David Gray will again return to the U.S., this time for a string of fourteen-dates behind A New Day at Midnight, which arrives in stores next week.

For Gray, this round of promotion finds him visiting arenas and larger theaters due to 2000's White Ladder's breakthrough success. It's a marked contrast to previous trips to the U.S., which featured dismally attended shows with Spinal Tap-type undertones, including billing below a venue's BBQ ribs one night.

"The worst bit, when I think back, was with my third album [1996's Sell, Sell, Sell]," Gray says. "The record companies decided we needed to stay in the Midwest to punish us, as long as we could handle it. In Toledo, we got to the gate, and the support band was on, and the place was absolutely packed. I was like, 'Wow, this is fantastic!' I couldn't wait to get up there. Just before we went on stage, they opened the door in the back of the club and the nightclub opened, and the place just literally emptied and we played to absolutely nobody. So people say, 'Oh do you miss the old times, just you and the guitar?' And it's like, 'No way!' It was soul destroying at times."

Freed from the nightclub curse, Gray will begin with twenty-two dates in the U.K. before opening in the U.S. on January 26th in Detroit. After wrapping up the North American dates on February 16th in Los Angeles, Gray will take two weeks off before starting a fourteen-date European run.

David Gray tour dates:

1/26: Detroit, Fox Theater
1/27: Toronto, Air Canada Center
1/28: Camden, NJ, Tweeter Center
1/30: Lowell, MA, Paul E. Tsongas Arena
1/31: New York, Madison Square Garden
2/2: Fairfax, VA, Patroit Center
2/4: Atlanta, Fox Theater
2/5: Louisville, KY, Palace Theater
2/7: Chicago, UIC Pavilion
2/8: Minneapolis, Northrop Auditorium
2/10: Denver, Pepsi Center
2/13: Seattle, KeyArena
2/15: San Francisco, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
2/16: Los Angeles, Shrine Auditorium

ANDREW DANSBY
(October 29, 2002)