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| Birth Name(s) : David Gray |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Actor |
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Full David Gray Biography
Gray moved from Manchester to Wales at the age of nine. He grew up in the small coastal town of Solva in Pembrokeshire and attended the Carmarthenshire College of Art. He later moved to the north-west of England to attend the University of Liverpool.
His musical career received early support from a dedicated Republic of Ireland fan base (Joanne Brady). At an early gig in Ireland, Gray was introduced by comic playwright Pat Ingoldsby.
Gray's first two albums A Century Ends and Flesh were issued in 1993 and 1994 respectively and led to Gray becoming popular in folk-rock circles, but both failed to do any serious business in terms of commercial sales.
In 1996 Gray released his third album, Sell, Sell, Sell. With his first two albums having been entirely composed of acoustic folk music (Y), this was his first mature exhibition and saw him use his now-trademark blend of folk, alternative rock and electronics for the first time. Despite critical acclaim, the album did not chart, but the song "Late Night Radio" received some airplay on alternative UK radio stations.
In November 2002, Gray released the follow-up to White Ladder, entitled A New Day at Midnight. The new release did not receive the same critical acclaim as its predecessor, but still went straight in at Number One, beating Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates' debut album "What My Heart Wants To Say" to the summit and selling nearly fifteen thousand copies in its first week of release; it went on to reach platinum status within a year and was the second-biggest selling album by a UK artist in 2002. A New Day at Midnight spawned two further UK Top 30 hits in "The Other Side" and "Be Mine" and a minor US hit with "Dead in the Water".
After a three-year hiatus which saw him wind down his recording and touring schedule due to exhaustion, Gray returned with his seventh album, Life in Slow Motion in September 2005, which, like its predecessor, also hit the top of the UK album chart in its first week of release. After the much-criticised A New Day At Midnight, Life in Slow Motion was hailed as a return to form by many critics. Lead single "The One I Love" was a Top Ten hit in the UK in October 2005 and spent three months in the UK chart. Following the relative commercial failure of follow-up singles "Hospital Food" and "Alibi", Gray again went into hiatus during 2006.
On 7 July 2007, Gray performed with Damien Rice at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium in London. Gray released a compilation CD of live covers entitled "A Thousand Miles Behind" exclusively through his official website on October 8, 2007 via CD and digital download.
Gray has stated repeatedly in interviews that he is working on a new album which should be released sometime in 2008.
Gray's music has been featured in many films and television shows:
- "From Here You Can Almost See the Sea" featured in the 2007 horror remake The Hitcher.
- The song "Disappearing World" from Life in Slow Motion was prominently featured on the TV series Smallville in fall 2005 and "Standoff" in the end sequence of "Episode 1x05 - Life Support", which first aired on October 31, 2006.
- "The One I Love" from Life in Slow Motion was featured in the season finale of the third season of Rescue Me, which aired on August 29, 2006.
- "Alibi" from Life in Slow Motion was featured in the pilot episode of the television series Conviction.
- "Slow Motion" from Life in Slow Motion was featured at length on the season premiere of the long-running U.S. television series E.R., airing on September 21, 2006. It was also featured at the end of the finale of Conviction.
- "Please Forgive Me" from White Ladder is featured in the pilot episode "My First Day" of the TV comedy Scrubs along with the movies All Over the Guy and On the Edge.
- "Sail Away" from White Ladder is featured in the film 15 Minutes starring Robert De Niro.
- "Hold on to Nothing" from Sell Sell Sell is featured in episode 16 of the TV show Jericho.
- "Freedom" from A New Day at Midnight is featured in a fourth-season episode of the TV show Alias.
- "This Year's Love" from White Ladder is featured in a season-four episode of the television show Dawson's Creek and in the movies Wimbledon and The Girl Next Door. A piano-solo version of the song is also featured in the latter movie. It also appears in Crazy/Beautiful but it is not on the movie's soundtrack album.
- "January Rain" from Lost Songs is featured in the movie Serendipity.
- Gray's Soft Cell cover, "Say Hello Wave Goodbye", is played at the end of the Without a Trace episode "Clare de Lune" (Season 1, episode 16).
- "The Other Side" is played at the end of Season 1, Episode 1 of Day Break and also at the end of Smallville, Episode 18 of Season 2.
- "Babylon" from White Ladder is played at a sequence near the end of Season 2, Episode 27 of Boston Legal.
- "As I'm Leaving" from Lost Songs is featured in the motion picture Ladder 49.
- "Flame Turns Blue" from Lost Songs is featured in the movie Disco Pigs.
- "David Gray songs are featured in the movie A Way of Life.
- "My Oh My" from White Ladder is featured in a season 2 finale of the TV show Roswell.
- In 1999 David Gray appeared as the singer/guitar player in Kathy Burke's pub in a film titled This Year's Love. Several of his songs feature.
Notes:
- 1 "Babylon" charted also on these US Billboard Charts: Modern Rock Tracks (#25) and Adult Contemporary (#26) |
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