After the Screaming Stops

A music documentary about a band you have little emotional investment in is a big ask, especially when it's tracking their comeback. But this documentary is something different; for a start, love or hate their music, Bros were (for a short time) a genuine cultural force for those of us who were becoming aware of music in the 1980s. And, as this documentary makes clear, they make for unexpectedly entertaining subjects; it's not quite clear if this is deliberate or inadvertent (I tend to the latter). But this is a film full of endlessly quotable, genuinely laugh out loud moments; if's downright funnier than most comedies. For the most part Matt and Luke are the only voices we hear; and despite the humour, there are also some moments that are clearly moving; especially when they talk about the deaths of their sister and, later, their mother. The big London comeback gig - which the film builds up to - serves as a moment of genuine cathartic release for band and viewer alike; and though I still have no affection for their music, there's a sense of deeper appreciation for the people behind the music - even as I laugh at them.

Bros "After The Screaming Stops"

Wow just finished this. I always thought the music was rubbish and the looks silly. But you couldn't help laughing and at times feeling for the boys.

They are ridiculous and perfect in their imperfection but their humanity made it difficult at times to laugh no matter how much what they said warranted it.

Poignant mention for Terry Wogan's quote "what you gonna do when the screaming stops" which generates the title.

Some of my favourite quotes (from many).

"Rome wasn't built in a day, but we don't have time that Rome did"...

"The letters H.O.M.E. are so important because they personify the word home." Matt Goss

"I made a conscious decision because of Stevie Wonder not to be superstitious." Matt Goss

There's footage from their peak where the Goss twins are surrounded by 100s of screaming girls, plus the one boy. Him being quite the unexpected fan as boys, including 10 year old me, absolutely did NOT like Bros. However, as an adult, I do find myself revisiting stories from my early years that I was too young at the time to fully comprehend, and I watched 'After' wanting to know how the biggest phenomena of 1988 fell out of favour so quick.

'After' follows the Goss Bros reuniting for their first performance together since their initial split, and the doc follows the preparation for their comeback gig (at the London 02 Arena no less), interspersed with archive footage and the brothers looking back at their childhood and the peak years of their success.

Within the first 10 minutes, Matt is giving us a tour of his home, showing us, completely irony free, a commissioned painting of his bulldog with a pint of beer. There seems to be little change from their 80s selves, ludicrous with no apparant sense of self-awareness, but this is actually what makes the film a hugely entertaining watch, for the fan and non-fan. The prize quotes from the film and have been plastered all round the internet, so I don't need to repeat them here - there are some real laugh out loud moments, and I'm left thinking that the brothers are in on the joke but they won't show any cracks in their facade.

My bigger disappointment in the film was that there is little insight into their decline. They had a hugely successful first year, followed by a more muted comeback in 1989, and a barely noticed third clutch of singles and an album in 1991. There was the departure of Craig Logan (the rumour mill at the time suggested the boys kicked him out, not true), mockery and hostility from the press, competition by way of Jason Donovan and New Kids On The Block, and no especially memorable songs after 'I Owe You Nothing' and 'When Will I Be Famous'. They touch on Luke quitting, their financial troubles, and the stress of the sheer venom unleashed upon them, however, by the end of the film, I was left non the wiser as at the start - what actually happened?

As the boys arrive at the airport, they receive an enthusiastic and emotional greeting from the grown-up Brosettes, showing that 30 years later, they still mean a great deal to some of their fans. These same fans would wait all day outside the family house in Peckham for a glimpse of the twins - a major intrusion into their personal lives - but they (and their mother) took it well, happy to go outside hug fans and give autographs, whilst other stars would hide behind their bodyguards. This invites cynics like me to want the twins to deliver a knockout comeback performance, whilst the decades apart from each other in a studio has not softened their clashing personalities, and we're left wondering if the twins reunion will indeed lead to destruction or the genesis of new beginnings.

For a fan, this naturally is a must, but there is plenty of reasons for the non-fan to watch. And to imagine they nearly called themselves Caviar...

This movie is what This Is Spinal Tap was trying to achieve but so much more. The Goss brothers unintentionally put together one of the funniest films of the last 10 years. Matt Goss' insane similes, metaphors and anecdotes are akin to Michael Scott of The Office and really must be heard to be believed. It spoke volumes about how brief and fleeting fame can forever skew a person's perspective of reality and a sense of their own importance. Ultimately Bros were huge for an incredibly small amount of time but seem to perceive themselves to have been at the level of the Beatles and their earnest belief in that makes them both comic and tragic. The battle of egos over the smallest detail in what turns out to be a not exactly sold out show at the shed that is London's O2 is akin to Christopher Guest's 1984 classic. Compelling in its madness and definitely worth a watch.

Charming melange of Spinal Tap, David Brent and People Do Nothing which is compulsive viewing even for anyone who imagines that a Bros reunion gig is the last thing they fancy witnessing.