A sort of homecoming

There’s a palpable sense of anticipation in the small upstairs room at Anseo on Wexford Street, where a crowd of twenty-five people are awaiting the arrival of one of the most successful singer-songwriters of the past decade, David Gray. Twelve competition winners – who voted on Hotpress.com for the songs that will be included in the five-song set – and their friends are to be treated to a selection of tracks from Gray’s current best-of collection, simply titled Greatest Hits.

The audience have come from all over the country for this very special Saturday afternoon performance. Sure, some – such as Therese Mulvey from Terenure – have made relatively short journeys, but a quick tour of the room reveals impressive geographic diversity. Jane O’Hora and Barry O’Doherty have come from Donegal, while Mary and Conor Lucy made the trip from Cork. Elsewhere, Brian Lahiff and Orla Harney are flying the flag for Limerick.
Undoubtedly the most extraordinary story, though, is that of David and Maria Snell, who have travelled all the way from – wait for it – Dallas to attend both this show and Gray’s gig later on this evening in the National Stadium.
“We first got into his music a couple of years ago,” explains David. “We actually saw him play for the first time a few months back in Lucerne, with Damien Rice, which was fantastic. We’re also going to see him twice next month, in Boston and New York. But when we heard about this, we were very excited. Getting the opportunity to see an artist like him perform in such an intimate setting is brilliant.”
Seated alongside David and Maria is their young son Alex, who – despite having his arm encased in plaster – is very much looking forward to the gig. Eventually, Gray arrives to thunderous applause. Always an impressive live performer, the singer puts on a predictably superb show. The low-key lighting and atmospheric setting perfectly suit the stripped-down versions of the songs, which Gray performs with characteristic head-bobbing enthusiasm.
He opens with ‘Shine’ and ‘Flame Turns Blue’, then takes a seat behind the keyboard for a rather beautiful ‘This Year’s Love’. Switching back to his trusty acoustic, Gray delivers a stirring ‘Babylon’, before announcing with mock indignation that “no one voted for the next song.” This is the cue for a stunning musical version of WB Yeats’ poem ‘Song Of The Wandering Aengus’, which is followed by the final number, ‘Sail Away’.
Afterwards, Maria Snell is full of praise for the performance. Also impressed is Pauline Bleach, who’s travelled from Galway. Downstairs, Gray signs albums and copies of Hot Press before heading for the minibus that will take him to the National Stadium. Your correspondent is invited to join him on the short trip.
On the bus, Gray frets that his management only recently discovered a two-year-old thank-you note from Emma Thompson in their offices, “so she probably thinks I’m really rude.” Nonetheless, he expresses satisfaction with how the performance in Anseo went.
“I liked it, it sounded good in there,” he enthuses. “Takes you back to the early days, when it was just the song and you. I’m doing an acoustic set at the moment, as my own support. I go on and play six or seven songs. I’m in that mode, so it was very straightforward.”
Famously, the Irish success of White Ladder (still the biggest selling album ever in this country) was the launching pad for Gray’s rise to international stardom. Do his Irish concerts feel like homecoming shows?
“There are layers of memories here,” he says. “So much happened here that shaped me and my life. Ireland has been ahead of the curve the whole time, right from the first show in Whelan’s, which blew my mind. And then on to the first Point Depot gig, then Marlay Park; all those things remain with me. It’s a place I’ve got a very strong attachment to.”
A New Day At Midnight and Life In Slow Motion, the albums which followed White Ladder, were both top-twenty hits in the US. Did Gray find that success in America suddenly meant he was moving in A-list circles?
“There’s obviously a way of going about this,” he replies. “All the starfucker types are very adept at it. They’re suddenly hanging out with every cunt from Hollywood that you’ve ever fucking seen. If I meet someone by chance, then that’s completely different. When it was all going completely crazy, I remember Brad and Jennifer coming to my show in Los Angeles. We had so many celebs there, it was fucking insane. It was so complicated; we thought we had a lot of security, but they had much more.
“They had people going, ‘You got 30 seconds to meet Brad and Jennifer, if you want to do it, you gotta make a decision now’. I’ve only just come off the fucking stage! I’m like, ‘I don’t wanna meet ’em now, I wanna towel down and have a drink of champagne or something'.”
The bus comes to a halt outside the National Stadium. Before we get out, Gray confirms that he will have a new album out next year, which he describes as “upbeat and positive”. He then invites me inside to view the soundcheck. I take a seat in the empty arena and watch Gray put the band through their paces. Duties complete, he wanders over to say goodbye. Soon, it'll be showtime.
“It’s a potent mixture,” he says, nodding in the direction of the stage. “The songs have never sounded as powerful.”

David Gray’s Greatest Hits is out now