What an amazing night from start to finish.

The Corn exchange is such a beautiful building, perfect venue.

David and the band were fantastic. I'm lucky enough to have been to 4 gigs this tour;

Oxford, Sheffield, Halifax and Cambridge which was the best.

The setlist was excellent, missed Destroyer would have loved him to play that but he made up for it with so many others;

Late night radio - wow, think it was 2001 when i last heard that. Loved it

Nightblindness was Exceptional, gave me flutterbies when he whispers, he must make this up as he goes along, sheer brilliance

Shine was amazing as always what a perfect start, tis my fave - I used to be on of those annoying buggers who shouted for it,lol until i heard it for the first time at the apple store when it brought tears to my eyes

Otherside is my close second fave, i have to close my eyes for a second or two a couple of times whilst he's singing this one, don't ask me why think it just makes it more intense( i know the men in white coats are on their way)

Everytime great song, love all the older stuff and Living room wow

Long black veil, love this it sounds like its his own, kept fingers crossed for this one as my daughter loves it

Babylon, Toil, World to me and all of the others were fantastic as always.

Great gig and great company, it was lovely to meet some new bbers; MyCariad and hubby Roy, i know fancy losing my tickets i was so worried about them letting you lot in whilst i was in the loo that i ran out and left them, i would have[:'(] to the security til they let me in. A big big thankyou to the man who gave me back my tickets youre an angel.

Thanks to withoutwings for my ticket

Last but by no means least, it was lovely to see Djk and Rena again.

Well until next time, we 've got the memories.

You know what we need next, i think DG has forgot we've had the Greatest Hits tour what about the other album;

The best of the early years, wouldn't that be great

Ps forgot to mention how great the support acts were, watched their confidence and stage presence grow especially Beth, what an amazing voice.

Sorry this took me so long but I had to come down a bit first to be able to write this at all.

This certainly was one of the most enjoyable shows I have ever been to. Utterly amazing. Everyone was ready to have a great evening, David, the band and the audience. And we all certainly had.

There was so much positive energy radiating from the stage. You can catch a glimpse of that at the beginning of Lozm's TOIL video. Big smiles all over.

Most has been said already so I'd just like to add some personal impressions.

Even on the last show of the tour new elements were added. A new lightshow to the improvised guitar part in Nightblindness; this gave a feeling of a thunderstorm raging. Very appropriate. Then a new piano intro to 'Lately' and an amazing improvised part at the end. Thank you for this most beautiful version of one of my favourite songs David. I will certainly carry the memory of that one with me for a long time to come.

This was followed by a very emotional performance of 'This Year's Love'. Once again I had the impression the audience simply was too awed to participate at the end of that song. It somehow would not have seemed appropriate.

'Hospital Food' was pure joy and fun. Great.

And thank you David for the latest versions of Nightblindness. Incredibly sad, incredibly beautiful. And as for the whispered 'don't forget me' at the end - well, no one who has seen you will ever forget you. Last of all me.

We will all wait patiently for the new album to come and for the supporting tour afterwards. It was a privilege to see you perform. You and the band are truly something else. It was worth every penny spent and every mile travelled.

So thanks to everyone, the crew who are working hard behind the scenes and the amazing band, Rob, Neill, Keith and James who never seems to get the recognition he deserves because he is so well hidden behind his keyboards. Here is to you

It was great meeting familiar and new faces. First of all Djk. You are a great travel companion and it was a pleasure being your sat nav. Lol. I truly enjoyed the company of you Tracey and your daughter Becca, Lisa with Steve and Isla, Kaz and Roy, Marcel and Sarah and it was good meeting you Caron and your son, Lozm, John and Victoria, Clayton! (where were you in Cardiff?), Caroline from Nova Scotia and everyone else. And to those who made this trip such a special one - thanks a million. You know who you are.

Oh, and last but not least I need to mention the various support acts. Most of all Phil Campbell with Nicolai and Beth Rowley with Ben, Phil and Paul. DG thanked you for your fine music. I certainly second that.

And very last but certainly not least a big thank you to David Gray. For everything. All the best to you and your family.

Rena 

Hi All!

Cambridge, to me, is all still a blur!  But I wanted to write SOMETHING!  What an amazing night.  This was my partner, Nigel's first DG gig - and only my second (I saw him in Halifax a couple of weeks ago).  After the Halifax show, I was so incredibly blown away I desperately wanted Nigel to experience DG live.  Boy, did he love it!  We both did.  In fact, David has a knack, it seems, of leaving you so completely drained and mesmerized that both of us could barely speak once it was all over.  You're left feeling quite numb and wrung out!  We went back to our hotel, and all we could manage to say to one another was 'amazing' or 'bloody fantastic' or 'I've never heard a voice or band like it'.  We fell into bed exhausted, dazed and, well, bull-dozed!!

We walked around Cambridge the next day - telling everyone we encountered (market traders, shop keepers, waitresses in restaurants!) that we had seen David Gray the previous evening and how amazing it had been - basically, anyone who would listen - such was our excitement!  It took until Monday night before the gig started to form any kind of order in my mind and I could begin to recall particular favourite tracks. 

In Halifax, I had been seated - up at the very top, right at the very back with a full view of the stage and it was a completely wonderful experience.  However, in Cambridge, we were standing - only about three 'rows' from the front.  I felt we could almost reach out and touch the stage - Nigel probably could have, actually, as he's 6'5".  Cambridge was the far better experience for me, all down to the fact we were so close and standing meant I could dance away to my heart's content!

It's so hard to favour one track over another, but I must say I was moved close to tears by Lately, Nightblindness, The One I love, The Other Side and, of course, Please Forgive Me.  The way he gets the audience going just makes every nerve ending prickle!  We were at the piano end of the stage, so Forgive was particularly fantastic for us.  The buzz and banter between all the band was wonderful to see and DG certainly seemed in top spirits and playful.

I've discovered that, to discover DG live becomes like an addiction after just one gig.  I feel incredibly sad that it's over for now, as I desperately want to go and see him play again - RIGHT NOW!!  I'm sure you will all share this feeling.

It's taken a the last three days to 'come down' from the Cambridge Gig and it's still ringing around my head today.  Nigel and I have listened to nothing but DG since and I am basking in the glory of having well and truly converted Nigel into a huge DG fan!

It's been lovely to read everyone's posts about the Cambridge gig.  It was worth the three hour journey for us (we'd have happily travelled for three days, no doubt!) and it's great to read posts which refer to many of the members on here all managing to meet up at the venue.  I hope to be one of the people in future as I would love to hook up with other DG fans who share my (somewhat new-found) passion!!

My one big wish now is that DG releases a DVD of this tour - how fantastic would that be?!  Meanwhile, I think I'll go now and try to relive a little of my first DG gigs by looking at the YouTube links that have been posted on here.

To sum up, I would say that, going to a DG gig and then coming back to real life is a bit like going on a lovely, long holiday, somewhere hot and sunny, escaping from all of life's stresses, but it doesn't last long enough, and then you come back to reality and it's a bit depressing and you feel as though you're going to spend the next 12 months just longing and waiting til you can go again and get your fix!!

Does that make sense?

Thanks so much to David, his band and crew and the support acts. 

Love is..........attending a David Gray Gig!!

Linz x x x

And yes, it does make sense indeed. 

I have found a review on the interweb:
 

http://peterswan.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/david-gray-cambridge-corn-exchange-23-03-08/

David Gray - Cambridge Corn Exchange (23-03-08)

David Gray is the sort of musician who just quietly gets on with the business of writing and performing without ever really getting the credit he deserves.

The wobbly-headed-folk-tinged wonder may have only ever had two top ten hits (‘Babylon' in 2000 and ‘The One I Love' in 2005), but the quality of songs performed on his latest ‘Greatest Hits' tour only serves to underline his status as the UK's #1 singer songwriter.

Gray begins each set with a number of acoustic tracks before moving on to the full band numbers, almost as a nod to his folk beginnings.

‘Babylon' was dispensed with in this opening section - in good style with a nice crowd sing-a-long - however it was not until the epic ‘Sail Away' that things really started to liven up.

Throughout the performance Gray's stage manner was vaguely reminiscent of a singing Jack Dee (grumpy but in an endearing way), only really pausing between songs to mock a man who kept shouting random compliments during the quiet bits.

In many ways perhaps the most surprising aspect of Gray's set was a tendency towards experimentation which saw a number of tracks stretch well over their regular length.

‘Lately' from 2005's ‘Life In Slow Motion' probably didn't deserve the ten minute treatment - the three or so minutes of the original track being more than enough - however the version of ‘Nightblindness' performed in the encore was just astonishing.

Indeed the final third of the set (‘Nightblindness', ‘Be Mine' and ‘The Other Side in particular) showed Gray to have a real flair in terms of arrangement, which given the sometimes mundane production on the bulk of his recordings was very welcome.

Overall though, the whole show just had the feeling of top pro performing right at the top of this game. I got home and immediately had to listen to the CDs - you can't get better than that.

Next up for Gray is a new studio album. If this gig is anything to go by it should be a cracker.

I left out the setlist published on that site because it was incomplete and in the wrong order.

And I couldn't possibly disagree more on his views on 'Lately'. That night's extended version was amazing. 

Still it's a nice review. " [...] the UK's #1 singer songwriter ". Yup.

Rena:

Hey Linz,

Glad you enjoyed your first gigs, Cambridge was truly amazing. Make yourself known to other bb'ers at your next gig. They are all so friendly and welcoming, if you get there early and get to the front of the queue, you will deffo find some there. 

And I couldn't possibly disagree more on his views on 'Lately'. That night's extended version was amazing. 

Still it's a nice review. " [...] the UK's #1 singer songwriter ". Yup.

Hey Rena,

I couldn't agree with you more. Lately was fantastic. I have the second part, after he swaps from piano to guitar on my mobile phone, I will put it on here soon.

"The UK's #1 singer songwriter" - at last the word is getting around

heckengland:

 My Cariad, we've got the age limit beat out, as my 2yr old and 5 yr old were there with us, as they've been brainwashed with DG since before birth. :) Taylor (2) didn't make it very far into the show (zzzzz) but loved the girl singing opener (sorry, forgot her name). Madison (5) soaked in her third show and was rivited till near the end, when she said, "Dad, I hope this is the last song," out of sheer sleepiness. Poor monkey was exhausted but talked about the show all day today.

Lol, it's never too early to introduce young one's to pure genius. We were hoping to bump into you as we are local to you. Maybe next time.

p.s. If you see a boat on the Great Ouse called 'Whimbrel', we never got around to changing the name to 'Life In Slow Motion', give us a shout, we're aways happy to share a beer, especially with DG fans

MyCariad:

I couldn't agree with you more. Lately was fantastic. I have the second part, after he swaps from piano to guitar on my mobile phone, I will put it on here soon.

"The UK's #1 singer songwriter" - at last the word is getting around

Hi there MyCariad,

the second part of 'Lately' is so utterly amazing. Especially with those slide guitar bits by Neill nowadays. And I am so fond of those improvised song lines as well. I am looking forward to seeing your clip then