defend the indefensible: BROS

And "I owe you nothing' is not to be sniffed at, neither.

you mean 'I Owe You Nothing' (re #1, tho it's not as good as WWIBF itself)

Is there a better first three singles treble whammy?

Ok, probably.

Haha, I'm old and foolish enough to remember/admit with only a tinge of embarrasment plenty of my friends getting this before they realised WHAT IT ACTUALLY WAS. Boybands seemed more interesting, back then. Better tunes.

I can't see the 2010 Sascha Funke equivalent dusting off "Backstreet's Back" somehow. I may well be wrong.

The way whichever Goss it was pronounces "Marx" in "When Will I Be Famous" was a nadir of the '80s comparable only to the miners' defeat and Tiannamen Square.

The way whichever Goss it was pronounces "Stalin" in "When Will I Be Famous" was a nadir of the '80s comparable to the time at school when the kids called me "fatty fat fat" and I knew their parents voted Tory. They had to. Just had to.

You are on the right? I HOPE YOU DIE, EVIL TORY VAMPIRE!

That was as predictable as any Tory sprouting off about the free economy.

Marlin? sounds a bit fishy to me

Oh yeah, cos it sucked!

Good pop, the famous singles at least.

They were a bit creepy.

No mention of "Sister" yet I notice, ammo for the detractors.

I still like "When Will I Be Famous?" so at a minimum that makes them better than Skrewdriver.

"I Owe You Nothing" was voted the best single OF ALL TIME by Radio One listeners in the late 1980s.

My sister used to go out with one of their session musicians. I think he played bass.

I still love their singles. "I quit" and "I owe you nothing" are just classic pop tunes (best not played again, because I do realize those tunes only worked if you were a 15 yr old).

All I remember was that in interviews they kept banging on and on joylessly about "the industry" as though making music was a cleansing process similar to taking a cold bath or being a stormtrooper.

No wonder the bassplayer became a quite successful manager. I think he (or was it someone else in the band?) dated one of the Mel & Kim girls.

And Matt Goss has just not long ago released a bloody fantastic album, where as Luke is doing well in the movie world.

Craig also now manages Pink among others.

have you ever tried listening to music?

Truly inspiring. Somebody photoshop this:

http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/57366604.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=8D1A55FA4F4B48DB8E25599DB2E5F5CA284831B75F48EF45

Luckily they didn't last long.
(And I don't give a damn if they were tories. What counts is they sucked musically, unlike great Tory voting musicians such as Mike Oldfield and Rick Wakeman)

Great thread.

(Well. I only revived this because, thumbing through the Chris Heath book on the PSB last night, I noted how obsessed they were with Bros)

They're awesome to hang with for brewskis and bong rips.

It is my favorite song by the artist called Panda Bear.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/05/bros-matt-luke-goss-reunion-london-o2-arena-2017-tickets

Going to watch Bros again. pic.twitter.com/QzLmtkVbXO

— John Rain (@MrKenShabby) December 25, 2018

Currently on iPlayer. DO NOT MISS THIS. Unexpected film highlight of the year. It's like Nigel Tufnel and David Brent had twins.

it was absolutely brilliant.
best thing I have seen so far this festive season.
so many WTF moments.

it's pretty tense. the scenes with them arguing are a bit too real in place

places*

Had to watch it again as there were too many howlers to fully absorb the first time

I've looked at Matt and Luke's Twitters and they appear to be pleased with the documentary (at present)

Any hope of seeing this outside of UK?

Best option might be Rakuten, that's how I saw it.

This film is definitely...something.

Hey Ned, can you explain / link? Googling Rakuten + bros + bbc = ?

https://rakuten.tv/ie/movies/bros-after-the-screaming-stops

Oh I see. That isn’t available in the US either....but I thought Ned was a US guy, so wondering how he saw it. I guess through a proxy ...

A slight fudge, yes.

currently here

https://i.ibb.co/JshhxvS/Clipboard02.jpg

I've seen no less than three stories from people talking about this film with that as THE image...after I had written my own FB post using it too.

(The killer extra detail is that there's all these fairly obvious choices for whiskey back there behind him, all of which appear to have never been touched.)

i just started watching and was dying at matt's commentaries... then the painting put it over the top.

Matt is the unintentional master of the comedy pauses.

Anyway, experience the legend!

http://mattgoss.la/vegas/

I actually found this very depressing. confused by the comedy takes. it is good though.

He's a rectangle. I'm a rectangle. Together we make a square. And that's a fortress.

I really must watch this.

I thought it was very sad in places. definitely (unintentionally) funny too tho

It's absolutely a mix of the deeply sad/fucked up -- them talking about losing their sister in the middle of their fame was no joke -- and the confoundingly "what the HELL?" To quote a comment from FB which I do think is absolutely OTM: "it’s bizarre to see two people who’ve evidently had years of therapy (judging from the way they talk) but have managed to garner precisely no self awareness from it."

In a real, true way, the saving grace are all the fans, then and especially now.

Per other comments on my page -- a friend who is himself a twin (never knew that before now) said that the struggle to establish a singular identity when you're always grouped together is terribly hard, and that really plays out in the documentary, entwined with the sheer and obvious disgruntlement verging on anger that Luke has towards Matt still. Luke might actually score the single most moving section of the whole deal when he talks about how he had to ask for his then-fiancee Shirley Lewis's ring back due to money trouble following him leaving Bros -- it's clear that really still upsets and embarrasses him, and the fact that she and he have been together for thirty years through it all is a pretty great sign of deep trust.

Simply going "haw haw" at this would be a bad look, absolutely, but it's also completely true that Luke is Mr. Try Too Hard -- the endless 90s grunge T-shirts alone! -- and Matt is just...I mean, I don't know.

And further: if these two guys weren't making a living and doing reasonably well at same all this time, but were living in total obscurity and struggling for cash and the basics, the hilarity would, I assume, be hard to find. But it's the story of a steadily working character actor/director in LA and a Las Vegas attraction who has been working there for years, and in their own ways both embody absolute stereotypes of their adopted homes. As I said on FB, the amount of of-that-age dudes like Luke from all over the world wandering around LA in black sleeveless T-shirts and kinda sorta still doing music is endless, and Matt is indistinguishable from the Vegas Strip hordes who think “What if Justin Timberlake IS Sinatra?”

I was a bit drunk, admittedly, when I watched. was Craig in the doc at all? I can't recall.

no craig at all, not even mentioned.

He is not mentioned, but he's in a thank you list in the end credits. Craig ended up working in the industry for many years and currently manages Anastacia, Dido and Cher Lloyd among others.

The more telling absence, not even mentioned once: Tom Watkins.

parts of it were hilarious and I didn't feel bad laughing all the way through it because I thought they came across horribly throughout, even when they were talking about their mother there was a self-centredness around how they framed it that felt uncomfortable to me

No mention of their father either. Lots about their mother, but nothing about him.

Yeah, noticed that too.

Just finished watching it, definitely a mixture of Spinal Tap/David Brent-ish humour but it is quite sad in places. As already pointed out, any therapy they've undertaken doesn't seem to have lead to self-awareness.

I went down a Discogs rabbit hole and it seems Luke released a single on One Little Indian in 1994 - https://www.discogs.com/Thieves-Like-Us-Life/master/617746

He sure did -- and I have the Melody Maker issue with the feature with him about it.

The lack of acknowledgement of Logan is especially conspicuous given his endless appearance in '80s footage. He even appears in close-up in the snappy opening credits--precisely on cue for "Craig Logan, bass"--but he doesn't even get that much. Hilarious.

All of that, plus the dedication to their family at the end gives the impression that they were allowed input, yet still manages to make them look like massive arses

It seems very much like they were heavily involved in the decision making process behind the film, which makes it all the better, Matt really does think all these Spinal Tap / Alan Partridge words of wisdom are worth hearing. It's clear that he would not appreciate anyone laughing at him, but unintended brilliance is still brilliance. I would still be fairly interested in a real documentary about them, but this approach has somehow had a much better result.

it's also completely true that Luke is Mr. Try Too Hard -- the endless 90s grunge T-shirts alone!

I did wonder what agonies of indecision he went through to finally arrive at the choice of the Soundgarden shirt for the O2 show.

ugh that bit where he chastises the session bass player for not playing with the intensity and passion of Flea....

The mere mention of Craig being nixed from the film (apart from once when Wogan says his name on archive footage) must have been a decision on behalf of the brothers. Of course, it hardly matters

No mention of their father either. Lots about their mother, but nothing about him.

The bit where Matt talks about a paparazzi taking a photo of him in the bath and ends with the aside ....."luckily, the bubbles were covering it.." is pure David Brent

Just watched this fascinating character study of famous identical twins! Their particular brand of self-aggrandising passive aggression and unfathomable philosophies is very familiar for me from numerous former colleagues. What was totally surprising was the sheer intensity of their bond: the extreme tactileness, the seemingly total dependence on the tides of one another’s moods, the defining of themselves only in relation to the other... I totally rooting for them by the end.

I wonder if they engaged in the editing process in the same way that they were shown to micromanage every other professional process.

I have to imagine that's the case.

Director is @Joe_Pearlman on Twitter. Many interactions and such with various celebs proves that this is no 'spoof' as some people are claiming.

it reminded me a fair bit of the Anvil documentary though of course the Anvil guys come across as much nicer and more humble. Luke seemed much more self-aware than Matt, the aforementioned scene in the latter's apartment where he shows off his chess set and says he "likes to sit here and play a nice long game of chess" was a highlight for me

20 minutes into this extraordinary document and i can’t stop boggling at matt goss’ solid plastic hair

it looks like it could stop a bullet without getting even slightly mussed

Re. Anvil, Lips certainly came across as much more of an entitled, whiny prick than Luke imo

Best option might be Rakuten, that's how I saw it.

It’s still on iPlayer for 26 days. You can count towards the ratings!

My VPN has had trouble with iPlayer so I had to do a workaround.

so uh their dying, 60lb mum got on a plane to go and spend her last hours with her boys rather than... them flying to be with her? wtf

The way whichever Goss it was pronounces "Marx" in "When Will I Be Famous" was a nadir of the '80s comparable only to the miners' defeat and Tiannamen Square.

Had to re-listen for this. Who'd have thunk the one line I never made out was a reference to reading Marx!? (I heard the song A LOT at the time, thanks to obsessed siblings and cousins.)

so uh their dying, 60lb mum got on a plane to go and spend her last hours with her boys rather than... them flying to be with her? wtf
― H00kup with Jaundice Singles!! (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 30 December 2018 21:30 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sleep bandana was in the wash

only had crispy bandanas.

Finally finished this and I have to say that although I came in for the LOLz (and there were quite a few), this story of sibling insecurities and resentments turned out to be quite touching. For the first half of the film, I was cheering for poor ol' misunderstood Luke, having to deal with a narcissic cretin of a brother. By the end of it, I found Matt, dim as he is, to be the more sympathetic of the two.

agree with that even tho i feel it must be wrong.

most fucked up thing was their grandad pulling the dart out of one of them and then giving it back to them to play with

No wonder they have no understanding of modern conker laws

there was the part where they were about to go on stage where Matt was trying to get Luke hyped up and he started moaning about him not ad-libbing that made me change my affiliation a bit but i agree with Fizzles.

xxpost

could not get over the fact that they had not spoken with each other for many years, somehow thought they would be able to figure out/practise a big show following a mere 3 weeks of practise sessions with a bunch of sessioners.
and yet, they did.
i suspect a lot of actual hard work was edited out for the sake of the drama.

Wonder why the session guys were fairly old blokes

I kept thinking about how much Luke looked like Ben Kingsley out of Sexy Beast. When Matt had his strop and walked out of the room, I did expect Luke to say "What you swearing for, I ain't swearin?"

Wonder why the session guys were fairly old blokes

So Matt and Luke would look young in comparison? I could imagine Matt for sure insisting on this.

Seasoned vets familiar with diva tantrums are the obvious choice for a backing band here.

which is one aspect of what makes it so entertaining when luke decides he needs to impose some artistic creativity on the keyboardist and then has a meltdown when everyone tells him being a bellend isn't the best way to do that and rather than remembering that he hasn't played drums or apparently done anything musical in the best part of 25 years apart from dive hard into a foo fighters, sound garden authenticity vector response to the bros-h8terz he instead sees this as an extension of the Bros power dynamic and indeed the power dynamic of his entire life where he felt no one ever listened to him or let him say anything or allow him any agency at all.

i did feel a bit sorry for him when he said he went running every evening as a child just to get away from people.

I don't get why he decided to be the drummer in the first place. A boy band can have two singers, the drummer is never going to get any attention, how else was this going to pan out for egotistical twins?

Drums = probably an early sign of the authenticity vector taking hold.

by firing the bassist for drawing attention, then paying him more money than you even have in order to go away

Seasoned vets familiar with diva tantrums are the obvious choice for a backing band here.

During the footage in the rehearsal room where the twins are shouting at each other, I loved how the camera slyly pans away to the right to where the bassist is impassively fiddling with his smartphone.

Research leads me to the fact that producer/co-songwriter Nicky Graham used to play in proto-prog third-raters Tucky Buzzard, which I never knew:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Bh-6M31Ep38

so did they reduce the set down to that one song then

Noticed a mention of Madison Square Garden, I presume this was as support, there’s no way they headlined back in the day?

(Conspicuous lack of US-specific old Bros footage)

Wikipedia list for all shows played there says not at all. Same list also says Sun City Girls in 1983 so I may have self-clowned there.

I guess if they did play Madison Square Garden it would have most likely been spporting George Michael or Michael Jackson. Can’t see them supporting the Moody Blues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_entertainment_events_at_Madison_Square_Garden#1980s

NB that for the second leg of last year's reunion, they booked an Australian tour that consisted of one show in one city at a 13,000 capacity venue, and cancelled three weeks ahead of the date having sold a couple of hundred tickets.

Yeah the real kicker about this reunion is that they're just not THAT well loved.

Conspicuous lack of US-specific old Bros footage

They dance around it but yeah there were nothing here. Just a 'what are all these UK people talking about?' reaction. At least Frankie got legit big here with airplay.

might have supported Debbie Gibson on this date?

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/debbie-gibson/1989/madison-square-garden-new-york-ny-43f1cfd3.html

yep there are a couple of dates listed there showing that they played usa/canada shows with debbie gibson in 1989.

bootleg on youtube: full-length, with a minute of silence here & there possibly to foil copyright robots

The documentary certainly delivers - it was worth them reforming just for this!

This is so endlessly quoteable.

"Then we called ourselves 'epitome'*, which I believe is Latin for 'abstract'"

*(pronounced "eppy tome")

that drew an actual lol from me, but I was surprised to see that many dictionaries include "abstract" as a secondary meaning, and describe its etymology as "via Latin from Greek", so I am schooled by Bros it seems

it's abstract in the academic sense though...

i think it's like abstract in the sense that epitome = the embodiment of a number of things and an abstract is a summary of something larger. i.ee they are both things which encompass other things within them. am i explaining myself well here? this might be wrong

no, that's correct

yay thanks

It's all half bobbins, half a grain of truth..

Matt was on GMB explaining that his family were highly superstitious when he was a kid, and that's why. Of course, he might be enlarging things to back it up.

My favourite bit was the 'conkers' bit.

Also, now we can actually tell them apart no bother.

they always had different faces and Matt had a broader, slightly higher haircut than Luke

It's all half bobbins, half a grain of truth..

what is?

Matt was on GMB explaining that his family were highly superstitious when he was a kid, and that's why. Of course, he might be enlarging things to back it up.

what’s why, which things, and backing what up?

I can’t tell if you’re talking about the definition of epitome throughout or

"We call it the Matt Goss-pel choir"

that drew an actual lol from me, but I was surprised to see that many dictionaries include "abstract" as a secondary meaning, and describe its etymology as "via Latin from Greek", so I am schooled by Bros it seems

"EPPY TOME", thiugh!

*though

that's how they say it around the Embankment.

"Matt Goss-pel Choir" is genuinely funny and the sort of thing I'd come up with while dicking around in the studio (if my name was Matt Goss). I know some people read it as more ego showing, but it's a good joke imo.

The good thing is, you can go anywhere in your mind. pic.twitter.com/YYjkvv0JjK

— Matt Goss (@mattgoss) March 24, 2020

loool

err to the races, i guess?