THERE will not be many people who do not know something by David Gray. When you have sold 6 million copies worldwide of an album - as he has done with White Ladder - tracks tend to infiltrate the subconscious.

The singer-songwriter probably polarises opinion and is easily dismissed by some sniffy critics as a background mood music maker for suburbanites. Maybe they ought to take the trouble to see him live, as a packed Civic audience did.

The spellbinding This Year's Love was a highlight that reflected a talented musician very much in his element, performing songs that are a cut above those produced by many other artists ostensibly of Gray's type.

The Other Side, from A New Day at Midnight, was much in the same vein, while Sail Away upped the tempo.

Mixing favourites with new work from his latest album, Life in Slow Motion, Gray strummed an acoustic guitar as he sang the laid back, slightly latino The One I Love, his most recent single. As he returned to the stage for his encore, the one glaring omission from the set up to then had been his signature song, Babylon, which he at last delivered.

Review by PETER McMILLAN