David Gray - Talks about Touring, White Ladder Lp, David Bowie & more - Radio Broadcast 12/06/2023
[Music] did so and tonight as our opening track saway May well have tipped you off already we are stepping up our lucky white ladder to Babylon to meet our special guest who slugged his way to success almost giving up after getting nowhere but decided to give it one last shot and poured his heart and soul into the album he called White ladder which then went on to say s over 7 million copies worldwide and to this day is in the top 30 bestselling British albums of all time which is not surprising I don't think I know anyone who doesn't have it in their record collection such a special record and it is a delight to welcome David Gray hello Jackie how are you yeah slightly crumpled but definitely definitely still here with all the bits working why crumpled what's happened who crumpled you the tour is is a crumpling mechanism you know of course you recently completed your Skellig tour and and right before that was the coid delayed white ladder 20th anniversary tour which I know was a huge undertaking you went all over the world with that um and when you are touring there what are the elements of life that do take a bit of a beating and crumple you up when uh when you're on tour my sleep cycle is completely and utterly bizarre you know it's sort of I'm grabbing bits and pieces until you kind of have a couple of hours on the bus after you've decompressed you're so excited after the show the shows have been so exhilarating you know yeah that you come down then you go to bed you fall asleep then someone wakes you up and says you're at the hotel then you go to the hotel and then you sleep till like midday Miss Miss breakfast go to the gig then you don't you just don't see daylight so yeah there there's there's a crumpling effect don't you don't sound alog together obviously you love the Performing side of it do is touring sort of more do you think it's a younger person's gig but it gets a bit old no no I I I I I I think I I accept it as it is as a total thing I've had plenty of time to prepare I'm too old and long in the tooth to sort of know yeah now it's a game of energy management because the gig is Paramount you know when you're younger you just go berserk it's so exciting it's it's exciting enough being on a tour bus or being in another city let alone playing a show yeah so thinking back I don't know how we did it back in the Heyday of the whole thing because we were just partying all the time but the the gigs have been so exciting it's really quite hard to go to sleep afterwards yeah and I'm sure that's the case on any tour at any time but the reception and the reviews for your white ladder 20th anniversary tour last year were amazing I mean I think it really captured the post coid euphoria that we all had Al although to be technical uh calling it the 20th anniversary tour was factually inaccurate I believe it is factually completely all over the place I think it was a sort of Movable Feast when we when we first of all chose 2000 to 2020 as being a 20e span I think for most of the world white ladder arrived in the year 2000 yeah the fact we self-released it in Ireland in 1998 it took a while to get to that point where it sort of caught fire everywhere yeah so we kind of bumped for that and then Co got in the way and now it just like numerical nonsense so uh yeah you've got you've got to go with it um I mean obviously this is the white l had an anniversary tour it you were hardly an overnight success it was it was it was hard ear and you certainly paid your duws um where where where Did you sort of first have that moment where a a switch was flipped in your brain because you heard a particular song or music for the first time where you just thought that's it that's what I'm going to do well I think uh this is the sort of it's I think uh the first record I really heard that got me as a kid was like nightbat to Cairo by Madness oh brilliant um so um yeah that that that was basically when I saw that a part of me became Madness and um and I was completely convinced and absolutely transi transfixed and I rushed out that weekend and bought that single so uh and then I was like a Nutty boy for quite I love the whole two-tone thing that happened it was it was completely infectious and completely unpredicted as well it was like Post Punk just before the sort of ' 80s got going yeah this this amazing thing happened in this this energized irresistible [Music] music nightboat to Cairo got to number six in 1980 for madness it was their fourth hit and a young David Gray AG Ed about 12 was captivated right that's the first thing that completely captivated me and I I went out and tried to find some loafers in haford West uh which was impossible I had to settle for Doc Martins but there you go PK pie hat I didn't have a p by hat that would have been it was too windy down in West that kind of thing so it was very hard to get the right gear that you know my mom had to actually make me some stuff I was so obsessed we were looking at Madness album covers and the specials and I was I want this and she was trying to Fashion that out of whatever she could find what a nice mom what about what about you the first gig of notes do you remember what that was and how old you would have been the first gig I went to first gig proper was the Smiths in Edinburgh Playhouse um and so moving on from the madness phase I become I came I guess I was a bit of a sort of Indie kid really right the Smiths obviously where it was at and my my mate's brother had joined the Royal Navy and was stationed in Edinburgh on the HMS Edinburgh right and we were on the phone to him and he was saying oh yeah I'm going to see The Smiths uh you know in two nights time why don't you come up to Edinburgh I've got spare tickets we said come on let's bunk off school and go up there so uh so we did and um we got there and it was all a lie he didn't have any tickets called called him the ship that he said what what you in Edinburgh he said yeah yeah come on we've got bring your tickets down let's go to the gig so in the end we had to sort of get them off a tow outside we were all in different parts but that was the first gig I ever went to it was I guess it was just before the meat is murder phase this would be about 1984 85 right but yeah that was mad I tried to give um I gave morisy my beads that's that was part of the initia ceremony he took them and swung them around and I took some some strange plant he' ripped up from outside the Edinburgh Playhouse I had more piece of that to [Music] treasure the Smiths what difference does it make from 1984 it was their gig in Edinburgh that was the first live performance ever witnessed by a young teenage David Gray and we will be back with more musical memories in our great conversation with David Gray next welcome back to the evening show with Jackie brambles where tonight it's just you me and our special guest David Gray cozying on in for a great conversation and a meander through his most meaningful musical memories uh we're learning what led to this seminal album white ladder which I think everyone's got in their record collection who were the influences along the way before the break David we learned that Madness was kind of your first musical crush and then later on in teen years you were a big fan of the Smiths which is quite an interesting contrast there between you know the sort of the unfettered joy and darness of Madness to then go to the the professional misery of the Smiths yeah yeah but they thinking back to them now they there there was always a tongue and cheek thing with morisy and I actually think I'm gonna I'm going to create a rock and roll lineage British lineage for the specials if we just go to the specials I think without Terry Hall who sort of B basically made misery possible in rock I don't think you could have had Morris oh interesting so I think I think he should have made misery cool like saying you were bored and unhappy and you know unimpressed that was like all right and he sort of made it fun uh uh Mozza obviously took it a step further it was like um but there was always a tongue and cheek aspect with with the Smiths but they really were quite brilliant I mean oh Johnny Mars guitar parts those songs are just incredible when you when you look back to them so yeah what a what a first gig to go to I think the thing about seeing the Smiths then though they were just basically it was morisy plus a threepiece so the records are quite lavish and sort of guitar textured yeah but live it was just Johnny M only had one guitar so it was much more simplistic and it wasn't this wall of sound it was it was basically something quite different and that was a little eye opener too and where did it all start in terms of um you deciding right that's what I'm going to do for a living that's that's it that's the has anyone pass for me I think from when I was sort of a teenager and I started learning the guitar and um writing songs I heard Bob Dylan and really latched on to the sort of singer songwriter genre at the same time I was listening to the Cure the Smith the cocko Twins and all that sort of music right I I was I was and that that became a thing I I had a love of words and once i' mastered a few chords I started to write straight away I wanted to make something um and then but I was also very into painting so I went off to study painting but while at College this sort of songwriting part I'd been in bands at school but when I got to Liverpool art college I I formed a band to play my music as opposed to just playing covers or whatever and that's when the whole thing began in Earnest and by the time right I got to my you know final year there I was more committed to to my music but I I try and get a kind of painted liness into the words if you like that's that's s of the color of my my lyrics is really sort of I compensate a little bit for for the the the not being able to paint anymore painting the painting the pictures in your songs oh [Music] yes it got to number five in the singles charts in 2000 but more importantly it launched white ladder the album for you David it was a hard slog to get that moment when you finally broke through in the UK in fact we were a bit late to the party actually because you had this hardcore sector of Irish fans who championed you from years back right I've got to mention the Irish fans without the connection I I had in Ireland from my very first record I built up a Following over there and through all the lean years when I was really wondering whether this was you know the right path things just weren't working out uh in the UK or America or anywhere else I had this following in Ireland that they they kept me believing and when it came to releasing white ladder we self- relased it there first and it it was a it became a huge success I mean we actually got mainstream radio play and this was on our own little label right it was it it reached a certain proport a certain size really in Ireland that the UK finally kind of went yeah this could work and we got some interest from the major labels and and then we sort of re-released the record over here with the backing of east west wers and and and then it was just a different ball game but we we'd already built up this sense that what we had had a power and we didn't have to overexert ourselves we had a faith in ourselves and in the music and when Warner began to push the buttons which is what working the UK system is like it's much more corporate here you know you've got to get that radio player you got to convince people that the backing is there the money's there this is going to work once that started to happen it was like there was an ability about it white lad started to rise up into the charts it went into the top 40 then the top 20 then the top 10 and then came the week of Glastonbury and the re-release of Babylon and um and that moment when we came off stage in Glastonbury we got into the top 10 and we still hadn't heard the words David Gray and Babylon I said well maybe we haven't made it into the top 40 and then went nine8 7 six then we went in at number five I I just couldn't believe it we were oh my God we were on cloud n and all that sort of armor plating we all just dropped it to the floor it was like not needed yeah everyone sort of came out of the woodwork backstage and my dad was in in hospital um having chemotherapy he' missed the first glassen B performance but seen it on the TV right and when he heard about the second one uh this impromptu second set on the main stage he just called his friend and said come and pick me up and I think he just pulled the tubes out and ran and uh and he came down to Glass he managed to blag into the backstage of the main stage yeah and my dad said look at us surrounded by you know family and friends having the time of our lives and look at David Boe standing over outside his dressing room he looks completely lost you know what I'm going to go and talk to him I said hang on a minute dad you broke out of Hospital you blagged into just leave Bowie alone okay let's draw the line he said no son I'm going [Music] over all time [Music] and then the keyboard player Tim said that all right Pete I'm coming with you it's Bowie and then I said to CL come on let's go and talk to Bowie so we went over and and and my dad called it right for Bowie that was like a pivotal moment it was almost like his his being reano as the sort of icon that he was he'd been in the slight Wilderness Zone yeah and he was he was anxious about the show really anxious about it so rather than the obligatory five minute chat you know like hey how are you yeah cool he saw something in us anyway you know that he recognized I think yeah and he really opened up and we had this long conversation I we must have been chatting to him for at least an hour and and then he took me into the dressing room and he showed me his set list and he said uh Dave I want to show you my set list what do you think you think it's a compromise what what do you think what do you think I said I looked at it it was the first track was Wild As the Wind which is one of my absolute favorites shortly followed by Starman ashes to ashes Dave I think you going to be all right I think I think it's going to work this is going to work that's my prediction I think they're going to love it you know Bo he's not just brilliant songs he's sophistication Intrigue fashion style funny angles he's everything rolled into one he's incredible and yeah to have his Blessing it just felt like well it doesn't get any better than this except you went to America and um you had the back in of Dave Matthews Dave Matthews is a huge artist in America he is and it's just bizarre that very few people people have heard of him here I I love him I saw him live um over in uh Arizona at an immense stadium in Phoenix I think it was when we were breaking through over there one of the jokes on the tour bus was that uh we you know um we'd kind of go like hey you know great we'd be in some great big venue somewhere they go yeah yeah and they point to the football stadium across thead Matthews played in there last night you know it's like Matthews was just he's absolutely enormous in America like Stadium big I think going back to the sort of lead Zep years and all those years when you know artists from the UK were really huge in in in the states and it is a phenomenal place to play but I think the thing about America is it's a giant Act of turning up you can't just cut a few Corners pop into New York Chicago Los Angeles you've got to go around if you want to convert the masses you've got to turn up because it's it's not centralized in terms of radio and everything it's all different radio stations all across the country and and because it's such a driving country it's so big radio is still very important so it's really the fundamentals are still there so it's we toured white ladder six times during the um during the album cycle just on that record we did six tours so you know yeah it was many an adventure was happening cannot [Music] quck the space between by the day Matthews Band his only ever song that charted in the top 40 here in 2001 and they really are as big there as say Coldplay is here and and I would highly recommend his album crash as a good place to start if you are curious and you like that track but for David Gray to be anointed by Dave Matthews in the states would have been a massive boost and we will carry on with that musical journey in the company of our special guest tonight David Gray as our great conversation continues next Jackie brambles with you on the evening show and we've been having such a great conversation with our special guest tonight David Gray uh we talked David before the break about your career being a bit of a slow burn for quite some time in the beginning and then you came out with white ladder and it just exploded onto the music scene both here and in the states and and with that success comes not just the attention of us the music fans but also some of your own musical Heroes who who then become your peers and and possibly collabor ators and for us there's something so thrilling about seeing two very talented but very different artists joining forces to watch in anticipation of what they might come up with together is that something that you enjoyed doing I've sung with some fantastic people uh but Annie Lennox I I I think was a particular thrill right and working with her you know when you kind of get a superstar in it's like how's this going to be can they can can I push them around a bit creatively you know um yeah yeah and that's just the way that I am I'm afraid so I I I just I was just completely honest uh but when we got to working she was completely honest too there was no nonsense at all it was it was completely on the level and she she totally wanted to make it as good as it could be so we kind of um we we looked at all angles of how to sort of optimize that and any it was it was a thrill to to be with her she's got such a presence and a sort of god-given voice uh and I think has made one of the greatest pop song songs of all time in sweet dreams I mean that's that's a Perfection really um and so we we got to sing together live as well as part of that whole experience and that was a thrill too yeah she's just a she's just a natural performer but what I loved about her was that she was completely on the level when we got to working she yeah she listened to everything I had to say you know it was like no no it's got to be like this and then you you should do that I should do this blah blah blah uh it was it was she was totally there ready ready to sort of you know muck in and sort of make this thing it wasn't she just turn up for half an hour bang the vocal down and Bug it off in a limo it was all in yeah she was all in she was and that you can see that in Annie you can see that's that's how she is she said All or Nothing person all lives we've dreamed [Music] about Full Steam that's David Gray and Annie Lennox from 2009 all the sales of that one went to children children in need which was fabulous and I just love the two of you together I mean it sounds great but that video you look like you're having such a great time and it just look like you belong you just work so beautifully together so let's keep on digging into your musical tastes what about um uh a track that we might be surprised that that you would choose or an artist that we might be surprised that you're a huge fan of well you know there there are many and I get I get exposed to all the music that the kids are listening to of course but but yeah I mean I I I I do have a Dolly Parton story so I I love Dolly and always have we had her on the show oh really she's incredible yeah she's she's a phenomenon you know uh but also she's kind of like everyone knows the kind of caricature Dolly but she's actually a phenomenal musician so there's a track that dolly dolly does with Chad Atkins the legendary guitarist uh do I ever cross your mind and uh you can see it on YouTube I don't know if it's on Spotify or whatever all these streaming uh uh it's it's when they're doing it live all it's wonderful she's laughing oh CH but she's finger picking like a good and it's quite incredible so the two of them are fingerpicking the song and it's just the most it's American show just done to their absolutely Nth Degree there's nothing just two guitars two voices and this playful Rel relationship this older guy this Legend on guitar and her hey what a wonderful thing I mean Jolene is also like obviously everybody loves that track I don't know if anyone's listened to the slow down version of Jolene where you basically take the 45 and you play it at 33 in terms of check that out online because it's like a man singing Jolene in a kind of cool ways oh wow that's amazing if you love Jolene check that one out check that one out I I love Dolan I did ask her to sing on a song of mine um and her management said Dolly's busy for the next five years which I think was a I don't know if it's a polite way of saying now but it was certainly emphatic I said I I can't wait that [Music] long final question one that we ask every artist it's a toffee it doesn't have to be your all-time favorite song that's impossible it can be the favorite one of the moment it can be uh a particular particular go-to song for a particular mood that you know it's going to deliver it can't be an obscure album track this we are a radio station that is the hits of the 70s 80s and 90s but what would you pick with those parameters it's difficult I'm goingon to have to go for uh done too much much too young by the specials a if if I put the first specials album on um you know it never fails to deliver and if you're having a party and you want to get everyone to go go crazy you could do do the dog or or or this track everybody just loves it it's like they managed to be sort of it's like Punk energy meets scarf fun meets attitude with great lyrics it's it's sort of cheeky it's it's got a point to make they managed to do it all at once they rolled it all into one it's totally irresistible so I think for my own sort of Youth as well I'll honor my youth I think that's when music means the most to you when you're you're using it to to make yourself it's like things that you find that suddenly become you totally that's how music you know so uh yeah so that's the one I'll pick Too Much Too Young got to number one in 1980 for the specials and it's our final track tonight as chosen by our special guest David Gray David it has been such a brilliant chat with you tonight I I really appreciate your time after being all crumpled up as you described post tour so dude go and relax because you've earned it I'm crumpling I mean the process of crumly I'm being IR take care mate and again thank you so much for the time and the great conversation no problem David Gray I'm going to go straight to my record collection after the show and pull out white ladder again it's just so [Music] good
2023-10-16 23:47
