Moments That Matter: David Gray’s Liverpool Show Promises Pure Poetry

There’s a moment, etched in the soft blur of a Benidorm bender in the early noughties, where everything else fell away. I was parked in some mezzanine bar, finally catching my breath, and then—Babylon hit. That opening shimmer, those chords, Gray’s voice floating through the air like it was speaking directly to my soul. It stopped me cold. Goosebumps. Clarity, on holiday chaos. That song—that voice—held something holy.

So yeah, this show? It means something.

David Gray returns to Liverpool on March 31st as part of his sold-out Past & Present world tour, and he’s got the weight of a new record behind him. Dear Life, his thirteenth album, is a stunner—confessional, cinematic, thick with emotion and strings and that unmistakable voice still holding the same emotional charge it always has. Critics are calling it his best since White Ladder, and they’re not wrong.

This isn’t just a legacy lap. Gray’s still digging deep, pushing the craft, writing like a man with something left to prove—and nothing to lose. The show’s set to span the full range: the new orchestral heartbreakers, the old anthems we wore into our hearts. And if you’ve ever had a Lost Songs phase, you know there are hidden gems that hit just as hard.

Special guest Talia Rae—featured on lead single Plus & Minus—joins him for this leg of the tour, bringing smoke and sorrow to a duet that’s already turning heads.

Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall is the kind of venue Gray thrives in—intimate but grand, rich in acoustics and mood. Every seat will feel close. Every song will feel like it’s just for you.

For some of us, this show is more than a gig. It’s a checkpoint in time. A reminder of how music meets you where you are, and sometimes, shows you where you’re going.