David McAlmont on BBC Radio 2 - and this Friday...

Radio 2 invited me to hear David McAlmont being interviewed by Jo Whiley and performing three songs, all for live transmission at Abbey Road last week.

McAlmont sang George Harrison's "Isn'tit a Pity", and in the version I heard he did a longer fade ending to this song, with the line:

"We keep forgetting to give back, isn't it a pity"

repeated four times. Those two heartfelt phrases hover and linger in the mind in a week when the banks have got their way....

I also found I disagreed with every single word of Caitlin Moran's reductive crit of Jo Whiley:

"a decades-long, squirming awkwardness that makes her look as if she’s about to corkscrew right off her chair and start drilling into the ground. This awkwardness extends into her conversational rhythm, which is angular — possibly free-jazz — in origin."

Wrong, wrong. What seriously impressed me was the sheer professionalism of Jo Whiley. She draws the attention in on the artist rather than herself, and how refeshing that is.

David McAlmont has been announced as a guest at the Duncan Lamont 80th concert at Leicester Square Theatre this Friday April 15th, and which also features Kenny Wheeler and Norma Winstone.