Now here’s a thing. How do I give an unbiased review to one of my favourite bands?
 
FM are the signed band I’ve probably seen the most often, somewhere around the thick end of twenty times if truth be told and they are the only band I’ve joined a fan club for! I first saw them supporting Bon Jovi and then headlining alongside some excellent support bands including Saraya, Drive She Said and Romeo's Daughter to name but three. My claim to fame (that is if I have one) is that at the band's first ever acoustic gig (at Walkers- see the liner notes to  the Mo Electricity Required album) I ended up holding lyric sheets for Steve Overland to enable him to sing the songs.
 
Long Lost Friends brings together the band's third and firth albums in  Takin'' It To The Streets and Dead Mans Shoes respectively. I’ve always been a TITTS man myself and this album, which forms the bulk of disc one here, saw the band shift from an out and out AOR mode to a more blues influenced sound, a transformation that was completed on Aphrodisiac a year or so later, perhaps a change that was occasioned by the addition of Andy Barnet  to the line up.  For this release TITTS has been re-mastered and now sounds louder and cleaner when played back to back with the original version and the highlights include their reworking of 'Heard It Through The Grapevine' (strange I hated it back it the day but love it now!) Only The Strong Survive, a stunning ballad and 'Crack Alley' which is the perhaps the most obvious AOR song  on the album.  I’ve got no intention of doing a track by track for the full albums, but I will discuss the bonus tracks at length.
 
The Bonus tracks on the disc (TIP - ignore the track listing on the case its wrong!) are:

 'Now She’s Gone',  an excellent up-tempo rocker with a riff that pays more than passing resemblance to She Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC, but with that big FM keyboard sound from the first two album - excellent.
 
'Walk On Water' which appears to be an early version, of 'Only The Strong Survive' as it shares the same intro and verse but the chorus is complete different and has a more rock vibe about it thanks to the electric guitar.
 
The second disc in the set consists of the band's last proper album 'Dead Mans Shoes' and before anyone starts any arguments I don’t count 'Paraphernalia' as it was Jap only release... DMS has, and indeed had, a very Bad Company vibe running though it. Highlights include the single 'Ain't No Cure For Love, which I love , 'Tattoo Needle'  a great up tempo fun track and Mona and anybody who says that the title track itself 'Dead Mans Shoes' isn’t Bon Jovi rip off is lying!
 
The bonus tracks  on here are:- 
 
'Stranger Kind Of Love', which sounds like an outtake from the Indiscreet sessions and would have fitted right in on that particular album, great mid 80’s AOR.
 
'Show No Mercy', a heavy up tempo rocker reminiscent  during the intro of Kingdom Come's 'Do You Like It?

'Crying In The Dark' rounds the package off in great style with its Jovi-esque Runaway style opening ,all BIG keyboards and crunching guitar before the track kicks in proper.
 
Long Lost Friends, if you don't happen to own either of the two original albums, is a fantastic package and, even if you do already have both albums, the bonus tracks alone make it worth buying, not to mention the excellent gatefold packing and the fact the albums have been re-mastered. Now all we need are re-issues of the two Wildfire albums and I'll be a happy chappy.

Dougie