'David Gray' (born
June 13,
1968 in
Sale) is an
English singer-songwriter who came to
mainstream recognition with his 1998 album ''
White Ladder''.
Early career
Gray moved from
Manchester to
Wales at the age of nine. He grew up in the small coastal town of
Solva in
Pembrokeshire and attended the Carmarthenshire College of Art. He later moved to the north-west of England to attend the
University of Liverpool.
His musical career received early support from a dedicated
Republic of Ireland fan base. At an early gig in Ireland, Gray was introduced by comic playwright
Pat Ingoldsby.
Gray's first two albums ''
A Century Ends'' and ''
Flesh'' were issued in 1993 and 1994 respectively and led to Gray becoming popular in folk-rock circles, but both failed to do any serious business in terms of commercial sales.
In 1996 Gray released his third album, ''
Sell, Sell, Sell''. With his first two albums having been entirely comprised of acoustic folk music, this was his first mature exhibition and saw him use his now-trademark blend of folk, alternative rock and electronics for the first time. Despite critical acclaim, the album did not chart, but the song "Late Night Radio" received some airplay on alternative UK radio stations.
Breakthrough
The UK folk-rock scene had known about Gray for some time before his breakthrough into the pop mainstream in 2000, but after a few marginally successful releases through the 1990s, Gray's breakthrough came with the worldwide release of his fourth
album, ''
White Ladder'', in 1998. This was a critical and commercial success and included his best-known songs: "This Year's Love", "
Babylon" and "Please Forgive Me". In August 2000, "Babylon" hit #5 in the UK singles chart; it remains his biggest UK hit to date. In the
United States, the album received a boost from jam-band leader
Dave Matthews, who made it the first release by
ATO Records, the record company he co-founded. ''Babylon'' was also the first of three US chart entries for Gray to date. In Ireland, ''White Ladder'' remains the biggest-selling album ever.
On
August 11,
2001, ''White Ladder'' finally reached the top of the
UK albums chart, on the back of the single success of "Babylon" (a remixed and edited version for radio, which omitted the third verse completely). The album had been selling steadily since its reissue the previous May, thereby setting a new record for the longest uninterrupted climb to
Number One. The year 2001 also saw the release of two compilations of Gray's early works and unreleased material, ''
The EPs 1992-1994'' and ''
Lost Songs 95-98'', both of which followed ''White Ladder'' into the UK album chart Top Twenty.
In November 2002, Gray released the follow-up to ''White Ladder'', entitled ''
A New Day at Midnight''. The new release did not receive the same critical acclaim as its predecessor, but still went straight in at Number One, beating Pop Idol runner-up
Gareth Gates' debut album "What My Heart Wants To Say" to the summit and selling nearly fifteen thousand copies in its first week of release; it went on to reach platinum status within a year and was the second-biggest selling album by a UK artist in 2002. ''A New Day At Midnight'' spawned two further UK Top 30 hits in "The Other Side" and "Be Mine" and a minor US hit with "Dead in the Water".
Recent career
After a three-year hiatus which saw him wind down his recording and touring schedule due to exhaustion, Gray returned with his seventh album, ''
Life in Slow Motion'' in September 2005, which, like its predecessor, also hit the top of the UK album chart in its first week of release. After the much-criticised ''A New Day At Midnight'', ''Life in Slow Motion'' was hailed as a return to form by many critics. Lead single "
The One I Love" was a Top Ten hit in the UK in October 2005 and spent three months in the UK chart. Following the relative commercial failure of follow-up singles "
Hospital Food" and "Alibi", Gray again went into hiatus during 2006.
In March 2007, Gray released the compilation album ''.
On
7 July 2007, Gray performed with
Damien Rice at the
UK leg of
Live Earth at
Wembley Stadium in
London. On the same day, Gray also announced via his website that he will release another album entitled ''A Thousand Miles Behind'', a compilation CD of live covers, on August 20th, 2007 via CD and digital download.
Musical direction
Gray's early music was in a contemporary
folk-rock, singer-songwriter mode; his primary instrument was
acoustic guitar, with occasional
piano. 1996's ''
Sell, Sell, Sell'' featured some rock arrangements and electric instrumentation. Starting with the release of ''
White Ladder'', Gray began to make significant use of computer-generated music to accompany his voice and acoustic instrumentation, a technique which differentiates him from many of his peers. ''
A New Day At Midnight'' continued this direction, although lyrically it was darker in tone than ''White Ladder'' and the instrumentation much more downbeat. In the liner notes, Gray dedicated the album to his father, who died in 2001. Despite the move to more complex music, Gray has used small-scale, often home-based recording methods and equipment and espoused a
"do it yourself" approach to music production. However, ''
Life in Slow Motion'' is a collaboration with noted producer
Marius De Vries.
The Venus in Furs
The band "Venus in Furs" (named after the
Velvet Underground song whose title and lyrics in turn reference a novel of that name by
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch) was formed in 1998 for the film ''
Velvet Goldmine''. Gray provided vocals in the band which also included
Thom Yorke (
Radiohead),
Jonny Greenwood(
Radiohead), Andy Mackay (
Roxy Music),
Bernard Butler (
Suede), Paul Kimble.
Gray's songs in film and television
Gray's music has been featured in many films and television shows:
★ The song "Disappearing World" from ''Life in Slow Motion'' was prominently featured on the TV series ''
Smallville'' in fall 2005 and "Standoff" in the end sequence of "Episode 1x05 - Life Support", which first aired on October 31, 2006.
★ "The One I Love" from ''Life in Slow Motion'' was featured in the season finale of the third season of ''
Rescue Me'', which aired on August 29, 2006.
★ "Alibi" from ''Life in Slow Motion'' was featured in the pilot episode of the television series ''
Conviction''.
★ "Slow Motion" from ''Life in Slow Motion'' was featured at length on the season premiere of the long-running U.S. television series ''
E.R.'', airing on September 21, 2006. It was also featured at the end of the finale of ''Conviction''.
★ "Please Forgive Me" from ''White Ladder'' is featured in the pilot episode "My First Day" of the TV comedy ''
Scrubs'' along with the movies ''
All Over the Guy'' and ''
On the Edge''.
★ "Sail Away" from ''White Ladder'' is featured in the film ''
15 Minutes'' starring
Robert De Niro.
★ ''Hold On To Nothing'' from ''Sell Sell Sell'' is featured in episode 16 of the TV show ''
Jericho''.
★ "Freedom" from ''A New Day at Midnight'' is featured in a fourth-season episode of the TV show ''
Alias''.
★ "This Year's Love" from ''White Ladder'' is featured in a season-four episode of the television show ''
Dawson's Creek'' and in the movies ''
Wimbledon'' and ''
The Girl Next Door''. A piano-solo version of the song is also featured in the latter movie. It also appears in ''
Crazy/Beautiful'' but it is not on the movie's soundtrack album.
★ "January Rain" from ''Lost Songs'' is featured in the movie ''
Serendipity''.
★ Gray's
Soft Cell cover, "
Say Hello Wave Goodbye", is played at the end of the ''
Without A Trace'' episode "Clare de Lune" (Season 1, episode 16).
★ "The Other Side" is played at the end of Season 1, Episode 1 of ''
Day Break'' and also at the end of
Smallville, Episode 18 of Season 2.
★ "Babylon" from ''White Ladder'' is played at a sequence near the end of Season 2, Episode 27 of ''
Boston Legal''.
★ "As I'm Leaving" from ''Lost Songs'' is featured in the motion picture ''
Ladder 49''.
★ "Flame Turns Blue" from ''Lost Songs'' is featured in the movie ''
Disco Pigs''.
★ "David Gray songs are featured in the movie ''
A Way of Life''.
Band
★
David Gray -
vocals,
piano,
guitar
★ Keith Pryor -
drums,
percussion,
vocals
★ Rob Malone -
bass,
vocals
★ Neill MacColl -
guitar,
Lap steel,
keyboards,
vocals
Former members
★ Craig "Clune" McClune -
drums,
percussion,
vocals
★ Tim Bradshaw -
Lap steel,
keyboards,
vocals
★ David Nolte -
guitar,
keyboards,
vocals, other various instruments
Discography
Studio albums
★ '1. ''
A Century Ends'''
(1993)
★ '2. ''
Flesh'''
(1994)
★ '3. ''
Sell, Sell, Sell'''
(1996)
★ '4. ''
White Ladder'''
(1999)
★ '5. ''
Lost Songs 95-98'''
(2001)
★ '6. ''
A New Day at Midnight'''
(2002)
★ '7. ''
Life in Slow Motion'''
(2005)
Compilations
★ '1. ''
The EPs 1992-1994'''
(2001)
★ '2. '''
(2007)
★ '3. ''
A Thousand Miles Behind'''
(2007)
Virtual albums
★ ''
iTunes Originals - David Gray''
★
Singles
Videos/DVDs
★ '' (2001)
★ ''
Live in Slow Motion'' (2006)
See also
★
''Live from London'' (iTunes)
★ ''
This Year's Love''
External links
★
Official home page
★
David Gray collection at the
Internet Archive's live music archive
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