david grey white ladder tour

David Gray Announces “White Ladder: The 20th Anniversary Tour”

North American Tour Stops to Include Red Rocks, The Greek Theatre, and BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival

Tickets on sale friday november 8 th  at livenation.com.

DAVID GRAY SET TO PERFORM ON “CBS THIS MORNING: SATURDAY” ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9 th

DELUXE EDITION OF “WHITE LADDER” FEATURING UNRELEASED RARITIES & B-SIDES

PLUS REMASTERED EDITION OF “WHITE LADDER”

OUT FEBRUARY 14 TH  ON ALL FORMATS & FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ON VINYL

Multi-platinum and Grammy-nominated, British singer-songwriter  David Gray  has announced plans for a 2020 North American tour to celebrate the 20 th  anniversary of his seminal album,  White Ladder . The   “ WHITE LADDER : THE 20 TH  ANNIVERSARY TOUR”  produced by Live Nation will kick off on July 13 th  at Artpark Mainstage Theater in Lewiston, NY. The North American tour announcement follows on the heels of Gray’s upcoming UK, Ireland and EU tour. He recently added his third 3Arena show in Dublin and is on pace to sell out the tour in these countries overall. David will be performing the multi-Platinum album, White Ladder, in its entirety as well as greatest hits. This will be a once-in-lifetime tour that fans won’t want to miss. 

Tickets for the tour are set to go on sale starting Friday, November 8 th  at 10am local time and fans can get first access to presale tickets on Tuesday, Nov 5 th  by signing up for David’s email list. For more information, click  HERE  and please see tour routing below.

In conjunction with the tour,  David Gray  has announced the February 14 th  release of the  White Ladder: The 20 th Anniversary  deluxe edition (IHT Records/ AWAL), to celebrate the trailblazing album’s 20-year anniversary. The global multi-platinum selling album, and one of the greatest, most heart-warming word-of-mouth successes in music, will be released on 2xCD, 4xLP, and digital formats. This will include a special remastered edition of the iconic album plus  White Ladder  era previously unreleased rarities, B-sides and demos. 

Says David Gray, “What happened with  White Ladder  involved more than music. It was a sort of heart and soul moment of total surrender for everybody involved, for me and the audience. That was it. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Upon its 20 th  anniversary, it’s interesting to consider the extraordinary aftermath of  White Ladder . Its success spawned a new wave of singer-songwriters in an acoustic boom that resonates to this day, a soul-baring lineage that can be directly traced from David Gray to the all-conquering Ed Sheeran. Indeed, Ed is a fan, known to cover ‘This Year’s Love’ live. Fellow world beating British superstar Adele is also an admirer, citing ‘This Year’s Love’ as one of her all-time favorite break-up songs. 

TOUR DATES 

7/13                 Lewiston, NY                 Artpark Mainstage Theater

7/14                 Cleveland, OH               Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica 

7/16                 Toronto, ON                 Budweiser Stage 

7/17                 Rochester Hills, MI        Meadow Brook Amphitheatre 

7/18                 Chicago, IL                    Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island 

7/20                 Milwaukee, WI              BMO Harris Pavilion 

7/23                 Morrison, CO                Red Rocks Amphitheatre*  

7/24                 Salt Lake City, UT          Sandy Amphitheatre* 

7/25                 Boise, ID                       Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater 

7/28                 Troutdale, OR               McMenamins Edgefield 

7/31                 Los Angeles, CA             Greek Theatre 

8/1                   Berkeley, CA                 Greek Theatre*

8/2                   San Diego, CA               Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU

8/6                   Austin, TX                     ACL Live at The Moody Theatre 

8/7                   Irving, TX                      The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory 

8/8                   Kansas City, MO            Starlight Theatre 

8/10                 Nashville, TN                 Ascend Amphitheatre 

8/11                 Atlanta, GA                   Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park 

8/13                 Charlotte, NC                Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre 

8/14                 Raleigh, NC                   Red Hat Amphitheater

8/15                 Vienna, VA                    Wolf Trap 

8/18                 Brooklyn, NY                 BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival at Prospect Park Bandshell  

8/20                 Philadelphia, PA            TD Pavilion at the Mann 

8/21                 Boston, MA                   Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion 

*Date not produced by Live Nation 

www.davidgray.com

  www.instagram.com/davidgray

FOR MORE INFO PLEASE CONTACT

[email protected]  

[email protected]

About Live Nation Entertainment:

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit  www.livenationentertainment.com .

David Gray Press Contacts:

Carleen Donovan,  [email protected]

Amanda Brophy,  [email protected]

Live Nation Press Contacts:

Emily Bender,  [email protected]

Monique Sowinski,  [email protected]

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DAVID GRAY ANNOUNCES “WHITE LADDER: THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR”

Posted on Apr 02, 2021 by Julie Dieckelman

North American Tour Stops to Include Red Rocks, The Greek Theatre, and Celebrate Brooklyn

Tickets On Sale Friday November 8 th at LiveNation.com

DAVID GRAY SET TO PERFORM ON “CBS THIS MORNING: SATURDAY” ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9 th

DELUXE EDITION OF “WHITE LADDER” FEATURING UNRELEASED RARITIES & B-SIDES

PLUS REMASTERED EDITION OF “WHITE LADDER”  OUT FEBRUARY 14 TH ON ALL FORMATS & FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ON VINYL

Multi-platinum and Grammy-nominated, British singer-songwriter David Gray has announced plans for a 2020 North American tour to celebrate the 20 th anniversary of his seminal album, White Ladder . The “ WHITE LADDER : THE 20 TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR” produced by Live Nation will kick off on July 13 th at Artpark Amphitheater in Lewiston, NY. The North American tour announcement follows on the heels of Gray’s upcoming UK, Ireland and EU tour. He recently added his third 3Arena show in Dublin and is on pace to sell out the tour in these countries overall. David will be performing the multi-Platinum album, White Ladder , in its entirety as well as greatest hits. This will be a once-in-lifetime tour that fans won’t want to miss.

Tickets for the tour are set to go on sale starting Friday, November 8 th at 10am local time and fans can get first access to presale tickets on Tuesday, Nov 5 th by signing up for David's email list. For more information, click HERE and please see tour routing below.  Tickets also available at   Ticketmaster.com and at the venue box office Friday, November 8 th at 10am CST.

In conjunction with the tour, David Gray has announced the February 14 th release of the White Ladder: The 20 th Anniversary deluxe edition (IHT Records/ AWAL), to celebrate the trailblazing album’s 20-year anniversary. The global multi-platinum selling album, and one of the greatest, most heart-warming word-of-mouth successes in music, will be released on 2xCD, 4xLP, and digital formats. This will include a special remastered edition of the iconic album plus  White Ladder   era previously unreleased rarities, B-sides and demos.

Says David Gray, “What happened with White Ladder involved more than music. It was a sort of heart and soul moment of total surrender for everybody involved, for me and the audience. That was it. It doesn't get any better than that.”

Upon its 20 th anniversary, it’s interesting to consider the extraordinary aftermath of White Ladder . Its success spawned a new wave of singer-songwriters in an acoustic boom that resonates to this day, a soul-baring lineage that can be directly traced from David Gray to the all-conquering Ed Sheeran. Indeed, Ed is a fan, known to cover ‘This Year’s Love’ live. Fellow world beating British superstar Adele is also an admirer, citing ‘This Year’s Love’ as one of her all-time favorite break-up songs.

7/13                       Lewiston, NY                     Artpark Amphitheater

7/14                       Cleveland, OH                   Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica

7/16                       Toronto, ON                       Budweiser Stage

7/17                       Rochester Hills, MI            Meadow Brook Amphitheatre

7/18                       Chicago, IL                        Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island

7/20                       Milwaukee, WI                  BMO Harris Pavilion

7/23                       Morrison, CO                     Red Rocks Amphitheatre*  

7/24                       Salt Lake City, UT              Sandy Amphitheatre*

7/25                       Boise, ID                            Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater

7/28                       Troutdale, OR                    McMenamins Edgefield

7/31                       Los Angeles, CA                Greek Theatre

8/1                         Berkeley, CA                      Greek Theatre

8/2                         San Diego, CA                   Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU

8/6                         Austin, TX                          ACL Live at The Moody Theatre

8/7                         Irving, TX                           The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory

8/8                         Kansas City, MO               Starlight Theatre

8/10                       Nashville, TN                     Ascend Amphitheatre

8/11                       Atlanta, GA                        Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park

8/13                       Charlotte, NC                    Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre

8/14                       Raleigh, NC                      Red Hat Amphitheater

8/15                       Vienna, VA                        Wolf Trap

8/18                       Brooklyn, NY                    BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival at Prospect Park Bandshell  

8/20                       Philadelphia, PA               TD Pavilion at the Mann

8/21                       Boston, MA                      Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion

*Date not produced by Live Nation

www.davidgray.com

https://www.facebook.com/davidgray

  www.instagram.com/davidgray

https://twitter.com/DavidGray

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRealDavidGray

FOR MORE INFO PLEASE CONTACT

[email protected]  

[email protected]

About Live Nation Entertainment:

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit  www.livenationentertainment.com .

About Frank Productions Concerts (FPC Live)

Frank Productions Concerts (FPC Live) is a full-service concert promotion company involved in every facet of live events including production, logistics, ticketing, marketing, sponsorships, food and beverage, operations, and merchandising. Frank Productions produces and promotes live entertainment events in arenas, amphitheaters, performing arts centers, clubs, and other venues across the country. For additional information, visit www.FPC-Live.com .

About BMO Harris Pavilion – Milwaukee, WI

With Lake Michigan as its backdrop, the BMO Harris Pavilion is home to numerous concerts and special events throughout the year.  The venue can accommodate 5,000 patrons in reserved seating, along with a large general-admission area, and features state-of-the-art production and sound.  Dramatic architecture, including the iconic wave-inspired roof, along with its picturesque setting, create the ideal backdrop for fans to enjoy music in the unique outdoor setting of the BMO Harris Pavilion. For more details, visit BMOHarrisPavilion.com , Facebook and Instagram at @BMOHarrisPavilion , or Twitter at @BMOPavilion .

David Gray Press Contacts:

Carleen Donovan, [email protected]

Amanda Brophy, [email protected]

Live Nation Press Contacts:

Emily Bender,  [email protected]

Monique Sowinski,  [email protected]

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David Gray Announces White Ladder: 20th Anniversary Tour

• Last updated: 1 Nov 2019, 19:41:18
• Published: 1 Nov 2019, 19:41:18
• Written by: Asal Shah
• Photography by: Tabatha Fireman
• Categories: Tour Dates Tagged: David Gray

Today David Gray revealed a massive tour in celebration of 20 years of seminal album White Ladder, where he will perform it in its entirety, along with his greatest hits! The 2020 North American tour will kickoff on July 13th in Lewiston, New York and wrap up on August 21st in Boston.

Ahead of the tour, Gray will trek around the UK, Ireland and Europe! Tickets for the new tour will go on sale on November 8th. Gray will also release White Ladder: The 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, which will feature unreleased rarities, b-sides, and demos.

“What happened with White Ladder involved more than music. It was a sort of heart and soul moment of total surrender for everybody involved, for me and the audience. That was it. It doesn't get any better than that.”

He also said: "It’s an album that came from nowhere to steal the hearts of millions all over the world, completely transforming my life in the process. Twenty years on and it feels like White Ladder is just as alive for people now as it was back then - so to celebrate this milestone, I will be releasing a special anniversary version of the album."

Don't miss out on one extraordinary night, the tour dates are mapped out below!

7/13 Lewiston, NY Artpark Mainstage Theater

7/14 Cleveland, OH Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica

7/16 Toronto, ON Budweiser Stage

7/17 Rochester Hills, MI Meadow Brook Amphitheatre

7/18 Chicago, IL Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island

7/20 Milwaukee, WI BMO Harris Pavilion

7/23 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre

7/24 Salt Lake City, UT Sandy Amphitheatre

7/25 Boise, ID Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater

7/28 Troutdale, OR McMenamins Edgefield

7/31 Los Angeles, CA Greek Theatre

8/1 Berkeley, CA Greek Theatre

8/2 San Diego, CA Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre at SDSU

8/6 Austin, TX ACL Live at The Moody Theatre

8/7 Irving, TX The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory

8/8 Kansas City, MO Starlight Theatre

8/10 Nashville, TN Ascend Amphitheatre

8/11 Atlanta, GA Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park

8/13 Charlotte, NC Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre

8/14 Raleigh, NC Red Hat Amphitheater

8/15 Vienna, VA Wolf Trap

8/18 Brooklyn, NY BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival at Prospect Park Bandshell

8/20 Philadelphia, PA TD Pavilion at the Mann

8/21 Boston, MA Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion

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Most played songs.

• Babylon ( 427 )
• Sail Away ( 416 )
• Please Forgive Me ( 402 )
• This Year's Love ( 377 )
• The One I Love ( 319 )

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David Gray – White Ladder: The 20th Anniversary Tour

Please be advised that the David Gray –  White Gray: The 20th Anniversary Tour on The Rooftop at Pier 17 has been rescheduled to  August 16, 2022 . Tickets on sale now at Ticketmaster.com.

Previously purchased tickets for the August 17, 2021 show will be honored for the rescheduled show date and will not need to be exchanged.

We hope existing ticket holders join us on August 16, 2022 but should you not be able to make it you can request a refund. More details for this option will be emailed directly to you or you can check your refund eligibility by logging into your Ticketmaster account. Note, refunds can only be requested during the 30 day window following when you receive Ticketmaster’s rescheduled event email.

For any further ticket inquiries, please contact your original point of purchase.

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David gray – white ladder: the 20th anniversary tour.

Moved from the original July 28, 2020 date and then again from July 28, 2021.

As of June 1st 2022, there are no current state or local Covid-19 regulations regarding event entry. At this time, proof of full vaccination or negative Covid test or wearing a mask are not required. We ask that you please be respectful and considerate of all concert goers. As the Covid-19 situation is fluid, please make sure to check back here before attending as policies are subject to change. No refunds will be given for 2022 Concerts On The Lawn Series. All Sales Are Final. Rain or Shine. Rules vary by show depending on artists requirements, so please check each individual show for details.

White Ladder was one in a million. It was a game changer, a life changer, the people’s choice blockbuster that launched a thousand troubadours. It may be the greatest ever word-of-mouth success in the history of the music business.

Recorded for no budget in a Stoke Newington bedroom in 1998 by a down on his luck singer-songwriter and self-released on a kitchen sink label, White Ladder slowly (very, very slowly) found an audience. It took a year to creep into the lower reaches of the British charts, then worked its way all the way up to number one. White Ladder eventually spent 3 years (from May 2000 to March 2003) in the UK top 100, spawning classic hit singles ‘Babylon’, ‘Please Forgive Me’ and ‘Sail Away’. It went on to sell over 7 million copies worldwide. It remains in the top 30 best-selling British albums of all time and is the best-selling album ever in Ireland (a nation who know a good song when they hear it).

Celebrating its 20 th anniversary with an expanded edition, it is interesting to consider the extraordinary aftermath of White Ladder. “Apparently I have become the object of some study in the music business,” David Gray bemusedly noted at the time. “They want to know how did this peculiar fellow with an acoustic guitar make it all the way to the sacred ground of Top of the Pops?” His phenomenal success spawned a new wave of singer-songwriters in an acoustic boom that resonates to this day, a soul-baring lineage that can be directly traced from David Gray to the all-conquering Ed Sheeran. Indeed, Ed is a self-declared fan, whose passionate live version of ‘This Year’s Love’ can bring tears to the eye. Fellow world beating British superstar Adele is also an admirer, citing ‘This Year’s Love’ as one of her all-time favourite break-up songs.

In the wake of White Ladder , every major record company began signing and developing guitar wielding troubadours. “It’s the pop industry, there’s a template for selling millions and White Ladder made everybody think, ‘Christ, we should have one of these guys. The record was made for nothing, look at the returns.” David Gray was followed into the UK charts by Damien Rice, KT Tunstall, Katie Melua, James Blunt, James Morrison, James Bay, Paolo Nutini, and, ultimately, Ed Sheeran and a whole new wave of guitar boys including George Ezra, Tom Walker, Tom Grennan, Lewis Capaldi. In the US (where White Ladder sold 2 million copies), Jack Johnson, John Mayer and Jazon Mraz were amongst the singer-songwriters whose careers received a significant commercial boost. White Ladder was a music industry game changer.

And yet White Ladder remains apart from everything that followed. While the new record company model involved putting young guitarist-singers into the studio with teams of established pop writers and producers, White Ladder was the work of a lone artist plumbing the depths of his soul.

White Ladder was born of difficult circumstances. David Gray had been struggling on the margins for a decade, a lonely figure with an acoustic guitar swimming against the tide of Britpop, grunge, hip hop and electro. With three albums to his name, he found himself on tour in the American Midwest advertised third on the bill to beer and a barbecue. “Futility was so thick on the ground it was utterly soul destroying.” He came close to quitting. But instead, he asked himself some difficult questions: “Can you make a better record? Can you write a better song? The decision was to open up and give it everything I’ve got. The open heartedness that White Ladder has at its very core is in direct relation to the sense of bitterness and defensiveness that prevailed upon me. It’s almost like White Ladder is the negative flipped into positive.”

He wrote and recorded in a tiny terraced house on Lordship Road in Stoke Newington. “Two up, two down, with a little extension for the kitchen.” He had to record during the day so as not to disturb the neighbours. “The windows were open because it was hot, and you can hear traffic noises very clearly. It’s the ultimate bedroom recording, actually made in my bedroom.” Lacking big studio facilities, Gray experimented with drum machines and synthesisers, partly influenced by a friendship with the Hartnoll Brothers of pioneering electronic dance duo Orbital. “My first ever gig in London had been supporting Orbital at the WAG club. Watching them at close quarters was fascinating because they went about creating music in a totally different way, generating samples and found sounds. That was a revelation.” Aided by drummer and programmer Craig McClune and engineer and producer Iestyn Polson, Gray was increasingly open to new approaches. “My music was always so sensitive and earnest, it was hard to get these quirky, cheeky elements in. But our home recordings seemed to have more space. I was going to raves in East London and it was starting to get into my blood stream.” This blend of acoustic and electronically processed elements (sometimes referred to as folktronica) has since become ubiquitous in modern pop. “We just thought of it as creating soundscapes for the song. ‘Please Forgive Me’ was a breakthrough in those terms. Paul Hartnoll even remixed it later.”

Gray recalls writing ‘Please Forgive Me’ whilst friends were downstairs drinking wine. “I couldn’t stop to join them because the chords were opening up, one of those moments that fall out of the sky. Forty minutes later it was done and the hairs were standing on the back of my neck.” ‘Babylon’ was another “eureka moment” when “all the looping and quirky beats came together. I had the window open and you can hear the city, that crazy theatrical entity that London is, and how it feels to be one person within it. To me, that’s the sound of the record, a massive urban metropolis with a warm beating heart.”

‘Sail Away’ is another song that captures the tensions and contradictions of city life, stumbling streets awash with alcohol and hedonism, struggling to stay afloat, caught between a desire to escape and its inevitable aftermath. “I find life enough of a struggle as it is, just to keep my head above water in the constant assault of the world and then plunging off a chemical cliff after a two day bender, you can get into some pretty dark terrain. It’s a big old song.” He started writing it on a piano backstage at an arts festival in Ireland, when Nick Cave stuck his head around the door and declared “sounds good!” “So I got the nod from the headmaster, early on,” David laughs.

‘This Year’s Love’ was a stripped-down piano ballad of tentative love and longing that effectively rooted the narrative journey of the album. “It became the foundation for the whole record, it really earths all the emotion.” He recorded a version of Soft Cell’s ‘Say Hello, Wave Goodbye’ for the finale, transforming a brittle 80s synth pop ballad into a sinuous anthem of love and longing. It was already a showstopping part of his live sets. “Soft Cell’s Non Stop Erotic Cabaret was the first electronic record I ever fell in love with, partly because it described this weird, seedy, dank world I knew nothing about. I was 15 and living in a remote part of Wales and it really got into my bloodstream. At the time, to take an electronic song and play it on acoustic guitar seemed kind of daring, it revealed other dimensions and allowed it to breathe.”

David released White Ladder in Ireland on his own IHT label in November 1998. “We cobbled it together, got a distributor, pressed 5,000 copies and hoped for the best. We were selling so many copies on the merchandise stand, we had run out by the third show and had to press some more.” Signs of its future success became dramatically apparent during an appearance at Galway Arts Festival. “There was this crazy energy from the audience, 5,000 people singing along to ‘Sail Away’ and ‘Babylon’. The volume was outrageous.”

Released in the UK in March 1999, it reached number 69 in the charts. American jam rock superstar Dave Matthews was such a fan he personally licensed the album for his ATO label in the US. Meanwhile East West records, a division of Warner, took the reins in the UK, releasing ‘Babylon’ as a single in June 2000. After that, the floodgates opened. ‘Babylon’ became one of the hits of the summer, White Ladder became a multi-million global phenomenon, and David Gray jumped from playing pubs to theatres to arenas in the space of a few frenetic months. “It was nuts. We were just laughing all the time. It was like a slow explosion, with these moments of detonation that took it to another level. It was perfect in a way you could never design. It had to happen by accident, and when it unfolded it felt so human and genuine. It was a fairy tale and I’m still processing it now.”

White Ladder has become part of the fabric of the world. “A friend was in the Himalayas and Sail Away was playing at base camp. I’ve heard tell of my songs coming out of radios and stereos in the strangest places, from Tel Aviv to Timbuktu. We made the best record we could, and by some miracle it managed to charm its way across the threshold. It didn’t just open the door a crack, it kicked the fucking thing down. We came straight through. That was astonishing. You can make a great record but it is exceedingly rare that it will go on and become something bigger than itself. It was charged with all kinds of energies, the right thing in the right place at the right time, in this openhearted moment.”

White Ladder caught something of the mood at the end of the century and the start of a new one, the comedown from the pomp of the nineties mixed with nervous hope for the future. Gray’s music is both intimate and broad, intensely personal yet capable of speaking to the masses. “I don’t write behind some sort of cloak. I’m the opposite of an enigma, I am just heart on sleeve. I think your strength as a creative person is your vulnerability. If you’re not venturing anything you’re nowhere, there has to be something fragile and breakable being handed over. That was White Ladder . It is almost all I can say about it.”

Gray has continued to plough his own furrow, releasing 11 complex, ambitious, heartfelt albums across his career. The intense, introspective A New Day At Midnight (2002) and bold, anthemic Life In Slow Motion (2005) brought him further British and Irish number ones. Other critically acclaimed releases (including 2009’s Draw The Line and 2014’s Mutineers ) have allowed the songwriter to investigate new compositional and production ideas. “It’s instinctive, you have to go where the music needs to go, otherwise the gleam, the sparkle will fall away.” At the heart of every album are songs of the highest lyrical and melodic quality, performed as if his life depends on them. Gray’s passionate, vocational approach has established an incredibly loyal audience prepared to follow him on every wild adventure.

“ White Ladder was a moment in time. I didn’t design my life to create such a thing. But it happened, and on a scale that I could never have imagined. I’ve been happy after the event to get back to writing the music that I felt was in me and following my creative path. I don’t think the records I’ve made since have been worse or better. I just think what happened with White Ladder involved more than music. It was a sort of heart and soul moment of total surrender for everybody involved, for me and the audience. That was it. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Twenty years on, White Ladder remains an album of great depth and startling beauty, a superlative collection of emotional songs capturing a very special moment in time, as raw and immediate as when it was recorded.

David Gray Celebrates His Landmark 'White Ladder: 20th Anniversary' Tour With the Release of 'White Ladder Live' Album

The record captures the second show of a two-night stand in Austin, TX at ACL Live at The Moody Theater on August 5, 2022.

GRAMMY® Award-nominated iconic multiplatinum UK singer, songwriter, and performer David Gray unveils his new live album, White Ladder Live. It bottles the energy, passion, and spirit of 2022’s sold out global White Ladder 20th Anniversary Tour, celebrating two decades of his seminal RIAA platinum-certified breakthrough, White Ladder.

The record captures the second show of a two-night stand in Austin, TX at ACL Live at The Moody Theater on August 5, 2022. For the tour and White Ladder Live, his band notably comprised the original White Ladder studio line-up.

Listen on all DSPs or purchase the limited-edition 2LP vinyl gatefold  HERE  via Laugh A Minute Records.

Boasting a performance of White Ladder in its entirety, the set consists of instantly recognizable anthems such as the ubiquitous “Babylon,” “This Year’s Love,” “Sail Away,” and “Please Forgive Me.” He capped off a rapturous show in style with heartfelt renditions of David Bowie’s “Life On Mars” and “Oh! You Pretty Things.”

Moreover, he tied this electrifying and inspiring evening together with the story in “Bowie, Babylon, Glastonbury 2000,” recounting his historic surprise second show at Glastonbury, the breakout success of “Babylon,” and a chance encounter with the Thin White Duke himself (witnessed by Gray’s dad who escaped a hospital stay to be there). Check out the full tracklisting below.

In 2022, the White Ladder 20th Anniversary Tour canvased North America, packing venues such as The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, CA, Pier 17 in New York City and the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO, to name a few. The tour also traversed South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in addition to enrapturing 130,000 attendees in arenas across the UK and Ireland.

David Gray commented, “The show we have chosen to focus on for this record is the second night of a two-night run at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. It’s a great venue where the crowd is really on top of you and there isn’t a bad seat in the house. The first night went well, but the second night just took off from the very first note. We were super relaxed in the way that we played, but also completely on the case - add in a lively Texan crowd and you’ve got a night to remember! It was such an amazing tour, and hopefully these recordings really capture some of that magic.”

Stateside, White Ladder went platinum as he earned a GRAMMY® Award nod in the category of “Best New Artist.” Pitchfork went on to applaud it as “a phenomenon that defies explanation: a modest collection of love songs recorded in his bedroom by an Everyman who was suddenly Everywhere.” It went 10x-platinum in the UK, became Ireland’s biggest-selling album of all time, and earned Gray the first of two Ivor Novellos.

Keeping busy, David Gray will also feature on the upcoming tribute album The Endless Coloured Ways: The Songs of Nick Drake with his version of “Place To Be.”

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Concert review: david gray.

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David Gray brought his much-delayed White Ladder 20th Anniversary Tour to Los Angeles on Saturday night at the Greek Theatre with a surprising amount of vim and vigor. Maybe it was the enthusiastic LA crowd or just being glad to play again after being locked down for two years due to the pandemic. Gray had so much energy that even after two encores, it seemed like he could have played another set.

Gray began the show (there was no other opening act) in a black suit, and backed by a guitarist, bassist, keyboardist and drummer, played a greatest hits set that began with a rousing “You’re the World to Me.” With Gray switching off between playing acoustic guitar and keyboard, the set included “Fugitive,” “The One I Love,” “Alibi,” and a few others from his post- White Ladder albums. Gray introduced “The Other Side,” with its refrain, “ Meet me on the other side ,” by saying the song seemed appropriate to play now that we were back in person together. He also told an incongruously funny story about his first tour of America involving a bus driver ditching the band at a truck stop that led to the genesis of the song “Flame Turns Blue,” from his Lost Songs 95-98 album. Gray and his band left the stage after “Nemesis,” from 2009’s Draw the Line , with Gray promising to return and play all of “a certain record.”

A short retrospective video hyped the audience back up after a 20-minute intermission. The sky was dark when Gray returned to the stage in an all-white suit, as the band launched into “Please Forgive Me,” the first track on the album and perhaps the highest-energy song on White Ladder . The crowd’s energetic response seemed to create an exchange that kept Gray going at full-tilt all night. Original White Ladder drummer Craig “Clune” McClune was also on stage for this second set (although another percussionist manned the kit for the first set). Clune’s playing brought an elevated intensity to the next song, “Babylon.” The crowd went predictably wild for it as it was (and still is) his biggest hit here in the US. Gray exhorted the audience to sing out the chorus, “ Let go your heart/ Let go your head/ And feel it now ,” and the crowd was loud and exuberant as it did. Gray seemed both thrilled and humbled by the crowd’s enthusiasm throughout the night. Unlike many notoriously talkative LA crowds, Gray’s fans were quiet and respectful during mellower tracks like, “My Oh My,” “We’re Not Right,” and “Nightblindness.”

Songs from White Ladder were played almost exactly as they were on the record, although the synths on these some of the tracks did sound a little more prog-rock than folktronica in the concert setting. Gray introduced “Silver Lining” as one of his favorites. When it came time to play “White Ladder,” he told the audience that it was a song he didn’t play often; it was, he said, “a shy creature that [doesn’t] come out much” and therefore it “need[ed] a lot of coaxing.” The audience obliged with lots of cheering and support and was rewarded with a note-perfect rendition of the title track. “This Year’s Love” and “Sail Away,” were also big singalongs. “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye,” a Soft Cell cover and the final track on White Ladder , was rendered with the same heartbreaking pathos as on the record, interpolated with bits of Van Morrison’s “Madame George” and “Into the Mystic.” It made for a truly moving end to the set.

The crowd was surprised but appreciative when Gray told the audience he was going to skip the usual encore rigamarole and went right into another Soft Cell song, “Tainted Love.” Gray was especially animated, dancing and gesturing as he sang, with no guitar or keyboard to otherwise occupy him. Afterwards, he sat at the keyboard and told a story about playing the Glastonbury Festival in the UK in 2000, when he was just starting to break big, and how he (and his dad!) met David Bowie and had a lovely chat. “In honor of the great man himself,” Gray said, he proceeded to lead the band in Bowie’s “Life on Mars?” and “Oh! You Pretty Things.” “Pretty Things” resolved into an upbeat reprise of “Please Forgive Me.” The audience was clearly not ready for the show to be over just yet though, so Gray treated them to a cover of the Cure’s “In Between Days.” After that, however, the crowd was still not satisfied (“You just won’t go away, will you?” Gray laughed delightedly), so he sent the rest of the band off and played “Shine” from his 1993 album A Century Ends , alone on acoustic guitar. “ We’re gonna go where we can shine ,” Gray sang, his voice ringing out in the outdoor amphitheater, and it is not hyperbole to say that Gray and White Ladder truly shined in Los Angeles this evening.

Photo: Chas Alm

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