FM

They made their first public appearance on Valentine’s Day 1985 and their debut album Indiscreet followed soon after.

The band toured with just about everybody: Status Quo, Bon Jovi and Meat Loaf to name but three, and had more album success with the likes of Tough It Out in 1989 and Aphrodisiac in 1992, but in 1996 the band decided to call it a day.

Relaxing at his home in Cheshire (even though he, and the rest of the band, are Londoners), singer and guitarist Steve Overland tells me the reasons behind the split.

“We’d done nine albums for Epic that were all well received. But Grunge music was taking over and we thought that we’d done all that we could do. We had a good fan base and I suppose that we could have carried on but we thought that our music wasn't relevant anymore.”

The quintet then did their own thing until a fateful day in 2007. Steve takes up the story. “They were organizing the Firefest IV festival at Nottingham’s Rock City and the organisers contacted me to see if we would reform for a one-off show and headline the festival. I asked Merv (bassist Merv Goldsworthy) if he fancied it and he said OK.”

The response still has the singer astounded. “We didn’t know what to expect really, but for the first time, the festival sold out. It was overwhelming as fans came from all over the world to see us.”

The band went away for a while after the show, but headlined Firefest again the following year and this was followed by their first album in 15 years, the highly acclaimed Metropolis.

This led to the band’s music being added to the playlist of Radio 2. Fast-forward to 2013 and the band releasd two albums in as many weeks; Rockville and Rockville II.

“I would say that Rockville is a modern slant on what FM are all about,” Overland says. “And Rockville II was funded by the fans as a part of Pledge Music, where fans pledge money to the bands to fund bonus product.”

And he is keen to point out that the tracks on the second album are not inferior to the first. “Usually, these bonus products include demos, but we’d written 21 songs for Rockville and the album had 11, and then we wrote three or four more when we toured with Thin Lizzy.

“The album was produced and engineered by the same people that did Rockville, so it is a quality product and it really brings our sound up to date.”

Nw they've been asked to open the shows for the Foreigner / Europe dates in the UK in April. “It’s gonna be strange for us ‘cos this will be the first time in 25 years that we haven’t headlined,” Overland says. “This is the second run of the band and we’d like to get some new fans to complement the others who have been fantastic to us over the years.”

As they open the show, time will be tight. “Yes, it’ll be tough getting all we want into 35 to 40 minutes, so we’ll condense our albums. It’s going to be a hard-hitting set, with what the fans want to hear. But when we go to Ireland and Europe, it’ll just be us and Foreigner.”

FM will be appearing with Foreigner and Europe at the Sheffield City Hall on Tuesday April 8. Tickets are available from the Box Office on 0114 278 9789 and all the usual agencies.