Classic Rock Magazine

Every Home Should Have One

The second in a series of classic albums that were

shamefully overlooked.

This issue. - SO! Brass Monkey

Musicians:

Steve Overland - Vocals/Guitars

Pete Jupp - Drums

Nigel Spennewyn - Guitars

Bob Skeat - Bass

Charlie Ollins - Keyboards

Tracks:

Colour Of My Dreams, Follow In Your Footsteps, High, Rise,

Bittersweet, This Time, Baby Blue, Sometimes, If You Were To Leave Me (Can I Come Too?), Hole In My Life, You Call The Tune.

It's easy to look back on FM as the perennial losers of British Rock. Through no fault of there own they kept on taking crack shots just as someone moved the goal posts. Still, for all the laughs at their expense (pink suits, fluffy hair, a guitarists alarmingly dodgy stage gear, and a dickhead of a keyboard player all spring to mind) their legacy leaves behind two cracking albums (Indiscreet and Tough It Out) chock-full of bright, catchy tunes. And, of course, there was Steve Overland.

Never the wildest of frontmen, Overland's quality has always lain in a voice that should have been hailed as a natural successor to Paul Rodgers and also received the commercial success such an accolade was due. That it hasn't remains a mystery to this day.

SO! is Overland's latest attempt to right this wrong. With fellow Wildlife/FM drummer Pete Jupp in tow, he has ditched the AOR approach that was the albatross around FM's neck (not to mention the multitude of miserable no-hopers that followed in their wake). Remaining is his penchant for catchy material that ingrains its self into the memory. With more than a nod to Crowded House, this is a real gem. Overland could sing a telephone directory and make it sound appealing, so when his larynx tackled materials as strong as Bittersweet, Colours Of My Dreams, This Time, or the delightfully catchy Baby Blue, you wonder why on earth this mans name is not on the tip of everybody's tongue.

Brass Monkey is pop rock at its hugely enjoyable apotheosis. That SO! have seemingly stuttered into life rather than exploded into the nations psyche is worrying and perhaps Overland should think seriously about why. Because when you've made a record this good you damn well deserve to be a star.

To find out more about SO! check out their website at

www.so-band.com

Jerry Ewing