David Gray David Gray was born in Sale, Manchester in 1968, where his family ran a chain of bakery shops. As a result of a serious family dispute in 1995, he and his parents moved to live in Wales. Later, he returned to the Northwest region to attend Liverpool University, where his interest in music grew. His major influenced were The Smiths, The Waterboys, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan. While at university, he formed a series of college bands, including "Waiting For Deffo". A demo tape of this band was sent to the Manchester Evening News, and thence on to Rob Holden, head of A&R at Polydor, who invited David to London, (without the rest of the band), to record a further demo tape under better conditions. The demo was, however, unsuccessful, and Holden failed to convince Polydor of Gray's potential. Subsequently, Gray moved to live in London and recorded his first EP "Birds Without Wings", which was to be later included on his 1993 debut album 'A Century Ends'. Gray's music somehow failed to fire popular support despite the release of a second single, 'Shine', which also failed in the UK. A third single, "Wisdom", was released in 1993. Gray's band at this stage included guitarist, Neill MacColl, (the son of Salford folk singer, Ewan MacColl). Virgin Records took over Gray's recording contract in 1994. Craig 'Clunne' McClune joined the duo as a drummer, and their subsequent album, "Sell, Sell, Sell", met with rave reviews. Virgin, inexpliquably, decided not to promote it. Virgin were to eventually release Gray when the next album, "Flesh", failed to achieve chart success. However, Gray's music had, meantime, been widely liked in Ireland, and providentially, RTE presenter Donal Dineen invited him over to Ireland, where the newly released 'Shine' single, saw Irish audiences raving over Gray's music and sell out shows in Dublin, Galway and Belfast. While in Ireland, Gray wrote tracks for local singers, including, 'Almost Gone, 'Trespass Shoes' and 'What Does It Matter'. On the strength of the Irish successes, EMI offered him a new contract and he accompanied Radiohead on their 1995 US tour and 1996 European tours. Unfortunately, Gray's EMI experience was not good, and within a year he had to buy himself out of the contract. His career had hit a low point - he turned to alcohol and cocaine. Fortunately, work and money arrived in the form of the UK film "This Year's Love" starring Kathy Burke. Other film work followed, including the theme tune, 'Sail Away', 'Crazy', and 'Shine' (for the movie of the same name). He appeared at almost every UK music festival in 1998 and 1999, and toured Ireland where he still had a loyal fan base. In November 1998 he released 'White Ladder' in Ireland on his own IHT label though the album was also released in the UK with little success. Gradually, his fortunes turned and the single "This Years Love" gained a great deal of air time on radio; meantime, Irish radio was playing the track "Babylon" which ensured its release as a single. The album, which followed, went on to reach the Irish Top Five. In January 2000, over a year after its release, 'White Ladder' topped the Irish charts where it remained for 5 weeks. David Gray was filling massive venues in Ireland, although back home in Britain he was still playing small stand-up gigs. Dave Matthews, an influential USA fan, went on to distribute 'White Ladder' in the USA on his own ATO label. By May 2000 the album had gone three times platinum in Ireland, whilst in the UK East West had re-released 'White Ladder' sold over 30,000 copies a week, lifting it to Number 13 in the charts. EMI soon regained an interest in Gray and they re-released the abortive "Sell, Sell, Sell" album in 2000. 'White Ladder' remained in the UK Top 10 until November 2000, 2 years after its original release, selling over 600,000 copies in the process. The song 'Sail Away' was to be included in Robert De Niro's film "15 Minutes".