David McAlmont - Wall To Wall Prince at The Hideaway

On Thursday evening we went to see David McAlmont play at The Hideaway, the swanky jazz club in Streatham. It was Wall To Wall Prince night following on from his previous themed shows singing David Bowie and James Bond themes. Thursday was the first of three nights of David and Baby Sol singing Prince songs (and neither of them wore purple).

The Hideaway also doubles as a supper club serving a good selection of food and drink including Newcastle Brown Ale so I was obliged to partake. Nice food and a nice, friendly atmosphere always work well, particularly with a Brown Ale! All that was missing was Mr McAlmont.

David came on in what he called his 'Versailles' look of a lightly brocaded frock coat suit covered in his bling, with the familiar lizard pinned to his sash. There was a five-piece and on stage with him providing a generally funky backing noise for him to sing against. Considering this was their first show they were really good and obviously well practiced with the new arrangements of some classic Prince songs. We had two roughly 50 minutes sessions with a 20 minute break.

David did the first few songs then Baby Sol joined him on stage to sing 'Sign O' The Times' and, later, 'Nothing Compares 2 U' (I don't understand why people sing this when the perfect version is by Sinead O'Connor). David took on 'I Wanna Be Your Lover', 'Money Don't Matter' and a lovely 'Diamonds and Pearls', but the highlight of the first half was what he introduced as his '1989 version' of 'When Doves Cry' in full Soul II Soul styleee. If you're going to sing a classic then have an arrangement to match and this was most excellent.

The second half opened with a stonking 'Kiss' and 'Alphabet Street' before Baby Sol braved 'Purple Rain' - I immediately felt sorry for the guitarist whose job is to be the guitar hero version of Prince and who can follow that (he did a good job though). We had excellent versions of 'I Feel For You' and 'Gett Off' but the highlight of the second half, for me, was a great and fun version of 'Guyana Beret' (aka 'Raspberry Beret'). This was an Africanised version of the song with a bit of patois finding its way into the song and I loved David changing 'I think I love her' in the chorus to 'I think I love she'. The encore was a fun mash-up of 'Manic Monday' and '1999'.

It was a very fun evening with David on top form and it was nice to be introduced to Baby Sol. I can't help but thinking that a good, old fashioned double A-side single could be made from the great versions of 'When Doves Cry' and 'Guyana Beret'. Go on, David, I dare you!

And here is 'When Doves Cry' from the Friday night show:



What do you think?