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Rating:
I didn't expect much from David Gray's concert, an artist who made it big with the wrong album ("White Ladder"). I would have been satisfied with "Shine" and "Debauchery" (both from the first album, "A Century Ends") to forgive him for the predictable triumph reserved by the 3,500 spectators for "Please Forgive Me", a track that, with a less obvious arrangement, would have found a place in an iPod.
In the end, however, I went home crying, at least until the Holborn stop.
Good old David, wool jacket and voice strong as a punch from Bud Spencer, presented himself on the wave of 17 million records sold (at least that's what I gathered from the slurred speech of my neighbor from Kent) with "Fugitive", the opening track of the new uneven "Draw the Line".
The second song "Jackdaw" surprised me as I was whistling and waving my hands because, after all, the mix between piano and strings is my cup of tea, as they say around here.
"Sail Away" was the toll to pay for the years of success, immediately hushed by the murmured "Kathleen", another concession to the somewhat moody muse of the Welsh drawler.
Then he favored the hooks, including a raspy "The One I Love" and an interesting "Slow Motion" met with my "uuuuuuuuuuuuh" and nothing more. It seemed I was the only one who knew it, darn dog.
The trend was like this until the end, a long petting for the collective orgy climax of "Babylon" of which I sang the chorus only because Gray seemed to be looking straight into my eyes.
Dylan's cover ("Meet Me In The Morning") made me feel like an expert because the lady on my right was surprised that I knew the words (in reality, I only knew "Barbed Wire", pronounced "baua-ia").
I reached the end of the first set hopeful and howling for the presence of Annie Lennox, sideways hat and charisma by the tons. With three moves, she steals the scene from the main guy on the choral "Full steam Ahead". The two also duet on "Sea of Love".
David Gray at the piano, I look at the watch, it won't be long now. I clutch my rosary, shout "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine"... The bassist laughs and... Here comes "Please Forgive Me". It lasts ten minutes. The lights go out and I remain clinging to the railings. The neighbor from Kent pats me on the shoulder saying that even if he didn't do "Shine" it was a good concert.
Yes, it was a good concert.
However...
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