Gregory Gray (Tom Robinson Tribute)

Coleraine born singer/songwriter Gregory Gray aka Mary Cigarettes died on April 25th 2019 at the age of 59. Born Paul Lerwill, Gregory started out at 19 as a guitarist in the 1970s teen group Rosetta Stone. He left the band changing his name to Gregory Gray and formed Perfect Crime who released two singles ‘Brave’ (1983) and ‘I Feel Like An Eskimo’ (1984). He then began a solo career and released three albums; ‘Think Of Swans’ (1986), ‘Strong At Broken Places’ (1990) and ‘Euroflake In Silverlake’ (1995). He later began to self release material as Mary Cigarettes. Check out his extensive writing on wordpress and music on bandcamp and YouTube. SoundCloud in particular Tom says has some late period gems.

Tom Robinson paid tribute to Gray on his BBC 6 Music radio show on 4th May 2019. Tom was joined in studio by author and lecturer Noel McLaughlin, co-author of ‘Rock and Popular Music in Ireland: Before and After U2‘ which features a chapter on Gray. Also appearing in the tribute are Gavin Martin who started the Alternative Ulster fanzine inspiring the Stiff Little Fingers track and producer & author Simon Napier Bell.

Perfect Crime recorded a Fanning session in 1982 and Gregory Gray was a studio guest on the Dave Fanning Show a number of times as remembered by Noel McLaughlin with one particular incident according to Ian Wilson generating some listener complaint. Also mentioned is the August 1996 Hot Press article ‘The Greatest Irish Rock Story Never Told’ by Stuart Clark.