Let There Be Rock's Live Act of 2025

🏆 Live Act of 2025:

FM

@ Manchester Club Academy, 20th September 2025.

The best live act category for 2025 has been one I considered dropping from the best of the year review, purely because in the past year I haven’t been to as many gigs as I normally would have. Due to other life events taking priority the selection has been quite limited, to a top 3 and only a top three. Yes I really have had a quiet year for gig going. It should however, for those of you that know me, come as absolutely no surprise that I still managed to get out to see the mighty FM perform on their Brotherhood tour. The legendary AOR rockers that never stop, released their 15th studio album in 2025 titled ‘Brotherhood’, following hot on the heels of 2024’s release ‘Old Habits Die Hard’. As if this band didn’t already have a huge back catalogue of music that fans enjoy singing every word to, here was another album full of classics to add to the live shows.

L to R: Jim Kirkpatrick, Steve Overland & Merv Goldworthy

For this particular tour the band had selected a few smaller venues, including the Club Academy room at Manchester’s Academy. Intimate, loud and absolutely packed out, we were in for yet another classic night with the rock veterans. Not to be put off by the absolutely torrential downpour of rain, or the fear of needing a boat to leave the venue, me and my cousin arrived in the City dressed in our oversized raincoats and feeling very un rock n’ roll! Support act Jack J Hutchinson and his band did a brilliant job getting us all in the mood though, demonstrating why they have been one of my favourite modern day southern rock infused bands to play on the radio, and really engaging with the audience. 

Merv Goldworthy & Jem Davis

I have seen FM countless times, and they have never once let me down, always putting on an excellent performance, and always leaving me with no voice after singing along to every song. There is however, one gig that always stands out as my favourite, and that was seeing them play at Glasgow Garage in May of 2018, they were on fire that night, the crowd were up for it, and everyone in the audience was singing along. It was special, and few have come as close to how electric that night was. Manchester Club Academy, 20th September 2025 came very close though. This was the best I had seen the band perform in a long while. With so many newer songs to fit into the setlist, it must be some balancing act making sure a good range of classic favourites and new lesser known tracks get featured. FM are pros though, not just relying on the original trio of Steve Overland, Merv Goldsworthy and Pete Jupp, but also showing the keyboard talents of Jem Davis and the exceptional guitar work of Jim Kirkpatrick. The set had everything, Steve’s stunning vocals, Jim’s guitar solos and Jem breaking out the keytar! 

Not only was I hoarse from singing along, I also had a ringing in my ears from the volume in such a small venue. The old favourites, ’That Girl’, ‘Tough It Out’, ‘Bad Luck’, ‘Someday’, and the newer tracks, ‘Turn This Car Around’, ‘Out Of The Blue’, ‘Don’t Call It Love’, this band do not know how to write a bad track, 40 plus years and still going strong. I left the venue on a high, live music is the best therapy, especially when performed by your favourites.