It took Gray a few songs, but by mid-set the singer-songwriter and his two-man acoustic band had moved into their flow, helped hugely by a pivotally-placed ‘Babylon’, to which the audience gave great song.
It’s been a long, hot, muggy day, but Galway’s weather still won’t piss or get off the pot. A short, sharp shower would actually be extremely welcome, but the heavily pregnant clouds just tease with the prospect of rain. On the plus side, the evening skies over the Fisheries Field are appropriately shaded for the musical night ahead (sorry, but it’s an unbreakable rule of music journalism that every David Gray live review must contain at least one pun on his surname).
To transform the intimacy of his records into an entertainment show is some task, but one which Ireland’s favourite Welshman has improved on as the years go on, simply because more material equals rich pickings: those less suited to shared appreciation can be dropped.
David Gray’s seventh studio album is called Life In Slow Motion. As someone who hasn’t ever fully understood the appeal of his music, that’s exactly what his concert experience felt like.
No longer the angry young man who heralded A Century Ends, nor the underdog troubadour we took to our hearts and our homes with White Ladder, the David Gray of 2005 is something like a phenomenon.
Sharp suits, a global fan base, his own luxury recording studio - David Gray has certainly come a long way. On the eve of the release of his latest album, he talks about the dark side of success and explains why he wants to leave the singer-songwriter tag behind
With his September 18 visit to the Olympia selling-out in nanoseconds, Hot Press cover star David Gray has announced a somewhat bigger Dublin date at the Point Theatre.
Are you ready for another massive David Gray hit that gets rotated to death by every mid-afternoon DJ on the planet? Well, we’re quite sure you’re going to be hearing a lot of ‘The One I Love’ when it hits the airwaves later this August. Instantly catchy (if suspiciously like Paul Brady) and featuring one of David’s most uplifting choruses to date, this power-ballad has the potential to be even bigger than ‘Babylon’ was back in 2000.
For the person in the eye of the storm, massive success can involve a titanic struggle. Especially when, as you’re trying to keep your bearings, ordinary life jumps up to punch you in the teeth. Now, after death, birth, fatigue, grief, joy and the "mindfuck" that is "the tidal wave of success," it is time, says David Gray, to get back to the music. and – whisper it – maybe even have a little holiday.
"I don't know whether they're going to replace No Disco with something equally interesting or, as is depressingly often the case, a duller, watered-down version": as one of the artists who benefitted from exposure on No Disco, DAVID GRAY offers this tribute to the show’s pioneering spirit. A Hot Press exclusive
First there was the bad shit then the mad shit – the biggest-selling album in Irish history, an international hit and a record you hear “in every shoe shop”. So, having climbed the white ladder to phenomenal success, how does David Gray follow that?
The result is a reflective, elegiac, extremely personal study of love and loss, measuring the yawning absences of bereavement, and testing the fortitude of the relationships which tether us at our most bereft
Ireland gets world-premiere first dibs on David Gray's new album, A New Day At Midnight, when it's released here a full 4 days ahead of the rest of the planet on October 24th. At midnight of course
How David Gray - whose follow-up to the planet-conqueringly successful Whilte Ladder is due out in eight weeks - beat the how-the-hell-do-you-follow-White-Ladder blues
Hot Press has it on unimpeachable authority that David Gray will be returning to Ireland in November for shows at the Dublin Point and Belfast Odyssey.
given the choice, I’d prefer to see him in front of a comfortable-sized crowd, but due to his immense popularity, grander things are called for these days. .
Cynics may see this album as a stop-gap release designed simply to fill the void back home, while
David Gray sets out to break America with White Ladder.
