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issue 1 june 2004

mat osman – electric bass
brett’s trusty lieutenant and co-founder of the band, whose friendship stretches back to even before suede’s multiple false starts when they called themselves things like geoff, suave & elegant and (prophetically) the pigs.

often gleefully trumpeting his unenviable status as “least popular member of the band”,  mat is without doubt suede’s intellectual wing (and not just because he reads more than one book a year). he studied something clever at college and is ever ready with a colourful quote or surreal soundbite. asked for his opinion on the royal family, he once sparked; “they’re cheaper than a trident missile.” it’s probably not too shocking a revelation to disclose that mat has deputised as brett’s gob on more than one occasion.

already widely respected as a fluid, melodic and inventive bass player, especially on the slower numbers where he uses a fretless model (© guitar wanker magazine), the lazarus-like arrival of trash unveiled the previously hidden talent of mat the composer: he co-wrote the brooding atmospheric b-side, "europe is our playground". 

it wasn’t the first song he and brett had ever written together (mat once came up with the lyrics to a ditty called "perpetual", back in the days when suede were, well, not quite as fab as they are now). but it was the first to make it to record and was instantly voted a favourite among suede fans, taking place alongside the formidable arsenal of classic suede b-sides like my insatiable one or killing of a flash boy. europe . . . has also proven to be one of the surprise highlights of suede’s current live act.

with the recent expansion to a ten-legged monster, suede’s bass thing has been relegated to the back of the stage, shunted behind the new chap. but measuring in at not a great deal less than eleven feet tall, there’s still plenty of the man they call “moose” to feast your eyes on.

mat osman scored four per cent in the official suede information service members’ poll. his brother writes scripts for popular “light” comedy television shows.