A decent sized audience turns up again for
the latest FM show/tour. If most of them are like me, they are there to witness one
of Britain's finest EVER rock bands. I don’t say this lightly, but more of these
perennial and on fire rockers in a mo!
I thought that the gig was a sell out and
that FMs demographic had changed as there was a queue of a few hundred foppy
haired teens (mostly young girls), there to see XFactor failure Frankie
Co-codamol! Or so my lad tells me!
Also on the FM bill are younger statesmen of
melodic rock, and all round Def Leppard sound-alikes, the hugely talented Vega,
and the 80s prog faves, It Bites.
Vega (up first) both look and sound the
part of the future of British AOR and they are ready to take on the Americans
(hopefully) at their own game. These guyse don’t have an axe to grind with the
dreaded 2nd album syndrome as new trace being aired tonight prove
that they have developed and matured into a mighty fine ‘single’ machine.
Highlights of the short set are predominately the ‘new’ ones, with ‘Not There
For You’, a sure fire single in the not too distant future, the Def Lep
influenced ‘What The Hell’ a song with a biographical tone and more than a
ringer for Leppard’s “..Sugar’, and the anthemic closer, 'Hands In The Air’. The
Martin boys certainly have a ear for a catchy number or 14, and in adding Night
By Night guitarist Ben Christo, filled out the Vega sound perfectly, and when all the lads
can sing, it doesn’t make for a better experience than this
It Bites are a bit different from the original
line up with only John Beck and Bob Dalton hanging on in there from the 80s,
with John Mitchell (Arena, Frost*) handling vocals and guitar. ‘Master King’
John Beck is the definite conductor of the band with all taking lead and
direction from him. If ever a band were there to please the audience, and more
importantly themselves, its It Bites. Not giving a rats arse to a smallish set,
they still throw in a typical prog number in 'The Wind That Shakes The Barley’ a
cool Spock's Beard type number. To be fair to they guys, they are not living on
past glories as 4 songs from the last 5 yrs
on offer all are very impressive. Again all members contribute to the
backing
vocals, with Beck looking as if he is slightly manic with a wild stare
and grin
on a couple of occasions, and looking a typical prog rocker and like a member of ‘Strange Fruit’ (go look it up if you don’t know what I
mean - I
state this as a tribute, not an insult!)
Onto the darlings of the night, Britains
finest rock band, the mighty FM. Don’t take my work for it, they call it
themselves as a part of the intro, and who am I to argue with such talent. FM
have a lead singer in Steve Overland who should be talked about in the same
sentences for 80s rockers and MILFY housewives as Michael Bolton, only Steve
has a much better looking barnet! He sounds a mix of Paul Rodgers/Sam Cook and
the aforementioned Bolton, all rolled into one great live package (no auto-tune
needed here folks). Couple this with long standing partners and FMs driving
rhythm machine (Messers Jupp and Goldsworthy) and it’s a case of light the blue
touch paper and stand well back
Jem Davis is not as ‘in front’ as 'Didge’
used to be, and that’s a good sign, just letting his playing and bvs taking
centre stage. And with young gungslinger Jim Kirkpartick, his playing has
injected a certain oomph into them, and lets face it, if you’ve seen FM these
past 2 yrs, then you’ve caught them in the best form of their lives. ‘Tough
Love’ kickstarts proceedings, before a clutch of oldies come to the fore, with
‘I Belong..’, ‘That Girl’, and ‘Hot Wired’ all hitting the mark. SO commented
that he gets stick for his set list choices from the fans, but FM could remove
10 of the songs played tonight (and for the remaining two nights of the tour) and
I think the everyone would still be very happy bunnies, such is the quality of
their back catalogue. FM still can write a damn infectious song or two, Only
Foolin, and the excellent Rockville track Crosstown Train bearing testament to
their talent.
There was no surprise as per Mondays Bingley
gig where Didge joined them on stage, we just had to do with the straight-talkin,
let the songs and performance do the business from UKs finest
Lets just hope 2014 brings the 25th
anniversary tour of the classic ‘Tough It Out’ and I would be one ecstatic FM
fan indeed. Long may they (all) continue
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