Review - Dingwalls, Camden Lock, London
September 16, 1998
"Ladies and Gentleman, live on stage.......DAVID GRAY". This announcement is not in itself out of the ordinary but when it is uttered by the man himself it seems a little odd. However it does sum up Gray's career quite nicely....not many have heard of him so he is forced to plug himself. The feeling that he realises this all too well was born out later in the gig when he introduced "Debauchery" by saying "For those of you who know who the hell I am, this is from my first record". I think he was genuinely surprised when more than a few people cheered.
As a gig this ranks alongside his performance earlier in the year at the Fleadh in Finsbury Park. He has added a keyboard player to the ensemble (Gray and ever present sidekick/percussionist Clune) since then and this certainly gave the sound more meat but its the songs and the passion with which he performs them that impress. Of the three new ones given an airing, Babylon, Sail Away and As I'm Leaving, Sail Away stands out and is the one new song that he also played at the Fleadh. Apparently it will appear on the soundtrack to a film called This Year's Love later on in the year which could be good news for Gray and his fans. It is a superb song with all his trademarks and there's an outside chance it will get him some much needed exposure. How long can the world go on ignoring a man who can sing "I've been talking drunken gibberish" in a love song ?
There were only two other songs, the opener "Its All Over" which I would
have thought was more suited to an encore and the usual cover "Say Hello,
Wave Goodbye" which although Marc Almond didn't write for him as Gray
suggested you could be forgiven for thinking he did, it suits him so well.
Both were hammered out with gusto and well appreciated by an audience
pretty well won over. Maybe I'm biased but there was certainly a reasonable
shout for an encore which wasn't to be.
Written by Mark Elliott