VegasChatter

Change 1: The Voice

Remember how in Bros the Goss voice was a bit high, and he used to throw in kind of grunty shouts as he sang? (When Will I Be Famous? had them all over it.) Wipe that from your memories – it’s unrecognizable now. In fact, on the Strip, he’s even known as The Voice. His people came up with the clever moniker for his Palms gig, and everyone else picked it up and ran with it. One reviewer called him “this century’s Sinatra”, another “the leader of a new Ratpack.” Sorry, Frank.

Change 2: The Style

We’re not going to say any more about his Bros clothes because it’s mean (and also because mainly they speak for themselves). Let’s concentrate on the fact that he’s a stylemeister now. He wears suits! He wears sexy jacket-and-jeans combos! And he’s always rockin’ a hot fedora (we’re slightly obsessed with the feathery one he’s wearing in the video here, thanks to its hints of the Wicker Man, and British Sea Power, which used to be a fave band of ours). He is, in short, a Vegas style guru. Expect his own clothing line soon (really – you heard it here first).

Change 3: The Musical Influence

The Goss Vegas show is very Ratpacky, so even when he’s doing his own stuff, or singing his ay-may-zing version of Hotel California it all sounds rather retro. No dodgy 80s synths here.

Change 4: The Company He Keeps

Professionally, he’s hanging out with the girls these days. He’s now managed by Robin Antin, creator of the Pussycat Dolls, so thanks to her he gets up onstage with scantily clad lady dancers who drape themselves over him, do high kicks and show the rest of us their bums. It’s probably a good thing for Luke and hundreds of thousands of 30-something women that he didn’t meet the Antin in 1987.

Change 5: The Sex Appeal

It’s a bit wrong to fancy the Bros-era Goss (not least because he was a child when he was in the band), but it’s totally ok to enjoy his charms now. The atmosphere in the Gossy Room is a little louche, a lot sexay - women throw their undies at him, men fixate on the flexibility of the dancers, and everyone is happy. Including the Goss, who seems extremely at ease with whipping it up into the start of a bacchanalia. For just how at ease, you’ll have to wait for next Monday.

In the mean time, here’s a new video we took of him performing his song Evil outside Caesars Palace. Enjoy.

[Palms photo: Denise Truscello]