White Ladder will be performed by Gray with all the original band members and with all the original equipment to recreate the record in its entirety, plus a set of the greatest hits.
The tour will commence on 1 December 2022 at the Grand Arena, GrandWest and then head to Pretoria on Saturday 3 December 2022 at the SunBet Arena, Time Square.
Gray said, "It’s the 20th anniversary of White Ladder, a unique record with its own remarkable history. Jammed full with big, open-hearted songs and flooded with a raw emotional energy. It’s an album that came from nowhere to steal the hearts of millions all over the world, completely transforming my life in the process.”
“Twenty years on and it feels like White Ladder is just as alive for people now as it was back then - so to celebrate this milestone, I will be releasing a special anniversary version of the album and assembling all the original band members with all the original equipment, in order to take White Ladder out on the road and recreate the record in its entirety,” Gray continued.
Self-released at first on his own kitchen sink label, White Ladder slowly found an audience. It took a year to creep into the lower reaches of the British charts, then worked it's way all the way up to number one. White Ladder eventually spent three years in the UK top 100, spawning hit singles Babylon, Please Forgive Me and Sail Away.
White Ladder is one of 11 complex, ambitious and heartfelt albums Gray has recorded in a career that spans 25 years. Some, like White Ladder, have been big commercial successes, others have been more intimate and experimental. All feature music that is both intimate and broad, intensely personal yet capable of speaking to the masses.
Gray said, “What happened with White Ladder involved more than music. It was a sort of heart and soul moment of total surrender for everybody involved, for me and the audience. That was it. It doesn't get any better than that.”
The David Gray tour will go on sale on 25 March exclusively from Ticketmaster. The Discovery Bank pre-sale is on sale now until 25 March.
