At 5pm on the evening of September 29^th 1968, at Lewisham Hospital in London, Luke Damon Goss was born, two months early and weighing only four pounds and 2oz. Eleven minutes later his twin brother Matt arrived too. It was quite a surprise to his parents. They didn’t realize they were having twins as the boys were lying back-to-back and their heartbeats were synchronized!

Sadly, Luke’s parents divorced when he and Matt were five and they lived with their grandparents for a while. But when he was seven, his mother introduced him to another man who was to become her husband, Tony Phillips. Tony had two children, Carolyn (who was 1 year younger) and Adam (who was 3 years younger), from a previous marriage. (Carolyn was tragically killed at age eighteen when hit by a drunk driver.)

When Luke first saw drums he was so small his head didn’t even come up to the bottom on the shop window sill. But he wanted them badly. And when he was twelve his dream came true when his mother and step-dad gave him a set…and a musician was born!

Luke always played the ‘big brother’ role of the twins, feeling it his duty to look after Matt. Despite this closeness, Luke always struggled for a sense of individuality. It wasn’t easy as twins are always ‘put together’ – if one was naughty, people automatically assumed that the other was naughty too. When he was 13 he and Matt asked to be in separate classes at school. This was a big step because they’d always been together before that, but they were so keen to be seen as individuals it seemed like the only thing to do. Though he always did Matt’s maths homework. He was put in the wrong maths class and his work was too easy. He wanted to switch with Matt but teachers wouldn’t let him. As such, he got very bored at school and couldn’t wait to leave.

Having said all that, Luke loves having Matt for a twin. He had an instant close friend in Matt, and they could communicate almost by telepathy. They could just look at each other and know what the other was thinking.