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As far as I know, David Gray was born in Manchester in 1970-71. At the age of 8, he moved to Wales with his family which helped him to develop his amazingly fresh view of the world, and also provided him with much of the natural imagery described in so many of his songs.
He went on to University in Liverpool, where he was in a couple of groups, none of which recorded anything. Finally, after his breif stint there, he moved to London with lieu to make it big.
In 1993, he released "A Century Ends", his debut album. This was picked up well in America, and got to the point where it was played in between acts during "Womad", Peter Gabriel's festival. Apparently, Peter Gabriel was so interested in David after hearing "A Century Ends", that he rang up the flat that David was living in London, to get him to sign to Real World Records, his record company. David was having dinner at the time, and the girl who he was living with answered the phone, and said "Peter Gabriel's on the phone". Of course, David, being the cynic he is, thought "What a wind up..." and started on "OH, so PETER GABRIEL's on the phone now, is he?"
"Hi, this is Peter Gabriel"
"F**kin' hell, it is!"
After "A Century Ends", David did a tour of America, in the course of which (Somwhere along his Los Angeles stint) he got married to his wife, Olivia. The two could not be bothered with the whole big wedding thing, so they got married, David rushed from the chapel to do a radio interview and then immediately afterwards, rushed off to do a midnight show in a club called "The Viper Lounge" opening for Maria McKee.
Then came "Flesh", in 1994. This is a less cynical album, presumably thanks to his new outlook on life because of his marriage. This, too was picked up well in the States. It also led to the introduction of Clune, David's one-named cohort/partner in crime. Together, the two, accompanied by Neil McColl stormed across America playing various places, such as Jabber Jaw ("Equipped with all the latest things.. mould... fungus... and all kinds of beetles") Flesh, according to David is like a "Tasty meal of many courses, each with a distinctive spicy flavour, we have everything from lentils, for you vegetarians, to a nice thick steak"
Somewhere along the line in either 1994 or 95, he got signed to EMI records, and released 1996's "Sell Sell Sell". Once again, his cynicism had returned, as shown in the title, a reference to the fact that he had "Sold out" to the big record company. This, in my opinion is his weakest album, even though it was his most commercially successful. Don't get me wrong, there are some points on the album that are just amazing, but then there are others that seem just like "Fillers". David toured extensively to promote the album, as a support act to Radiohead.
At one point during the Radiohead tour, David got bored and set fire to their dressing room, another piece of evidence to support the title "Poet trapped in a Punk's body".
He has mostly been playing live shows recently, not recording because of the breakup of his record company, EMI. So far in the past year, I have seen him four times. But apparently, he is getting his shit together and recording another lot, maybe going back to the small-but-perfectly-formed Caroline records (?)
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