After providing the emotional climax to the READY STEADY GO! show a week or so back, David McAlmont was back on stage to dazzle us (literally) again in a special event.It was only recently that I made the connection that two of my favorite singers, David and Kirsty MacColl, are children of Croydon and while Kirsty couldn't wait to get away, David is proud to come from the birthplace of David Lean and Roy Hudd and here he was playing a homecoming gig in the smaller space at the Fairfield Halls. Sadly even a Homecoming King such as David garnered a smaller audience than I would have expected. Still me and a few fellow McAlmonteers were front and centre to give him loud cheers - and we were greeted by name from the stage by him!
David and his collaborator Guy Davies have been working on new material and they debuted three new songs which all sounded very fine indeed. They have also finished their tour to launch his LIVE FROM LEICESTER SQUARE cd and dvd so of course we had a smattering of the tracks included on it which have now become like breathing for them and their fine band of musical brothers: "Blues in The Night", "Snow" (which I knew the mystery co-writer of!), "Isn't it A Pity", "Lose My Faith", "Never, Never, Never" (in a sublime duet with 'Level' Neville Malcolm on double bass) and his two McAlmont & Butler anthems "Yes" and "Falling" which sounded wonderfully loud and vivid - much better than at Leicester Square.
David announced that he and Guy were off to Ireland for another session of writing songs for their upcoming album as McAlmont & Davies. I was a little surprised that their musical partnership is now being formalised as an official duo - if only because David has had problems in the past being part of a team - but it says much about his trust and security with Guy to take this step. I can't wait to hear what they have in store for us!

As you can see Owen took some fab pictures of David onstage and it was nice to see him afterwards to thank him for a great show.