Frontiers Records (Release date 09.04.21)
It already seems a long time ago but one of the gig highlights of the winter before the pandemic struck was the Big-Three-O tour in which FM, together with Dan Reed Network and Gun, celebrated 30 years of a landmark album by playing it in full. In FM’s case it was their sophomore effort ‘Tough It Out’, which was their most slickly produced and commercially successful album, albeit not to the level they deserved.
Now the first disc of this 2CD set preserves for posterity that performance, or to be more accurate a combination of performances taken from the dates at Norwich (which yours truly reviewed for this site), Manchester and Leeds. The show was as I remembered, delivered with a faithful closeness to the original album, assisted by the evergreen nature of Steve Overland’s golden voice.
The only departures from the script are the introduction of former keyboard player Didge Digital to guest on ‘Burning My Heart Down’ and a couple of short singalongs during that and ‘Does it Feel Like Love’ . Nevertheless, as with seeing the show in the flesh, one of the most pleasing aspects was to capture a rare delivery of some of the lesser known songs on the second side of the album, ‘Can You Hear Me Calling’ in particular.
The second disc is actually the more interesting of the two with eleven live recordings from three shows over the years; one in 2016, the Islington Academy gig in 2010 which GRTR! also covered and from the previous year the show at Winstanley College in Wigan which premiered new guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick and set in train the FM revival that continues to this day.
This is actually best viewed not as a companion to the ‘Tough It Out’ disc but a coda to their ‘Italian Job’ live album from a couple of years back which faithfully captured their core live set. This time the ‘Indiscreet’ favourites are overlooked, though a version of ‘Dangerous’, as ever, is a reminder of the folly of leaving it off that debut album.
Instead there are some post-reformation songs including ‘I Ain’t The One’ which I can’t ever remember seeing FM play live; and a generous selection of favourites from the now largely neglected second, bluesier phase of their career, most notably ‘Only the Strong Survive’ and ‘Blood and Gasoline’.
It also has a rawer and more spontaneous feel than the slickly produced ‘Tough It Out’ disc, as the crowd take over the singing on a couple of occasions and Steve is momentarily distracted by a heckler during his vocal gymnastics that open ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’.
FM are still very much a contemporary act, as last year’s ‘Synchronised’ album proved, but in their contrasting ways both these discs are worthy representations of the great back catalogue of our foremost home grown AOR band. **** 1/4
Review by Andy Nathan
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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024
In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections
Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024
09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)
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