Yahoo! Music, Aug 8, 2001 12:00 pm PDT
(8/8/01, 12 p.m. ET) -- Sixty-six weeks after its initial release in the United Kingdom, David Gray's White Ladder has climbed to the top of that country's album chart. The London singer-songwriter's fourth album bumped Destiny's Child's Survivor from the peak position to Number Three while also besting the debut of Prince's The Very Best Of, which entered at Number Two.
But Gray's slow path to the Number One slot is only part of the album's remarkable success story. When Gray first released White Ladder in early 1999, he was without a label affiliation and opted to issue it on his own. Gray tells LAUNCH about its humble beginnings: "The reason we put out the record ourselves is quite simply because no one else wanted to. And, we sort of, we made in such an anarchic sort of weird way at home and things, that it just seemed the obvious step. The least we can do is, like, put it out ourselves. And it was good fun basically to say, 'Ooh, let's make a record company and do that.' So we did and then one thing's now led to another and it's done really, really well for us."
Meanwhile, Stateside, White Ladder continues to succeed as well. The album's hit single, "Babylon," was nominated last month for an MTV Video Award in the category of best new artist in a video. Gray will face off for the honor with Coldplay ("Yellow"), Alicia Keys ("Fallin'"), Sum 41 ("Fatlip"), and Nikka Costa ("Like A Feather"). The awards take place September 6 in New York.
-- Neal Weiss, Los Angeles
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David Gray
