CRAVING your first sublime 'live' musical experience of the year? Well if you are, the opportunity for one is but a week away in the guise of Fingersnap, the duo that comprises singing sensation David McAlmont and multi-talented musician Guy Davies, who will be taking to the stage at Manchester's Contact Theatre on February 5.

David McAlmont is a name that will probably be familiar to many of you since he is unquestionably one of the finest singers this country has ever produced.

McAlmont is best known for his earlier partnership(McAlmont & Butler) with ex Suede guitarist Bernard Butler that yielded top forty singles, including the classic 'Yes', and two excellent albums in 1995 and 2005. H

e has also collaborated with the likes of composers Michael Nyman and David Arnold, Courtney Pine, Craig Armstrong and Paul Weller to name just a few.

Guy Davies was born in Liverpool and began playing piano at the tender age of five.  By age eighteen, Davies was playing and recording with many Liverpool bands and his CV boasts the diverse array of artists he has subsequently worked with including Jon Bon Jovi, Robert Palmer, Shakespears Sister, Carlene Anderson, Pete Wylie and ex Madness front man Suggs.

Davies, having long been a huge fan of McAlmont's, first met the singer in 1997 and the two struck up an immediate friendship that quickly developed into a blossoming working relationship through live and studio work together, most notably their collaboration on two of McAlmont's albums, 'A Little Communication'(1998) and 'Set One: You Go To My Head'(2005).

In 2005 Davies turned his back on music performance for a number of years to pursue a career in the media industry, though it was always his intention to return to playing and producing and in 2009, he reconnected with McAlmont.

Working together on a number of songs and on  some live shows, with Davies acting as musical director on McAlmont's headlining tour that year, proved to be the catalyst for the formation of their Fingersnap partnership.

Since then, the duo have largely been sailing quietly but steadily under the music radar, doing their thing, as and when it suits them since both have other commitments too, with McAlmont presently studying for a History Of Art Degree and Davies having a full-time job yet despite this, Fingersnap have continued to build up a loyal and ever-growing following, principally via their stunning live performances  and have succeeded in becoming one of music's best kept secrets.

McAlmont explained the way that Fingersnap presently operate as follows: "It's boutique, we are doing what we can, when we can. We are really enjoying the rarity and specialness of it, the fact that we are not everywhere at the moment. The momentum is growing however and everything is moving in the right direction. In this day and age what you want is for people to come and see you live, that's something(playing live)which we really love doing and of course more people will come and see us perform live when we get an album out".

At present Fingersnap still just have one fabulous four track EP to their name in terms of recorded material and an official download single, 'Blackbirds'(more of which in a moment) though there are definitely firm plans for the duo to put out an album.

"Guy, the producer, has been clearing some spaces in his personal life so that we can just finally get around to recording and producing the record", says McAlmont.

Despite only currently operating their Fingersnap project  on an ad hoc basis and in the said 'boutique' fashion, the duo still found themselves with something of a phenomenon on their hands last summer courtesy of their beautiful song 'Blackbirds' which didn't even start out its life as a song.  

McAlmont takes up the 'Blackbirds' story; "I wrote a poem , then Guy wrote the music after I wrote the poem. I didn't know he was writing the music and he didn't know I'd written the poem.

Guy then brought the music over and we put it together with my words and it just worked and we had no idea that the song was going to go on to attract so much attention."

Continuing the 'Blackbirds' tale McAlmont said, "It all happened so fast and was a bit hairy, it really went off and it competed with my studies for my time. It was a real vindication though because right now we still have no professional management nor publishing or record deal so it was essentially just the two of us round at Guy's flat recording the song and then making it known simply through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and through these mediums the (radio)producers found us and it was amazing. The song was all over the radio and we got mentioned on Radio 2's highlights of the year so that was great."

'Blackbirds' became a big internet sensation within a very short space of time and to date the song has had in excess of 25,000 'hits' on YouTube alone, with the song accompanied by a fabulous animated film that lends an added poignancy to the words.

But, as McAlmont went on to explain, "What didn't really work in our favour was that there was no album to back-up the song, if there had been an album then things would no doubt have been different and gone from strength to strength.

Everyone(the radio presenters/producers) was saying 'where's the album?' and we were briefed by our plugger to simply say 'it's coming'."

Anyone going to see Fingersnap in concert for the first time is, indeed,  in for a very special treat since the David McAlmont voice is a real thing of wonder and  beauty for he is a vocalist who can seemingly land on any note with absolute ease and with the same pinpoint accuracy of a laser guided missile. 

That voice, harnessed to Davies' exquisite piano playing and together with McAlmont's  engaging between songs conversation will make for an evening not to be missed at the Contact Theatre with the duo set to serve up a show that is a mixture of  their own new material, some of McAlmont & Butler's biggest hits and a few well-chosen and perfectly executed covers.

David McAlmont has certainly enjoyed his share of commercial success to date in his career, principally during his McAlmont & Butler days but he would still like more of it.

And it is certainly fair to say though that this supremely gifted artist has never quite enjoyed the level of public acclaim that his unique talents most definitely warrant and the reasons for this are not easy to fathom although the singer does offer up a possible rationale for this anomaly as follows: "I haven't really been consistently present, I think that's probably got a lot to do with it.

"Certain artists will make a record available once a year but that has not been my form. The decision to do the University degree came about because I felt my career was slowing down but ironically, ever since I've started the degree, it has been accelerating again so I imagine that I'm going to have a really good(career) twilight."

Tickets for the Fingersnap concert at the Contact Theatre can be booked online via the venue's website at www.contactmcr.com or by phone at the box office on telephone number 0161 274 0600.