David Gray biography

By January 1995 Gray had been dropped by the label but befriended by American A&R man Brian Copperman who claimed he could sell Gray to the US and promptly signed him to EMI America. So with renewed confidence Gray set about the recording of his third album, Sell, Sell, Sell. After some disastrous studio time in America, Gray returned to England and tried to salvage the album. It was unreleased in the UK at the time but rushed out in the wake of Gray's eventual success. Uncharacteristic of his previous, edgier material, Sell, Sell, Sell was the closest Gray ever got to orthodox, smooth, FM rock. The affecting ballad Gutters Full Of Rain detailed his parents split after 20 years of marriage.

EMI America soon severed Gray's contract and a deal with Warners Publishing was also terminated. Gray was close to rock bottom. He ditched his manager, Rob Holden and after several months of soul searching (and drinking), Gray set about recording a new batch of songs at his North London home. Together with his producer, Clune, Gray worked with a basic set up - drum machine, computer, sampler, a Roland keyboard and an eight-track recording kit. Inbetween Gray contributed songs to the soundtrack of 1997 Brit flick This Year's Love.

Sessions for the White Ladder album began in 1998. The songs had a new suppleness about them. They were still starkly confessional, alluding to his drinking, career doubts and marital ructions with his solicitor wife Olivia. Please Forgive Me was typical of the album's personal content. Gray released the record on his own IHT label, cautiously pressing just 4,000 copies for the Irish market and around half that for the UK. But then Jo Whiley made Please Forgive Me her single of the week and things began to snowball. In Ireland the album went to No.1. Hit singles Babylon and Sail Away epitomised the personal honesty of the songs. Gray soon signed up to a major label, Warners imprint East West, and his career was back on track.

But in comparison to White Ladder, 2002's follow up A New Day At Midnight was a letdown. Informed by the death of his father, many of the songs, Other Side and Dead In The Water, were darkly personal and lacked Ladder's melodic flair. 2005 saw Gray back on track again with his new album Life In Slow Motion. Recorded in his newly acquired studio, a converted church in North London, Gray says the songs came out sounding uplifting, despite his best efforts to make them depressing! His new single One I Love, features a soaring, uplifting chorus despite its subject matter - a man dying in a pool of blood, proof, if it were needed that despite fame and success David Gray can still be a miserable bugger... Discography