David Gray released White Ladder on this day in 1998. He tells Des O’Driscoll about the slow-burn success of the album that changed his life.

David Gray has had an occasionally fraught relationship with his back catalogue, once telling this writer he was a bit jaundiced playing his biggest hit, Babylon, night after night.

David Gray’s new album might be more experimental, but it still features the heart-on-sleeve approach of his breakthrough record, writes Lucy Mapstone