David Gray

The British author and performer David Gray might be the most underrated artist among the talented and the most talented musicians among the underrated ones. Born in Manchester in 1968, he was nine when his family moved to Wales. After a short period in the neighbor country, the young man returned to his motherland to get university education in Liverpool. As a student, David used to play for a number of rock bands where he also fulfilled the song-writing duties. In 1992, the beginning musician relocated to London where he established ties with a sound recording company that initially signed him. Soon after getting a contract, he was through with his debut single, Birds Without Wings. Quickly after stepping into the following year, the artist delivered a full-length effort that was called A Century Ends and oriented to folk- and rock-music. The singer’s sincere stories about human strongest feelings told to the acoustic guitar found a lot of supporters in Britain. This release was followed by a solo tour bringing many more faithful followers to David Gray. However it was not yet the time to rest on laurels.

Complex relations with the label led to poor promotion of David Gray’s second album, Flesh (1994), which left it without proper attention of mass media. This caused a financial failure of the while effort and left both the singer and the company unsatisfied. As a result, the parties cancelled the cooperation and Gray found himself looking for a new partner. This turned out to be the serious people from EMI Records who found Gray a very promising artist. For a number of reasons, David was particularly popular in Ireland where the local television took every chance to show him. In 1996, the singer extended his discography with one more studio work, Sell, Sell, Sell, released in a limited edition. Again, the release did not succeed financially, which once more forced the singer to look for support. This time, he decided to rely on himself. This idea turned into the 1998 album White Ladder issued by Gray at his expenses. In 2000, it was re-released by ATO Records whose owner was David’s long-time friend. Only then, the singer’s music finally reached out for the wide masses. In the USA, the public was extremely happy with the hit Babylon while in the UK the whole album climbed the fifth position in the charts.

Soon after the release of White Ladder, Gray performed at the Glastonbury festival, which made quite expectable that the album eventually went multi-platinum. Motivated by this success, David Gray released in 2001 a set of his rare stuff and new editions of his early albums. He remained more famous in Europe than across the Atlantic, but even in the States his subsequent effort, A New Day at Midnight (2002), appeared a very good seller. The singer reached his peak with the album called Life in Slow Motion that debuted in 2005 from the first place in Ireland in the UK. After that, the musician decided to cease writing new material for a while and issued in 2007 a collection named Shine: The Best of the Early Years. It was followed by the compilation of his best songs, Greatest Hits, also featuring Gray’s two unreleased tracks. The British artist’s eighth studio album, Draw the Line, arrived in the second half of 2009. David did not make his fans to wait for his following work for a long time: the record Foundling saw the light in 2010. That traditionally strong album pleased Gray’s listeners and critics, who noted the highest level of performance. There is no doubt that the long play Foundling will be interesting for all the lovers of lyrical music and touching texts.