HEART, FM @Symphony Hall, Birmingham 3/7/16

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How do I get them alone? Rock royalty hits the second city

At the risk of turning MVM into something tawdry, it’s something of a miracle that we were allowed into the venue tonight. Certainly if the Wilson sisters knew the affect they had on this reviewer as a teenager in the late 80s it’s a fair bet that the ticket would have been annulled – and let’s just say it’s a good job Belinda Carlisle wasn’t the opening act…..

Before all that, though, the matter….urmmm….at hand – the foreplay if you will – is FM. Now, MV has gone on record before with our love for the five piece (albeit their videos weren’t watched as often as the headliners…..) but they are very probably the best melodic hard rock band these islands have ever had, and since their reformation they have basically been flawless. Watching them tonight playing “I Belong To The Night” or the racing through the Thin Lizzy-esque twin guitar of “That Girl” you are left wondering why they aren’t selling out venues like this themselves. Pitched somewhere in between the good version of Bon Jovi and the Brit rock of Thunder (certainly “Bad Luck” could cheerfully break into “You Give Love A Bad Name” at a moments notice) FM are a very special band indeed. Possessing something approaching total mastery of their craft – and singer Steve Overland still has an incredible voice – all means their 35 minute set is a treat. Finishing with “Burn My Heart Down” and beaming as they do, the band are UK treasure.

Flippant opening paragraphs aside, Heart – and in particular the Wilson sisters – were trailblazers. As lead singer Ann points out tonight before “Bebe La Strange” when they started this band there weren’t many women fronting rock bands. Much less good ones.

And Heart are still a damn fine rock band. The hour and a half they play here reminds everyone of that point. “Wild Child”, the opening song – like so many others in a fast paced set – drips with sass, “Magic Man” moves things into more hippy-type territory and Heart are equally comfortable with both those world’s.

It’s odd, perhaps, that what is a hard edged band, is best known for all but perfecting the power ballad. There’s plenty of them here. “What About Love” and a gorgeous “These Dreams”, sung by Nancy Wilson, are a superb, and a stripped back version of “Alone” – that staple of school disco slow dances in the late 1980s – is interesting, but best of all is an acoustic “Sand” delivered in the most tender fashion.

By turns, things get funky on “Straight On”, modern on “Two” – a cover of a song by hip hop bod Ne-Yo – and hedonistic on “Kick It Out”, which according to Ann Wilson transports us to a beachside bar. There’s even a couple of new songs from their imminent album “Beautiful Broken” – this title track – is an almost trashy Go-Gos type punker and “I Jump” struts it’s way to a massive chorus.

After “Barracuda”, which proves itself to be a timeless chugging Classic Rock (in every sense) song, there’s a slightly odd encore of three Led Zeppelin songs, but such is the talent on show here – there are four others joining the sisters – that not only do they pull off “Immigrant Song” they smash “No Quarter” and the version of “Misty Mountain Hop” they end with is a real stunner.

And maybe, on reflection, it was a good thing they ended with those rather than one of their own. After all, they didn’t play “All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You” and thank goodness for that – MVM isn’t sure the heart could have taken it.

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