Just Luke At Me:2002

Sep 20, 2002

Sky News
Just Luke At Me: I’m A Film Star
11:44am UK, Friday September 20, 2002

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20082851064911

A long, long time ago Bros ruled the airwaves. They were the pop sensation of the 80s and were responsible for far more than just dominating our charts.

The rise of Bros saw the birth of a whole new species – the Brosettes, writes Sky’s Showbiz reporter Hannah Stott.

This breed of fan was easily identified by their official Brosette clothes: torn jeans, belt buckles with big emblems, leather jacket – with cool badges – and Doc Martens with an imported bottle top in the laces.

Twins Matt and Luke Goss and their sidekick Craig Logan personified the 1980s, but when that decade came to an end so did the group.

Keep their distance

The brothers now keep their distance from one another in order to gain credibility in what they now choose to do.

Luke, the one-time underdog in the band, has taken the acting path, whereas Matt is ploughing on with music.

“We don’t speak as much as we used to, less than ever because I’ve been filming and promoting,” says Luke, the elder twin by 10 minutes.

“I’m told he’s doing his new album and that he’s great,” he adds.

I’m talking to him on the set of his new movie, Charlie, in which he plays the lead role of 1960s mob boss Charlie Richardson.

That’s right, while the world has been patching up its jeans and moving on, so has Luke.

Bros memorabilia

I’m sure many of you had the Gosses sitting in a house surrounded by Bros memorabilia, opening the odd fete. None of it.

Luke has steadily been building himself an acting career. After cutting his teeth in musicals he took his chances in Hollywood and it paid off, landing himself a role in Blade 2 alongside Wesley Snipes.

After this he was spotted and deemed perfect for the role of Charlie.

“It’s a gangster movie, it’s a biopic rather than sensationalising things. It’s chronological and monitors the trial where Charlie was sentenced to 25 years.

“There are a lot of gangster movies around right now but I thought this one would be the real deal and it’s endorsed by the real people.”

And it would need to be with the Charlie Richardson himself lurking around the set keeping a watchful eye over proceedings. He still gives off an air that he is not to be messed with.

Screaming fans

Notable absentees however were the screaming fans, with not a Grolsch bottle top in sight.

Luke is fairly detached from that part of his life.

He is now 33 years old and it has been a long journey since the mayhem of the Bros years.

“I look at it and I’m reminded of it and I’m proud of it but it does seem like a long long time ago.

“Someone recently said to me ‘you must be at least 45!’, but I was a boy then, I was 18 and I had a lot of fun.”

He accepts that much of his acting success, particularly in the early days, is down to the fans and admits to me that he hopes the odd Brosette still exists.

“I get great support. I think if it wasn’t for people who used to like the band, I don’t think the shows I have done would have been as successful as they were.

‘Nostalgia kicks’

“I think with the girls and boys, when you get over the stage of being silly, nostalgia kicks in and then support kicks in again.”

I wasn’t a Brosette and while we’re having our photo taken together I whisper this to him, he gives my arm a squeeze, looks me in the eye and tells me “I won’t hold it against you”.

I feel my knees tremble and heart skip, it may be 15 years too late but I finally see what the fuss was about and I dash home to apply scissors to my denims.

At a time when cult figures from the 80s like Martin Kemp, Gary Numan and Marti Pellow are making comebacks and gangster movies have never been cooler, all the signs suggest that it is just the beginning, once again, for the charming Luke Goss.