In 1976 Jeff Plewman and Cameron Hawkins were both spinning their wheels and going nowhere while jamming with a Toronto band called Clear. They decided to form their own group, incorporating Hawkins' keyboards and bass guitar and Plewman's electric mandolin and violin into an avant-garde progressive rock sound - and FM was born.
With Plewman adopting the name Nash The Slash after a character in a Laurel & Hardy movie, they began rehearsing, and did their first public performance that July, which was videotaped for TVOntario's "Night Music Concert" show. Not broadcasted until that November, it featured them doing a 30-minute set of three long pieces - "Phasors on Stun," "One O'Clock Tomorrow," and "Black Noise," in addition to a quasi-bio recited by local DJ David Pritchard.
Days later, they played their first real live gig at a local art gallery, and before long their live performances had developed to the point of adding drummer Martin Deller in February '77. He had actually worked with Nash previously, when they both appeared on Pritchard's album NOCTURNAL EARTHWORM STEW a year later. Word of their high octane but unusual and yet entertaining show got out, and soon they were regulars on the Toronto club and outdoor festival circuits.
The attention they were getting caught the ears of CBC execs, and they were invited onto their music variety show, "Who's New?" This in turn led to them recording their debut album later that year. Produced by Keith Whiting, the band assumed it would be a conventional release, but in actuality on 500 copies were pressed, and the CBC only announced its existence during several radio shows and chose to sell it by mail order. Later versions of the album were released with a different jacket on several other labels.
But before the end of the year, Nash The Slash left to pursue a solo career (when he began wearing bandages on his face). He stated the addition of a drummer made the band's music too commercial for his liking. Ironically, BLACK NOISE is widely considered the only non-commercial thing he's ever done, with FM or solo. Nonetheless, once he was gone the band set out looking for a replacement - someone who could play both the electric mandolin and violin, and hired Ben Mink (ex Stringband and Murray McLauchlan's Silver Tractors).
They landed a deal with Toronto indie label Labyrinth Records in the spring of '78, but weren't interested in releasing BLACK NOISE. Instead they jumped at the chance to get on board with their new album, DIRECT TO DISK, named after the tapeless recording method. Although nothing set the world on fire, shortly after its release, American based Visa Records came calling, and picked up BLACK NOISE, releasing it in Canada on Passport Records. "Phasors On Stun" became a top 20 hit on both sides of the border, and they were rewarded with a gold record (100,000 copies) during a show at Ontario Place that August, in the middle of a major North American tour. But the band's first of several issues with record companies over the years occurred when Hawkins claimed they never received royalty payments from any of the Canadian LP editions, as their contract specified all payments were to come through Visa Records in the USA, and none of the Canadian distributors passed royalties on to Visa. Visa claimed it didn't receive the royalties either.
Just as they were to follow up with a new album, the distribution company in Canada, GRT, went bankrupt. Passport's products were picked up by Capitol Records, along with the rights to BLACK NOISE, just in time for the new album, SURVEILLANCE, in the summer of '79. Along with a cover of The Yardbirds' "Shapes of Things," it also included more of what would become the band's trademark stories of space and science fiction in "Horizons," "Father Time," and "Orion."
1980's CITY OF FEAR was the band's first time in the studio with producer Larry Fast, most noteable for his work with Peter Gabriel. Along with the title track, cuts like the lead-off "Krakow," "Truth or Consequences," and "Lost and Found" made it a critic's fave. They set out on the road for the next year, including an American tour backing up Rush, but wanting to branch out on his own, Mink released an instrumental solo album the next year called FOREIGN EXCHANGE, which actually featured the other members of FM, as well.
When Mink left to pursue a solo career in the spring of '83, it opened up the door for Nash to return, since he was talking with his old bandmates about doing a tour together, since much of their audience were the same people anyway. But just as they'd begun working on a new album in '84, Passport Records closed its doors for good, leaving the band in the cold and without a label. Since Nash was now with Quality, it only made sense to talk label execs into signing Hawkins and Deller, as well. The result was actually a Nash The Slash solo album with the other two backing, in what would turn out to be his most critically successful ever - AMERICAN BAND-AGES.
After the final leg of the world tour ended, which saw them reject an offer to open for The Spoons, FM released CON-TEST in 1985. But although critics viewed it as an overall strong product with tracks that included "Distant Early Warning," "Just Like You," and "All of the Dreams," they once again found themselves without a label when Quality went bankrupt. Although MCA eventually picked up the pieces, all the confusion left FM on the outside looking in, and not receiving any support.
They set out on a cross-Canada tour that included a show at Toronto's Masonic Temple, which was taped for one of the CBC TV's "Rock Deluxe" specials later that year. Later dates saw them hit the US, but once they were off the road in the summer of '86, Deller quit, and was replaced by new drummer Greg Critchley (ex Partland Brothers, Spoons). They added guitarist Simon Brierley, ex of Lee Aaron and Strange Advance, and set out on a series of dates while shopping for a new label. But many of their die-hard fans abandoned them, stating that what had made FM different all those years was the fact they didn't use guitars.