Matt Goss: Tipping his hat to The Hits & More in Hull, York and Leeds in April. Picture: Paul Harris
ANNOUNCING The Hits & More tour, Matt Goss proclaimed: “Trust me, what I’ve learnt over the years being on countless stages around the world, this will be your best night of the year!”
Three Yorkshire shows in quick succession offer the chance to take the Bros pop star-turned- Las Vegas showman at his word at Hull Connexin Live on April 24, York Barbican on April 25 and Leeds Grand Theatre on April 28, the tour’s closing night.
On the road since March 8, Goss will be celebrating all he has achieved in his music career and beyond since Bros’s 1987 debut smash with When Will I Be Famous?
He will be returning to York two years to the week since The Matt Goss Experience show with the MG Big Band and The Royal Philharmonic, rearranged to April 20 2023 on medical advice after the recurrence of a shoulder and collar-bone injury.
“I couldn’t believe how much I loved York, the history, the buildings. I fell in love with it,” recalls Matt. “Everything I love about this country was there. I really enjoyed it a great deal – and I loved the audience there.”
“There are challenges here compared with the States, but I’m very lucky to be part of the furniture,” says Matt Goss
The 2023 tour show combined Goss’s biggest hits with new original music and a tribute to Cole Porter in an evening of “unashamed swing, glitz and swagger”. “I take great pride in my arrangements with the horn section,” he says of that show. “This time it will be more of a rock’n’roll set-up , still with a horn section, but a bit harder sounding, taking things I’ve learned from my Caesar’s Palace residency in Las Vegas, adding rock’n’roll.”
Matt would prefer not to have to “compartmentalise my Matt Goss career, my Bros career , my Las Vegas career”. “I don’t have to go through this in America, where I’m allowed to be a singer, to be more much more expressive, but there’s so much history here, and as much as I love it here, they can compartmentalise you,” he says. “In America, it’s more profound, more supportive.
“But I have landed in a very fortunate place here. There are challenges here compared with the States, but I’m very lucky to be part of the furniture.”
So, yes, there will be the hits, but the “And More” element is equally important. “It’s everything I’ve learned in Las Vegas; how I connect with my audience, the communication side. It’s everything I’ve learned in the last 38 years of my career,” says Matt, 56.
“I couldn’t believe how much I loved York, the history, the buildings. I fell in love with it,” says Matt Goss, recalling his 2023 visit to the York Barbican. Picture: Paul Harris
In practical terms, there is more immediacy to a rock’n’roll show than “the big turning circle of a big band”. “You’re meant to feel the difference,” says Matt. “You can get away with more when you play live, pushing it harder, breaking it down instantaneously.”
Going forward, Matt says: “I want my live work to be much more frequent here, and not all my big moments to be on the States, as it’s what I do best.”
Matt loves being in control in his live shows, where there is “always room for a laugh” and he looks at ease. “The second you’re uncomfortable is the second the audience is uncomfortable. You’ve got to remove fear as the audience can pick up on that. I’m single-minded on stage, taking pains to make sure they’re enjoying themselves and not worrying about their bills in that moment.”
By comparison, he found taking part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2022, straight off the plane from America, to be a restrictive experience, losing out in a Week Four dance-off against Kym Marsh when paired with professional dancer Nadiya Bychkova.
“I respected everyone on there,” he says. “But you’re told what to say, you’re told how to dance, and I just felt completely removed from myself because, by definition, on that show you never have communication. They want soundbites. It was everything I didn’t want to do.
The poster for Matt Goss’s The Hits & More tour
“I don’t mean that negatively but it didn’t agree with me on any level. Nadiya was fantastic, but I didn’t feel it was me. I know how to move on stage, I’ve been doing it for 38 years, but suddenly you’re beholden to the dance you’re given. It’s not a space to communicate. It’s not for me.
“I’m a singer, I’m an artist, I don’t mind presenting or having my own show, but I don’t want to be in this celebrity force-fed atmosphere. There are very few shows that don’t erode your artistry. In a weird way, it’s like being a dancing monkey in a zoo. It’s not encouraging a cerebral connection. It’s all soundbites.”
After 25 years of blue skies in America, Matt made the “massive decision” to move to central London last year. “There was an element of fear, but in my relationship with the media, no-one has thrown a side-swipe for a long time.
“The weather is pretty challenging, but I love the architecture, the parks, the venues; I love my food, I love travelling around the country too. I’m happy to be back.”
Matt Goss: The Hits & More, York Barbican, April 25, 8pm. Also plays Hull Connexin Live, April 24 and Leeds Grand Theatre, April 28. Box office: mattgossofficial.co.uk; yorkbarbican.co.uk.
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