Matt Goss talks about stardom, Strictly and his frustration with the music industry

Most recently Goss took part in BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with professional dancer, Nadiya Bychkova. They lost the dance-off in week three to soap star Kym Marsh and her partner Graziano Di Prima, but Goss, who didn’t always look the most comfortable dancing, said he really loved the experience. "When you expose your heart people it makes you vulnerable. Although I’ve been on stage two thirds of my living life I can get uncomfortable if I’m not around a group of people or situation I am entirely comfortable in. I love what I do, I love people but when you’ve been doing this for 37 years and sold millions and millions of records it is more about the experience and I am so, so grateful. I have made some life-long friends thanks to Strictly, including Tony Adams– everyone was so supportive of each other.” It was revealed after Goss left the show that he suffers from Poland Syndrome – a disorder that affects people's muscles and usually impacts one side of the body - in Goss's case he has a part of his major chest muscle missing. "I didn’t want the sympathy vote, I’m not that guy,” he says of why he didn’t tell people about his condition on the show.

Matt and Luke were just five when their parents split up and their dad left, although he says he has a great relationship with him now. He remembers a “super humble” but happy childhood “surrounded by love” in London’s East End. "It left a big hole for my mother to raise two young boys exactly the same age with the same needs at exactly the same time. I have a deep respect now more than ever for my mother even though she’s not here.” Goss lost mother Carol to cancer in 2014. “We grew up all over south London, but Camberwell is where I remember feeling safe – a big word for me. My mother, my granddad, my aunt Sally and my brother Luke were this little tribe in this two up two down maisonette, I felt like the richest person in the world even though we didn’t have anything. There were times when my mother didn’t have a penny, literally, and we just gravitated towards music." It was during a school production of Cabaret that people noticed Matt’s singing voice and he joined a band with brother Luke.

"We got a record offer when we were 16 but the day we were getting ready to sign our record deal they passed on us. We just thought that was the end of our career, we are never going to make it.” But within a year the now Sony signed the boys and two years later they had the biggest debut album in the company’s history. “We were the biggest pop band in the world,” recalls Goss. When the band split in 1992, he was barely into his 20s when the next phase as a solo artist began, eventually leading to Vegas in 2009

He says despite finding fame at such a young age the brothers took it in their stride. “I’m not damaged by any of that stuff, I think I find it more challenging now. I’ve had to pull myself out of depths people can’t imagine. I do have dark days and being here I do struggle with certain things.” When he’s having a bad day his key is to get out and go for walk to clear his head and settles his mind.

“Culturally, whenever I came back lately, the last couple of years, I’ve felt much more of a pull. And obviously, I lost my mother, and I think I avoided that space. Part of the process for me coming home was hanging out with her a lot, if I did a gig or even a TV show, very often she would come with me. I’ve landed enough times in the UK since her passing to actually take that reactionary kind of grief now. I’ve made a decision that she’s with me constantly, and I don’t want to hide as much from that stuff anymore. And that’s what I think I did – I was ploughing through with work, I ploughed through everything and didn’t address anything. And now it’s time to say, ‘I want to go and be with my thoughts in a park in London’.”

It is clear Goss is also frustrated by the changes not only in the music industry but in regional broadcasting. “My understanding of the music industry now is very deep. It feels sometimes like there is a monopoly. Regional radio and press have really supported me – they are the capillaries to this country. Knowing what is going on locally is vital. But now everything has been nationalised and we are loosing the identity of these beautiful regions. I get DJs telling me they can’t play the records they want to play or they are having to reapply for their own jobs and are having the lives sucked out of them – it’s shameful. Soon everyone will be listening to the same stuff. It is very frustrating and I do feel on something of a mission. I am not scared to speak up – someone has to. I love what I do and I am determined to do what I love. In America success is good thing – here not so much. I feel a bit beaten up about it but I feel a sense of duty to do something about it. I’ve got **** all to lose. There needs to be someone to stand up for this art form, music is a valuable thing. I always hoped we could go into a more elevation kind of culture, where we encourage success, it’s a good word, and you might not always be successful, but bloody have a go at least.” Despite his frustration with the industry music remains his first love although he is filming two movies this year – playing “the type of person I hate in the music industry.”

Gratitude is “everything”, to Goss who says he feels observed by loved ones who have died, including his mother and sister who was killed by a drink driver when she was just 18. “I am grateful even for my next breath – it’s the one thing we simply cannot do without. Because I’ve literally witnessed first-hand people taking their last breath, people I love with all my soul. So I’m grateful for my next breath. That’s how simple it is for me.”

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