeared in the video in a fedora with scantily-clad models. It impressed the owners of The Palms night club in Las Vegas who offered him a regular slot there. Matt developed an act which included big band numbers as well as swing versions of old Bros hits performed together with his sexy dancers the Dirty Virgins and that's been his bread and butter ever since. He acquired a manager in Ron Astin, creator of the Pussycat Dolls and a year later moved up to a residency at the much more prestigious Cesar's Palace. He brought his show to the Royal Albert Hall for one night in October that year.
Also in 2010 he was guest vocalist on Paul Oakenfold's single "Firefly" an enjoyable piece of melancholy synth-pop that recalls A-Ha.
Matt returned to the Royal Albert Hall in October 2011 then signed a major deal with Decca Records for his next album "Life You Imagine" which came out in 2013. Apart from the Robbie Williams -like single " Strong" , it's aimed squarely at his new audience with light jazz numbers including a swing version of "When Will I Be Famous ? " It returned him to the UK album chart, peaking at number 27.
In October 2016, Matt released a single "Gone Too Long" to coincide with another show in the UK . It's a ponderous piano ballad, stuffed with faux-melodrama and rather hollow. Just after the gig Matt announced that he and Luke ( but not Craig ) would be reuniting for a 30th anniversary concert at the O2 Arena in August this year . They then added further dates but in March had to announce they were cancelling most of them due to "Certain logistical problems" which is probably code for low ticket sales . They released a single online "Love Can Make You Fly " to coincide with the London dates, a paean to family life with retro-soul stylings that drifts blandly into one ear and out the other.
The song marked Luke's return to recording music after a 26 year absence. Shortly after the took the lead role in the London revival of Grease and decided to pursue an acting career. His first film role was The Stretch a TV movie in 2000 and since then he has worked continuously, finding his own niche playing villains in sci-fi films . Since 2007 he and his wife, session singer Shirley Lewis, have lived mainly in Los Angeles.
Craig managed the solo career of his girlfriend Kim Appleby and when that ran out of steam took an A & R job with EMI working with Tina Turner, Garth Brooks and Robbie Williams. In 1999 he left EMI to work with Roger Davies, an artist manager who oversaw a number of top acts. They were responsible for launching Pinks's career. From 2006 to 2010 he was Managig director of RCA. In 2010 he started his own company Logan Media Enertainment whose clients include Anastasia, Dido and Cher Lloyd. He politely declined to join the Bros reunion tour; I wonder why ?
I watched (and enjoyed) Hellboy 2 when it came out and was very surprised to see Luke Goss had played the villain of the piece to the degree I had to check it was the one and same. Credit to him for that one, but none of any of his music. Though I wonder if he actually played on any of the hits...
ReplyDelete