David Gray to play four Irish dates on Skellig tour

David Gray is bringing his Skellig choir to major Irish venues next March for four dates, it has been confirmed.

The English singer-songwriter will play Cork Opera House on Wednesday 1st March; Wexford's National Opera House on Thursday 2nd March and Dublin's National Concert Hall on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th March 2023.

Skellig, Gray's 12th studio album, was released on February 19th, 2021. The project embarked on a sparser, communal soundscape with the atmospheric songs centering themselves around six-part vocals with Gray trading his signature gravel for a softer tone.

A wide array of Irish musicians have contributed to the record - including David Kitt, who has played a key role in Gray's band.

Skellig takes its name from a formation of precipitous rocky islands off the coast of Co. Kerry, the most westerly point in Ireland. Ravaged by the Atlantic, the seemingly un-inhabitable location of Skellig Michael became an unlikely site of pilgrimage in 600AD for a group of monks, who believed that leading such a merciful existence, they would leave the distraction of the human realm to be ultimately closer to God.

Gray asks for no literal translation of the above, nor prescribes any religious allegiance - but the story, told to him by a friend, has haunted his imagination ever since.

“The more I contemplated the idea of a small group of people landing on those rocks and establishing a monastic life there, the more overpowered I became by a dizzying sense of awe. How close to God could you possibly wish to get?" he says.

"Life must have been unbelievably hard for them and trying to fathom the deep spiritual conviction that compelled them to escape the mediaeval world lead me to acknowledge my own deepest longings to be free of all the endless human noise that we now so readily accept as being such an inescapable part of our day to day lives. Dreams of revelation, dreams of a cleansing purity, dreams of escape. Ideas that I think almost any 21st century person shouldn’t find it too hard to relate to!”

The multi-vocal layering that weaves throughout Skellig came to Gray through the unfolding of 2013’s Sounding Out Tour, where he recruited members of his live band – including Caroline Dale, David Kitt and Rob Malone - to experiment on his back-catalogue alongside him.

Gathering up Dale, Kitt and Malone, and with the addition of Niamh Farrell, Mossy Noalan and de Vries, Gray ventured up to the coastal retreat of Helmsdale in the Scottish Highlands to live out the creation of the record.

Speaking about collaborating with Gray, David Kitt tweeted, "So proud to be a part of this incredible album with such a bunch of legends. the giddiest of times we had recording at Edwyn Collins and Grace Maxwell's studio in the Scottish highlands. definitely my favourite thing Dave has done and really excited for its full release in Feb."

The follow-up to 2019's Gold in a Brass Age was recorded before Covid-19 lockdowns struck at Edwyn Collins' studio in the Scottish highlands.

Gray released his first album in 1993 and received worldwide attention after the release of White Ladder six years later.

Tickets priced from €59.40 including booking fees will go on sale this Friday 21st October at 10am from ticketmaster.ie and venue box offices. Revisit David Gray's 2000 interview with Hot Press here.