FM – The Italian
Job
If you’re here and
have never heard of FM before, then where have you been since 1986? After 10
studio albums comes this – The Italian Job, a play on words to mark their
appearance at Frontiers Festival in Milan last year. The only thing that could
have made this even better for the DVD release is Stiv and the gang pulling up
to the venue in 3 mini’s (red, white and blue of course) and coming onto the
stage whilst Quincy Jones’ ‘Self Preservation Society’ song is playing. That
would have been an entrance and a half. Anyway they didn’t, so its onto the
show…..for your delectation and delight, I am only reviewing the audio version!
If you’re already
a bit of an FM like me, what you get are 16 peerless songs of utter high
quality, and I’m almost fed up of saying this, but when you have a vocalist of
Steve Overland’s quality anything and everything is possible. It’s not just
about Steve-o. In Merv and Pete you have a rhythm section that ticks like an
atomic clock, its never out of sync and is the backbone of FM. Add Jim
Kirkpatrick, who is the longest serving and best guitarist FM have had, and the
keytar prowess of Jem ‘wadda mean four keyboards are enough?’ Davis, and you
have one of the finest British exports since Spam was invented.
The set is almost
perfection. I say almost as there’s a couple of gems from the Andy Barnett era
that are missing, notably ‘Blood and Gasoline’, but that said, its about as
good as its gonna get. New songs like
the Van Halen-esque ‘Life Is A Highway’, and the Bad Co. like Black Magic’, and
the pop-tastic ‘Killed By Love’ interweave with the ‘classics’ really well. A
lot of bands newer output is patchy, but not FM, as these sit alongside oldies without
any need to feel like they are there
under false pretenses.
Standard staples
such as ‘I Belong To The Night’, ‘Someday’, ‘Love Lies Dying’, That Girl’ and
‘Other Side Of Midnight’ cover the early era and just cannot be missed out. I’m
glad to see the excellent and underrated ‘Tough It Out’ getting an outing. One of
the newer songs that is a staple and rightly so is ‘Story Of My Life’. Had a
certain Mr Bolton sang it, it would be a million seller, and it should be with
Steve Overland vocals. I’ve seen grown men sob into their pints seeing this
live, and it is a perfect ballad.
It’s not nearly a
review, more of an observation in majestic musicianship, tight as a nut songs
with one of the best singers the UK has ever produced and harmonies to die for.
I prefer to see it, rather than hear it, so my money is on watching the DVD.
My only issue, FMs
set now needs to be like Rush at 2 sets, lasting approx 3 hours. There’s just
too many great songs not making the cut. That said, almost every gig could be
almost very different, there’s that much quality to play live.
This Runaway Train
shows no signs of stopping.
Essential!
You can pre order
The Italian Job from Frontiers Store –
Tracklisting
Intro
Black Magic
I Belong To The
Night
Life Is A Highway
Let Love Be The
Leader
Someday (You’ll
Come Running)
Killed By Love
Metropolis
Over You
Closer To Heaven
Does It Feel Like
Love
Story Of My Life
Love Lies Dying
Bad Luck
Tough It Out
That Girl
Other Side Of
Midnight
FM –
Steve Overland –
Vocals and Guitar
Merv Goldsworthy –
Bass
Pete Jupp – Drums
Jem Davis –
Keyboards
Jim Kirkpatrick -
Guitar
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.