DAVID GRAY

David Gray

Thursday, December 31 at 11 p.m.


After several successful releases through the 1990s, Grays breakthrough came with the worldwide release in 1999 of his fourth album, White Ladder; this was a critical and commercial success and included his best-known songs, This Years Love and Babylon. In the United States, the album received a boost from jam-band leader Dave Matthews, who made it the first release by the record company he co-founded, ATO Records.

On August 11, 2001 White Ladder at last reached the top of the UK charts, having been selling steadily since its reissue the previous May, thereby setting a new record for the longest uninterrupted climb to No. 1. The follow-up, A New Day at Midnight, also hit No. 1, and Grays seventh album, Life In Slow Motion was released on September 12, 2005.

Grays early music was in a contemporary folk-rock, singer-songwriter mode; his primary instrument was acoustic guitar, with occasional piano. 1996s Sell Sell Sell featured some rock arrangements and electric instrumentation.

David Grays brothers-in-law are Paul and Phillip Hartnoll, formerly of the Techno/Rave band Orbital. Because of this relationship, Gray performed guest vocals on the Orbital single Illuminate, while Paul Hartnoll produced a breakbeat remix of Grays song Please Forgive Me.

His successful single January Rain was included in the original soundtrack of the movie Serendipity, starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale.

Pictures and additional information can be found on his website, www.DavidGray.com