Singer/songwriter David Gray will kick off a brief North American tour Jan. 26 in Detroit. The trek will visit 14 cities before wrapping Feb. 16 in Los Angeles, and follows a November/December tour of the U.K. and Ireland, and comes prior to a full European tour.
The information comes by way of anewdayatmidnight.com, the official Web site for his for his forthcoming album, “A New Day at Midnight.” The album was released yesterday (Oct. 28) internationally via IHT/EastWest, and is due Nov. 5 in North America via ATO/RCA.
The site is in the midst of a “Full Album Listening Party.” By signing up with an E-mail address (with the option of joining a Gray mailing list), fans can hear the entirety of “A New Day at Midnight” streaming through a computer.
The album is the follow-up to Gray’s breakthrough set “White Ladder,” which peaked at No. 35 on The Billboard 200. Since its release in 1998, “White Ladder” has shifted 2.5 million units in the U.K., according to his label; released in the U.S. in 2000, the set has sold 1.85 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.
“White Ladder” was propelled by the minimalist single “Babylon,” which reached eight different Billboard charts, peaking at No. 8 on the Adult Top 40 tally and No. 57 on the Hot 100.
“I didn’t set out to make any kind of record,” Gray recently told Billboard of making the new album. “There’s a seriousness to most of it, but it wasn’t something that I sat down and thought about. It was never going to be ‘White Ladder II.’ I don’t think it’s as effortlessly immediate, but I don’t think it’s elusive; there’s plenty of big melodies. ‘White Ladder’ was such a phenomenal success. It went beyond multi-platinum to ‘everyone’s got it.’ And that’s obviously a hard act to follow.”
Here are David Gray’s upcoming tour dates:
Nov. 9: Bournemouth, England (IC)
Nov. 11-12: Belfast (Odyssey)
Nov. 14-16: Dublin (Point)
Nov. 18: Plymouth, England (Plymouth Pavilions)
Nov. 19: Brighton, England (Brighton Centre)
Nov. 21-22: Manchester, England (Manchester Arena)
Nov. 23: Cardiff, Wales (Cardiff Arena)
Nov. 26: Birmingham, England (Birmingham NEC)
Nov. 27: Newcastle, England (Newcastle Arena)
Nov. 29: Sheffield, England (Sheffield Arena)
Nov. 30: Nottingham, England (Nottingham Arena)
Dec. 2-3: Glasgow (SECC)
Dec. 4: Aberdeen, Scotland (Aberdeen Exhibition Centre)
Dec. 7-9: London (Earls Court)
Jan. 26: Detroit (Fox Theatre)
Jan. 27: Toronto (Air Canada Centre)
Jan. 28: Camden, N.J. (Tweeter Center)
Jan. 30: Boston (Tsongas Arena)
Jan. 31: New York (Madison Square Garden)
Feb. 2: Washington, D.C. (Patriot Center)
Feb. 4: Atlanta (Fox Theatre)
Feb. 5: Louisville, Ky. (Palace Theatre)
Feb. 7: Chicago (UIC Pavilion)
Feb. 8: Minneapolis (Northrup)
Feb. 10: Denver (Pepsi Arena)
Feb. 13: Seattle (Key Arena)
Feb 15: San Francisco (Bill Graham Civic Center)
Feb 16: Los Angeles (Shrine Auditorium)
March 10: Milan (Alcatraz)
March 11: Florence, Italy (Saschall)
March 12: Zurich (Volkhaus)
March 14: Barcelona (Razzmatazz 2)
March 15: Madrid (Arena)
March 17: Lyon, France (Transborder)
March 18: Cologne, Germany (E-werk)
March 19: Hamburg, Germany (Gross Freiheit)
March 21: Stockholm (Annexet)
March 22: Copenhagen (Vega)
March 23: Berlin (Columbia Halle)
March 25: Paris (Olympia)
March 26: Brussels (Ancienne Belgique)
March 27: Tilburg, Holland (013)
March 29: Vienna (Gasometer)
March 30: Munich (Muffathalle)
March 31: Offenbach, Germany (Capital)
