MAT OSMAN WENY TO THE SCHOOL ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN.
Bron in Welwyn Garden City October 9,1967,he moved to Sussex due to his parents' work(his monther was a primary school teacher,and his father was"a
commuter-I have no idea what he did. I haven't seen him for 20 years.")
Unlike Brett, Mat was neither sporty nor rebellious,but the quiet, academic type who"never had a lot of fun."His family were not particularly musical-the frist sounds he remembers are hisaunt's ELO and Dr Hook records,his parents'
Carpenters collection,and the soothing sounds of Radio 2.The frist record he
bought for himself was Abba's Arrival,closely followed by Blondie and The Jam."thank was as far out as it got.I never got into punk."
Osman found Haywards heath every bit as soul-destroying as Anderson.His escape plain involved spending all his teenage money on musical instruments, with the intention of becoming a pop star .He and Anderson met in 1984 at the age of 16,at Haywards Heath Sixth From College.But Mat already knew of him."In towns like that,an anyone who has vague abnormality is a legebd."
At frist,Brett was wary of Mat."He came from a different school to me,that we were rivals with.At the end of character,a bit of a goth when I met him,but he was always really into music,always the kid that walked around collage with
a bass guitar,always talking about bands,and I found him really stimulating."
Along with a Bowie fixation,they shared a love of The Smith.Morrissey's doomed provinal romantticismstruck a major chord.Brett and Mat would go to see them whenever they came to Brighton,and on one occasion ventured as far Paris,where,after the show,Bret frist came face to face with his idol.
Partly in emulation of the Morissey/Marr alliance,an Anderson/Osman song-writing partnership was quickly formed."I sent half of my life in his bedroom learing to play stuff,"says Osman." We used to sit in college and write,"adds the singer."He had a band called Paint It Black,and I joined them for about a week and played some dodgy goth guitar."
Before long,the duo formed their own band,a Housemartin-type indie combo
called Geoff,featuring Brett on guitar,Mat on bass,Danny Wilder on drums,and Gareth Perry on vocals(now the manager of a Suede fanzine),this
time with songs were all about football and beer.
"Geoff played a couple of gigs to half a person,"say Brett."We wet through a
hippy phase,and had all these hippy songs with funny titles like 'String The
Years Together Like beads' in homeage to the Beatles.Absolutely fucking awful."