HiFi Sean & David McAlmont

The fifth gig on our A to Z musical adventure was ……

HiFi Sean & David McAlmont at Saint Luke’s in Glasgow.

Date Thursdsy 8 February 2024

17 Bain St, Glasgow G40 2JZ

Capacity at Saint Luke’s is around 450.

Saint Luke’s was built in 1836 as a working church but after being disbanded in 2012 it needed to find a new purpose.

Work started on the refurbishment of St Luke’s in January 2015. The Church is a historic landmark and internally the church has been renovated to a standard that brings back the original look but with the latest technology in sound and lighting. For more info…..

An evening at a favourite venue

Had I heard of HiFi Sean? What about David McAlmont, what’s he done?

HiFi Sean, in reality is Sean Dickson, who formed and fronted indie band The Soup Dragons who had a fair amount of success in the early 80s. He then moved on to launch The High Fidelity, before becoming DJ HiFi Sean.

He’s also worked with the likes of Yoko Ono and Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub.

David started with Thieves before commencing a solo career, which included opening for Morrisey.

He was approached by ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler to record an album The Sound of McAlmont and Butler and hit single Yes.

So now you know.

Probably the first and only time I’ll be at the barrier of a gig. One of these days I’ll get the settings right on the camera to do justice to the acts.

If there is one thing you can say about David McAlmont it is that he can sure hit the high notes. He reminds me of Al Green at times, really soulful. The set itself was interspersed with songs from their highly recommended debut album Happy Ending from one of Glasgow’s finest labels Last Night From Glasgow.

While Sean stayed in the background playing keyboards and whatever digital inputs helped to produce the backing track for David’s vocals to take front and centre, it was clear from the interplay between the two of them how much input Sean has to the song writing process.

While tracks from the debut album were to the fore, a number of new songs from the forthcoming album, were enthusiastically introduced during the set and it’s pretty clear to me that this will again be a must have album when released.

What a great idea!

Wouldn’t it be great if every act re-produced their lyrics and album artwork as a downloadable file for their fans? Hats off to Sean and David for this. Maybe it’s not unique, but first time I’ve came across it.

hifi-sean-david-mcalmont-happy-ending-lyric-booklet-Download

Finally, you always know when the audience and musical act are as one when the demands for ‘One more song‘ are met with genuine surprise form the performers. A wee confab between the two of them and we were treated to that one more song to make us all leave the fantastic venue that is Saint Lukes into the cold Glasgow night with warmth in our hearts and musical memories still buzzing in our ears.

Support for the night was the highly enjoyable Gates of Light

Gates Of Light is an the international lockdown project led by singer songwriter Louise Quinn. Their current EP is a a collaboration between Louise and producer Finlay MacDonald (Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits, etc.).

Though a relatively short set, Louise had us all enthralled with her beautiful singing ably backed by Finlay on keyboards and computer! Where would music be without the intervention of technology?