David Gray. Similar in perception to other contemporary solo artists such as James Blunt, Damien Rice, and Joshua Radin, though not necessarily in style, his is a name in popular music that polarises opinion. To thousands he still holds universal appeal; the fact that the majority of the dates on Gray’s current world tour have long since sold out will firmly attest to this. Yet for many others his music is something to deride, something at which to sneer, often finding itself described as being either insipid or bland.
So, on which side of that divide do we lie? Well…
This Past and Present Tour began life at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston, Massachusetts in late January. Now just over two months and some 35 shows later, David Gray finds himself back on home soil in the UK. As its name suggests, the tour embraces many stages of his recording career, from the multimillion-selling 1998 album, White Ladder – a record that upon its re-release two years later catapulted him from relative obscurity right into the major leagues – up to his most recent release, Dear Life which came out at the beginning of this year, reached No.1 on the UK Independent Chart, and garnered some of his strongest reviews in recent times.
The set list – a whopping 23 songs in total – may be all about David Gray’s music both past and present, but the stage design with half a dozen huge silver sheets hanging from the fly tower is decidedly futuristic. Against this backdrop Gray and the five members of his crack band – comprising keyboards, guitars, bass, and drums – launch straight into a couple of numbers from Dear Life, the second of which, ‘Leave Taking’ is the song that “kick started” the new album. It certainly energises Gray as he springs out from behind his keyboard, tambourine in hand, and rocks out at the front of the stage.
A sublime trio of songs from David Gray’s 2005 album Life in Slow Motion quickly follow – ‘Nos Da Cariad’, ‘Alibi’, and ‘From Here You Can Almost See the Sea’ – before Gray is joined by Talia Rae who is the support act on the UK and EU legs of this tour. Her delicate harmonies on ‘Plus & Minus’ and ‘Fighting Talk’, both from Dear Life, are a perfect counterpoint to the richness and purity of Gray’s voice.
Then comes the first of tonight’s seven songs from White Ladder, the second of which ‘Please Forgive Me’ induces the initial mass singalong of the night from the word-perfect audience. It will not be the last. This prompts the first shouts of the night for ‘Babylon’, David Gray’s most famous song and the catalyst which started his meteoric rise to success at the start of the millennium. Gray pleads for patience, rightly suggesting “there will be some twists and turns before then”, the first of which sees Talia Rae’s return to the stage to join him for ‘Heart and Soul’ from his 2021 album Skellig. There then comes a truly tremendous cover of Van Morrison’s ‘The Way Young Lovers Do’ where Gray sounds uncannily like the uncompromising Ulsterman.
Accompanied by mass hysteria and a sea of cell phones, a communal ‘Babylon’ duly arrives to close out the set but not before ‘Singing for the Pharaoh’ blurs seamlessly into a joyous reading of Depeche Mode’s 1981 hit ‘Just Can’t Get Enough.’
But it doesn’t just stop there. There is still time for David Gray’s spellbinding interpretation of the late lamented English folk musician Sandy Denny’s imperious ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes?’, ‘The Other Side’ from A New Day at Midnight, and the last song to be taken from White Ladder this evening and final song of the set, ‘Sail Away.’
Fair play to David Gray. He may well not be to everyone’s taste, but this captivating concert confirms many, many things about him. There is his durability for one. A quarter of a century on from his stratospheric success with the multi-platinum White Ladder he can still craft a brilliantly melodic pop tune, as is evidenced by the material he plays here from Dear Life. There is also the question of his energy and resilience. Fast approaching 60 years of age he can still knock out a performance lasting 135 minutes without nary a pause for breath. And then there is that voice, still a fabulously versatile instrument full of absolute passion and power.
