David Gray plays The Liverpool Philharmonic hall and MusicMafia were there to witness the master at work.
It has been 21 years since the phenomenal success of David Gray’s fourth album “White Ladder” and now, back with a new album entitled “Gold in a brass age” , David in on tour again and his home return to Liverpool was an astounding success.
Gray wasted no time in going straight into a track from the new album “Mallory”. Switching between guitar and keyboard, the opening song shows how far he has come in his career. A powerful piece of song writing that builds to a crescendo lifting and taking the audience along with it.
Continuing with new music theme, “Hall of Mirrors” and “Watching the waves” soon followed. David finally addresses the audience and thanks them for their lending their ears to the new material and says “It’s like breathing air again”.
That’s not to say there isn’t still joy in the old tracks. Expectedly, the biggest response comes from tracks like “Babylon”, “Sail away” and “My oh my” all of which have the audience beaming and shouting for more.
During a small interlude, where the band leave and Mr. Gray takes centre stage, he reminisces about his days in Liverpool when he used to play in places like Peter Kavanaghs and the Philharmonic pub and his time in his studio in Bridewell. “Shine” brought with it some fun as he admittedly forgot the second verse and winged it till the third verse where he brought it back on track.
With an encore that brought about the amazing “This year’s love” and ending on “Forgive me”, the crowd were up clapping, singing along and baying for more by the end.
The new material on “Gold in a brass age” has more complexity and depth to it, and this tour showcases it superbly. What this tour also manages to achieve is that this is an artist still on top of his game and who still can create songs that leave you wanting more. With lyrics that can move an audience and compositions that take you sadness to happiness in one sweeping movement, David Gray is without doubt a master of his art.
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