CAN this guy really have made a career from nodding his head - even given that, as head-nodders go, David Gray is in a class of his own? While the rest of his band content themselves with the orthodox back and forward movement, Gray's version bobs from side to side, his knees flexing periodically, a range of shocked and ecstatic expressions blushing across his face.
Gray has a potently childish quality, but mixed with it, there is also an undeniable threatening edge, as though this pleasant chap, might easily creep up and nice you to death.
This singer and songwriter (it is, of course, forbidden, to call Gray a singer songwriter, or anything nearly so anachronistic) has been creeping up on people for several years now. Just recently, it seemed as though the modest Mean Fiddler would be enough to contain him, but a short while later, filling the plush seats at the Ambassador for two nights poses no problem at all.
So what is all the fuss about? The sound is somewhere between Van Morrison (to the extent of including some of his acoustic guitar flavours), the Blue Nile, and the soulful quarter once ruled over by Mike Scott, although you might guess that his fans would resent all three comparisons. But perhaps that's not too important, for last night, one can't help feeling, there were one or two new "fans" in attendance who would be screaming for REM if that was only the right thing to do.
As it is, what they cheer for is an affable seeming lad with a Damon Albarn zipper top, a cream and coal dust voice, a convincing band, a lippy drummer, and a penchant for confessional ballads with perky dynamics. Somehow, with just these ingredients, Gray has forged one of those rare connections between artist and audience that seems destined to endure.
Even if it now seems that a rock singer can get crowned poet laureate if she takes the trouble to write a lyric in advance of the recording session, Gray's achievements are certainly not commonplace. The magic worked by that enigmatic combination of songwriting and head nodding - that very palpable sense of mass communication remains impressive.
