2 weeks Ago By Lauren Murphy
Dublin gigs are always a homecoming-of-sorts for Gray, who has been embraced wholeheartedly as an honorary Irishman by a population who made White Ladder the biggest-selling album of all time in this country. Yet while Gray could easily have peddled out rehash after rehash of that record over the years, instead he chose a different path – one that has taken him in some unexpected directions over the last 25 years or so. Last night’s sold-out gig at the 3Arena is off the back of his 13th album, Dear Life, released in January to positive reviews, but the tour is titled Past & Present; there will be no set list dominated by new tunes tonight.
It’s just as well; as Gray notes at several junctures, this is a boisterous Saturday night crowd gunning for singalongs and dancing, which occasionally seems to irk him slightly. At one point, he jokes how it’s “like playing the biggest bar in the world” with the constant stream of chatter and bodies going to and from the bar; at another, he fumbles lyrics because he was too busy “watching you lot fannying around”. Still, there will be plenty of time for dancing.
Now 56, the smartly besuited Gray has nicely assumed his ‘elder statesman’ role, and the early part of the set takes in his more mature numbers, including new song After the Harvest, sombre piano ballads Slow Motion and Ain’t No Love and the excellent Leave Taking, a sprawling, loose-limbed affair that takes a leaf out of Van Morrison’s songbook and sees his excellent band earn their paypackets with flawless multi-part harmonies. A smattering of White Ladder songs, including the title track and the loungey Silver Lining, pick up the pace, while a potent Please Forgive Me is the first to rouse the fully seated crowd from their chairs. Once the seal is broken on the first “Olé Olé Ole” chant, there’s no going back; Say Hello Wave Goodbye, his enduring cover of the Soft Cell song, marks another huge singalong moment although the set list flounders somewhat with shimmering ballad The First Stone and the schmaltzy Be Mine, which remains the worst song that Gray has ever committed to tape.
Still, on the sublime Shine – a rare live cut taken from his 1993 debut – his band departs the stage, allowing for a stunning solo turn that exhibits the vocal firepower and charisma of one man and his guitar. He amusingly struggles to harness attention for a touching story about his late father that pre-empts Last Boat to America (“so you can’t just piss off to the bar after I finish telling this”, he playfully warns), but soon has them back onside with a cover of Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough, dad dancing and all. From there on in, it’s a home run of hits: Babylon and This Year’s Love both lift the roof off the 3Arena; there’s even an unexpected yet delightful cover of Sinéad O’Connor’s 3 Babies in the mix, and Sail Away sends the audience floating home on a sea of feel-good endorphins.
It’s a song that Gray must have sung a thousand times, yet he can’t stop himself grinning from ear to ear at the sight of over 10,000 people joining him in its rousing chorus. The good news for him – and them – is that he’ll be back next month to do it all over again. Lauren Murphy is a freelance journalist and broadcaster.
She writes about music and the arts for The Irish Times.
