David Gray review: Birthday wishes and Bowie tunes for brilliant gig at Musgrave Park
David Gray on stage at Musgrave Park in Cork on Saturday. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Perhaps it's fitting that David Gray comes out wearing a white suit for his Saturday night gig in Cork. "To the brave and faithful, nothing is impossible!" declares Gray, reading the call to arms along the Musgrave Park stands.
And for a while on Saturday night it seems like nothing is impossible. Belting out 'Please Forgive Me', the opening track on White Ladder, Gray manages to transport us back more than two decades, to what we now know were simpler times.
This is a gig that Gray declared was going to be a sort of homecoming, back where it all began.
The Manchester-born Welshman started out his Irish love affair in Cork 30 years ago, in 1992. If Ronan O'Gara put boot to ball at Musgrave Park, he'd nearly reach Nancy Spain's on Barrack Street, where Gray performed to the early Leeside fans 30 years ago.
'Babylon' keeps the faithful in raptures, all the lights are changing red to green and Gray has the audience in the palm of his hand. White Ladder is the most successful album of all time in Ireland, shifting more than 350,000 copies. At Musgrave Park, the crowd know it word for word, there to help when Gray playfully forgets a line.
Gray has aged a bit; he's treated to a 'Happy Birthday' after revealing it was his big day last week. Now 54, there's more salt than pepper in his stubble these days, and the same can be said for the majority of his audience. It's an older crowd at Musgrave Park but Saturday night is a throwback to something more innocent. Only Gray's derisory mention of Boris Johnson gets us back to the present.
The White Ladder songs are most popular though Gray sprinkles in plenty more from his repertoire for his audience. But it's the old reliables that please the crowd most: 'This Year's Love' has the phones out while 'Sail Away' has a carefree summer vibe. The skies have turned blue to red, and there's a healthy chill in the air by the time Gray covers The Cure's 'In Between Days'.
His most famous cover, 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye' gets the singalong vibe up to 10 again before he unexpectedly treats us to another cover 'Tainted Love', complete with random dance moves. He's enjoying this, uninhibited. In his encore, as personal pictures are projected on the jumbo screen, Gray tells us of his late father's pride as Gray played the pyramid stage of Glastonbury in June 2000, and his late father's meeting with David Bowie.
This offers the opportunity for Gray to try Bowie numbers 'Is There Life On Mars?' and 'Oh You Pretty Things', which drifts seamlessly back to the "woooaaah" singalong of 'Please Forgive Me'. Back where it all began indeed.
It's a stadium gig but it feels more like family. These are halcyon days for live music in Cork. Across the city, past Turners Cross and down the Marina, at Páirc Uí Chaiomh, Orbital sported and played to a Cork audience on Saturday night. Fitting as Orbital's Phil Hartnoll was Gray's brother-in-law (Hartnoll was previously married to the sister of Gray's wife Olivia), and Gray even performed on the Orbital track 'Illuminate' back in the day.
David Keenan impressed in his support slot at Musgrave Park on Saturday night, and on Sunday night the venue will be heaving again as The Script perform, with support from Becky Hill.
