Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: April 9, 2021
Album length: 113.18 min (2CD)
Genre: AOR
Rating: 9.0/10
If “The Italian Job” already slipped quietly in among the live releases of 2019, its successor, the new live document from British AOR legends FM, just can’t pull that trick anymore. This is a band that could easily have been another Def Leppard-style success story, but the music corporations decided otherwise. In 1989 they put out their second studio album, “Tough It Out”. So what does that mean? More than 30 years have passed since it came out, and FM decided to put the album on the live setlist in its entirety. In December 2019 the band hit the road on a tour where FM shared the bill with Gun and Dan Reed Network. British, of course, because nobody outside Britain ever sniffs out these bands.
In 2016 the band released “Indescreet 30”. As the name hints, those in the know will figure out right away that it’s a “refresh” of the substance of “Indiscreet” (1986), the classic debut, reborn with updated and freshened-up arrangements. That was how they marked the debut’s 30th birthday. This time around, though, they celebrated the 30th anniversary of “Tough It Out” with a full-on live set.
And? A great setlist. No, not a single track from “Indiscreet”. At first glance that reads like a sin nothing can wash away, but FM make up for it on the second CD in a different way. Besides the complete run through that album, “Tough It Out Live” actually hands us a pile of surprises that FM have rarely put on their setlists in recent years. Fans of the band will be more than thrilled, then. That’s an extra magnet pulling you toward this live document.
The band plays brilliantly, whether it’s December 2019 or versions of songs from much further back. No need to point that out. Overland just keeps getting better and better as a singer. It’s astonishing how his tone hasn’t changed an inch all this time. It’s as if he’d been transported 30 years from the past into the present, or the other way around. Overland is brilliant and one of the best hard rock singers in Britain. No debate. Especially when we’re talking hard rock and AOR. The nucleus of the lineup has stayed intact through the years. Alongside Overland there’s the rhythm duo of Pete Jupp (drums) and Merv Goldsworthy (bass)! The lineup is rounded out by two slightly younger guys: keyboardist Jim Davis and the especially fascinating guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick, who misses absolutely nothing. The band has brilliantly redefined/worked magic on the arrangements. Actually, no, there was no hocus-pocus. The original album is rendered very faithfully and follows the original sound, but you have to add 30 years of mileage and the crew’s maturing on top. And Jim Kirkpatrick is outstanding. With the guitarist, there’s always the big question: “How will the whole thing sound if a former guitarist played in the band on the original before him?” During the recording on the first CD, Overland introduces the keyboardist, an original member who played on Though It Out. Didge Digital – that nickname has been suspicious since forever. Joke or truth? Can’t say, I couldn’t check. The band builds an outstanding wall of sound and a juicy fullness.
The second CD is therefore a special kind of treat. It’s a compilation of unreleased live recordings packed with pleasant surprises and rarities. Like I said, the Indiscreet album is ignored completely, and yet… the compensation justifies the snub. Dangerous, for example, dates from the Indiscreet era and was available as a bonus (BBC Sessions). That left room for the somewhat overlooked “Aphrodisiac” (1992), which is where Hard Day In Hell, Breathe Fire and Blood And Gasoline come from. Then there are two tracks from the third album, “Taking it to the Streets” (1991): Only the Strong Survive and the closing I Heard It Through the Grapevine (orig. Marvin Gaye), which actually earned FM some cash at the time of release. The band also served up three live versions of tracks from “Metropolis” (Wildside, I A’nt the One and Hollow), which came out in 2010.
In short: “Tough It Out Live” isn’t just a must for the band’s devoted fans, it’s also a very handy entry point for any freshly baked fan of the archaic AOR genre to step in and get to know one of the best albums of the band’s career, one that’s hard to find on the market in physical form today. Digitization, in this case, only brings an advantage. FM remain a household name. One of the icons of AOR music from the British Isles. Almost forty years after the band’s formation, we can say they’re still a way-too-well-kept musical secret from the tale of rock’n’roll, and their work deserves considerably bigger recognition.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
CD1
1. Intro
2. Tough It Out
3. Don’t Stop
4. Bad Luck
5. Someday (You’ll Come Running)
6. Everytime I Think Of You
7. Burning My Heart Down
8. The Dream That Died
9. Obsession
10. Can You Hear Me Calling?
11. Does It Feel Like Love
12. Feels So Good
CD2
1. Digging Up The Dirt
2. Tough Love
3. Hollow
4. Dangerous
5. Hard Day In Hell
6. Wildside
7. Breathe Fire
8. Only The Strong Survive
9. Blood And Gasoline
10. I Ain’t The One
11. I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Lineup:
Steve Overland – vocals, guitar
Jim Kirkpatrick – guitar
Jem Davis – keyboards
Merv Goldsworthy – bass
Pete Jupp – drums
