David Gray (British musician)
David Gray is a British singer-songwriter.
Career
Gray was born on June 13, 1968 (some sources say 1970) in Sale, in the northern city of Manchester, England. He moved to Wales aged nine and later returned to the north-west of England to attend the University of Liverpool. His musical career got early support from a dedicated Irish fan base. At an early gig in Ireland, Gray was introduced by comic playwright Pat Ingoldsby.
After a few marginally successful releases through the 1990s, Gray's breakthrough came with the worldwide release in 1999 of his fourth album, White Ladder; this was a critical and commercial success and included his best-known songs, "This Years Love" and "Babylon". In the United States, the album received a boost from jam-band leader Dave Matthews, who made it the first release by the record company he co-founded, ATO Records.
On August 11, 2001 White Ladder reached the top of the UK albums chart, having been selling steadily since its re-issue the previous May, thereby setting a new record for the longest uninterrupted climb to Number One. The follow-up, A New Day At Midnight, also hit Number One, whilst Gray's seventh album, Life in Slow Motion was released on September 12, 2005.
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 in 1999, 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. 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.
Discography
Albums
- A Century Ends (1993); Hut (UK)/Caroline (USA)
- Flesh (1994); Hut
- Sell, Sell, Sell (1996); EMI
- White Ladder (1999); Iht (UK)/ATO Records (USA) #1 UK (2000 re-issue) #35 US
- Lost Songs 95-98 (2000); Iht (UK)/ATO Records (USA) #7 UK #153 US
- The EPs 1992-1994 (2001); Hut
- A New Day At Midnight (2002); eastwest (UK)/RCA (USA) #1 UK #17 US
- Life in Slow Motion (2005); eastwest (UK)/RCA (USA) #1 UK #16 US
Singles
From A Century Ends:
From White Ladder:
- "Please Forgive Me" (1999) #72 UK
- "This Year's Love" (1999)
- "Babylon" (1999) #57 US
- "Babylon" (reissue) (2000) #5 UK
- "Please Forgive Me" (reissue) (2000) #18 UK
- "This Year's Love" (reissue) (2001) #20 UK
- "Sail Away" (2001) #26 UK
- "Say Hello Wave Goodbye" (2001) #26 UK
From A New Day At Midnight:
From Life in Slow Motion:
- "The One I Love" (2005) #8 UK
- "Hospital Food" (2005) #34 UK
- "Alibi" (2006) #71 UK
- "Slow Motion" (2006)
Trivia
- Gray did a cameo appearance in the film "This Year's Love", for which he wrote the title track and other music.
- Gray is the brother-in-law of Orbital co-founder Phil Hartnoll, and did guest vocals for Orbital on the track "Illuminate" on their album The Altogether.
- He was involved with Soccer Aid in 2006, but conceded the penalty from which the Rest of the World side scored.