A musical Goliath

You’d think adopted Irishman David Gray would get tired of having us barrel on about how we gave him his leg up, kept him fed and watered during the barren years, and generally nurtured him from suckling singer-songwriter to global behemoth.
You’d think that, but you’d be wrong. “The gigs in Ireland are always like a homecoming," he reflects. "They always have a special atmosphere, and some fans from the very early days are usually present.”
The Gray story is a classic fable about perseverance. He’d been at it for years before he hit pay-dirt. Indeed he had been unceremoniously dumped by his label Hut, following the commercial failure of his previous release, the somewhat fatalistically titled Sell, Sell, Sell. But Gray had a core support in the media in Ireland, and RMG, his record label, were also hugely committed. As a result, his seminal White Ladder album of 1998 was a success here first – it went on to sell a phenomenal 200,000 copies – and it was that which inspired its subsequent global lift-off. It went on to shift some six million-plus copies worldwide, and launched a slew of lo-fi imitators. Not only was it recorded in his own bedroom’s studio, but it was funded by the man himself.
Of the early days, Gray is sanguine: “I really didn’t know what the business was all about. I was totally nonplussed by it all. I had a certain confidence it was going to happen – but I always had that. I just hoped someone would hear it and take it to their hearts.”
Mercifully, someone eventually did. White Ladder's successor, the top-selling New Day At Midnight, was also largely recorded at home – but there was a shift in priorities for last year’s critically lauded Life In Slow Motion, on which he went for a bigger and far more lavish production. “I don’t think you can remain the underdog forever, and I wanted to experiment,” he explains. “A lot of the songs came about from playing as a band or from messing around with sounds. I realised at that point, this was going to be a big affair.”
Such grandiose ambitions may at first seem almost at odds with Gray’s affable on-stage demeanour. But he is an artist first, with a need to evolve and improve his craft. Typically, this latest bunch of songs not only embellished an already impressive canon, but solidified his reputation as an iconic songsmith – one with a superb ear for the travails of Everyman. Not that such moments of inspiration come easy.
“It was bloody hard work,” admits Gray on the production of Life In Slow Motion. “Fear and doubt are huge obstacles, and I did lose the plot in some ways, as you do when you’re immersed in something, but you can’t let go of it either.”
It’s a long way from his early years as a folk troubadour. Back then, albums like his debut A Century Ends and the follow up Flesh, may not have won him many fans, but still have a place in the hearts of a decent few. Even if that doesn’t include his wife.
“My wife used to tell me, ‘Stop singing in that funny voice and you’ll sell some records’,” Gray told the Guardian. “I didn’t have a clue about folk music, and stuck out like a sore thumb.”
Now, he sticks out for altogether different reasons: quite simply, he is one of the most successful credible rock artists of the past decade. Hits like ‘Please Forgive Me’, ‘Be Mine’ and ‘The One I Love’ will no doubt all get an airing, in what promises to be one of the highlights of the Marquee series. For this night at least, the dome will be transformed into a musical ‘Babylon’. But there is one burning question: having omitted it on his last Irish date, will he play the best known of all his songs on this occasion? Let’s wait and see!