Post by Slinger on Aug 22, 2022 17:11:32 GMT
Chris Rea
Chris was born in Middlesbrough in the North Riding of Yorkshire as one of seven children. The name Rea was well known locally thanks to his father's ice cream factory and café chain. When he was twelve, he worked clearing tables in the coffee bar and making ice cream in the factory. He wanted to improve the business, but his ideas got no support from his father. After leaving, he was replaced by one of his brothers. At that time he wanted to be a journalist and attended St Mary's College in Middlesbrough.
Rea bought his first guitar when he was 21 - 22, a 1961 Hofner V3 and a 25-watt Laney amplifier after he left school; he played primarily "bottleneck" guitar Rea's playing style was inspired by Charlie Patton whom he had heard on the radio. He had initially thought Patton's playing sounded like a violin. Rea was also influenced by Blind Willie Johnson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe as well as by the playing of Ry Cooder and Joe Walsh He was also listening to Delta blues musicians like Sonny Boy Williamson II and Muddy Waters, gospel blues, and opera to light orchestral classics to develop his style.
He recalls that "for many people from working-class backgrounds, rock wasn't a chosen thing, it was the only thing, the only avenue of creativity available for them", and that "when I was young I wanted most of all to be a writer of films and film music. But Middlesbrough in 1968 wasn't the place to be if you wanted to do movie scores".
Due to his late introduction to music and guitar playing, Rea commented that when compared to Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton, "I definitely missed the boat, I think". He was self-taught and soon tried to join a friend's group, The Elastic Band, as the first choice for guitar or bass. Heeding his father's advice he did not join as his potential earnings would not be enough to cover the costs of being in the group. As a result, he found himself working casual labouring jobs, including working in his father's ice cream business. Rea commented that, at that time, he was "meant to be developing my father's ice-cream cafe into a global concern, but I spent all my time in the stockroom playing slide guitar".
In 1973 he joined the local Middlesbrough band, Magdalene, which earlier had included David Coverdale who had left to join Deep Purple. He began writing songs for the band and only took up singing because the singer in the band failed to show up for a playing engagement. Rea then went on to form the band "The Beautiful Losers," which received Melody Maker's Best Newcomers award in 1973. He secured a solo recording deal with independent Magnet Records and released his first single entitled "So Much Love" in 1974. The band itself split up in 1977.
In 1977 he performed on Hank Marvin's album The Hank Marvin Guitar Syndicate and also guested on Catherine Howe's EP The Truth of the Matter. He recorded his first album that same year, but according to Michael Levy (co-founder of Magnet) the recordings were literally burned and started over again because they did not capture his whole talent.
"Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?" was Rea's debut studio album, which was released in June 1978 and was produced by the great Gus Dudgeon who had been brought in by the company to re-record the album after it had been scrapped.
The title of the album was a reference to "Benjamin Santini", the stage name that Rea had suggested when the record label insisted that his given name did not sound "croony" enough.
The album peaked at No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 200 and charted for 12 weeks. The first single taken from the album, "Fool (If You Think It's Over)", was Rea's biggest hit in the US, peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary Singles chart.
I actually preferred the Album's title track and bought that when it was released as the second single from the album, on red vinyl. It peaked at #71 in America and did nothing anywhere else.
Like most of Rea's early singles, "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" failed to appear on the UK Singles Chart on its first release and only reached No. 30 when it was re-released in late 1978 to capitalise on its U.S. achievement. The overall success was Magnet Records' major breakthrough and their first Top-10 success in the U.S., making Rea their biggest artist. Levy remembers him as "more of a thoughtful, introspective poet than a natural pop performer" which Levy felt stopped Rea from becoming a major star.
Since the record label saw him as a piano-playing singer-songwriter similar to Elton John and Billy Joel instead of the guitar player he was, the label gave the record buyers a different impression of him than what he felt was correct for three or four years. Rea noted that the hit song "is still the only song I've ever not played the guitar on, but it just so happened to be my first single, and it just so happened to be a massive hit".
He also felt that he "always had a difficult relationship with fame, even before my first illness. None of my heroes were rock stars. I arrived in Hollywood for the Grammy Awards once and thought I was going to bump into people who mattered, like Ry Cooder or Randy Newman. But I was surrounded by pop stars".
Dudgeon went on to produce Rea's next studio album Deltics (1979). Rea recorded his third album, Tennis (1980), utilizing musicians from Middlesbrough; which received positive reviews.
As both albums had failed commercially the record company refused his artwork intended for the cover of his fourth album Chris Rea (1982). None of these albums managed to enter the Top 50 in the UK. The released singles at this time also failed to provide further hits as "Diamonds" reached No. 44 and "Loving You" went to No. 88 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Rea has since spoken about the difficult working relationship he had at the time with Dudgeon and other "men in suits" who he felt 'smoothed out' the blues-influenced elements of his music. During one interview he recalled that he "always thought that they [producers] knew best. I never thought for a minute that they might have another agenda" and "all of a sudden I was the goose that laid the golden egg, and it was hell for me". He's also said that (I) "can't blame anyone but myself. I gave them what they wanted rather than what I wanted".
Since 1983, his music had begun to better reflect his wishes and capabilities. At this time he was under pressure from the record company due to the accumulated costs of the production for his previous four albums. To keep costs low the label accepted the demo tapes of his fifth studio album Water Sign.
After finding out that Dudgeon made more money than he did, Rea changed managers and went on a UK club tour. Afterwards, he continued on to a 60-date tour as a support act for Canadian band Saga. Suddenly, even to his record company's surprise, the album became a hit in Ireland and Europe, selling over half a million copies in just a few months. The single "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat" lifted from the album entered the top 20 across Europe.
With the album's success along with that of the subsequent Wired to the Moon (1984), which was his first Top 40 album in the UK (#35), Rea began to focus his attention on touring continental Europe and built up a significant fan base. He particularly became popular in Germany, and believes this audience saved his career as there was no "image-led market", but only "by music and by word of mouth".
It was not until 1985's million-selling Shamrock Diaries and the songs "Stainsby Girls" (a tribute to the girls – including his wife – that he knew from Stainsby secondary modern school near Middlesbrough) and "Josephine" (a tribute to his daughter) that UK audiences began to take notice of him.
Back in the days before t'internet and things like Spotify record companies looked for ways to publicise record releases. I first heard Stainsby Girls on the telephone, via an ad for the '84 single in the music press and a telephone number to call if you wanted to listen to it. That probably cost the company I was based in at the time a pretty penny in phone bills as I was quite parital to it. It reminded me a bit of Springsteen.
His following albums were also million-selling On The Beach (1986), and Dancing with Strangers (1987), including his first Top 20 UK single "Let's Dance" (No. 12), with the latter album reaching No. 2 on the UK albums chart, being behind Michael Jackson's Bad. It was not until 1987 that he could pay off the amassed £320,000 debt to the record company, and start to receive significant revenue.
In 1986 he was a support act along with The Bangles and The Fountainhead for Queen at Slane Concert for an estimated 80,000 audience. The Dancing with Strangers tour in 1987 saw Rea sell out stadium-size venues for the first time across the world, including Wembley Arena twice, as well as having concerts in Japan. In the spring of 1987, he toured Australia for the first time. Rea's American label, Tamla Motown, had told him that "(he) should stay and tour there for three years". Out of deference to his family, he did not do so. He commented that at the time he realized that "I could be as big as I liked if I was prepared to do the touring".
His next album was his first compilation, New Light Through Old Windows (1988); which reached No.5 in the UK and was another million-seller. The album included re-workings of some of his charting singles Some of them were successful in the US, such as the new song "Working On It" which reached No. 73 on Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Mainstream Rock chart. The re-recorded version of "On the Beach (1988)" reached the Top 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart and also No. 12 in the UK. The album's release, and success, were followed by an international tour with over 45 dates.
His 10th studio album was Rea's major breakthrough. The Road to Hell (1989) enjoyed massive success and became his first No. 1 album in the UK, being certified 6× Platinum by the BPI in 2004. I remember it fondly, as I was given it (on vinyl) as a Christmas present by a rather gorgeous young lady I was quite keen on at the time. Her husband wasn't quite so keen on me though, and I didn't get a present from him.
The album only reached 107 in the US. One track from the album, "Texas", achieved extensive radio airplay in the state itself while the song "The Road to Hell (Part 2)" peaked at No. 11 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The title track was Rea's first and only UK Top 10 single. Rea appeared and performed on the Band Aid II project's single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1989. His next album Auberge (1991) was also a No. 1 UK and European hit album, including the single of the same title which reached the Top 20 in the UK.
After Auberge, Rea released God's Great Banana Skin (1992) which reached No. 4 in the UK, while the single "Nothing to Fear" gave him another Top 20 hit.
A year later the album Espresso Logic made the Top 10 and "Julia", written about his second daughter, gave him his sixth and last Top 20 single. The album was partly promoted by Rea's taking part in the non-Championship "TOCA Shootout" round of the 1993 British Touring Car Championship, although he was eliminated in the first round. In 1994 another compilation album, The Best of Chris Rea was released which peaked at No. 3 in the UK.
Following the release of the soundtrack album for La Passione; Rea's fourteenth studio album, The Blue Cafe, was released in 1998, 5 years after the previous one. It made it to the UK Top 10. This long break between two studio albums was caused by Rea's health issues: in 1994 he had stomach ulcers, and in 1995 peritonitis, the latter was followed by five operations. On December 15, 1998, Chris Rea released the compilation album The Best of Chris Rea 1998. In 1999 (ten years after Road to Hell), Rea released the electronica album, The Road to Hell: Part 2 in 1999, which fared less well than his more recent albums, never charting into the UK Top 40. Conversely, in 2000, he released King of the Beach which did comparatively better making it to the UK Top 30.
n 2000 Chris Rea was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent a "Whipple procedure." Since having this surgery Rea had problems with diabetes and a weaker immune system, necessitating the need to take thirty-four pills and seven injections a day He has undergone several subsequent operations.
Nevertheless, he found a greater appreciation for life, his family, and the things he loves.
In an interview, he said, "it's not until you become seriously ill and you nearly die and you're at home for six months, that you suddenly stop, to realize that this isn't the way I intended it to be in the beginning. Everything that you've done falls away and you start wondering why you went through all that rock business stuff."
A record company offered him millions of dollars to do a duets album with notable artists. Having promised himself that if he recovered he would return to his blues roots, he started the record label Jazzee Blue to free himself from his then-current company's expectations. The first album under this label, Dancing Down the Stony Road (2002), reached No. 14 and was certified Gold by the BPI.
He wanted the label to be a place "where musicians came and made a record" of this style of music. Jazzee Blue released several blues and jazz albums mostly by members of his then-current band. He was disappointed with the music business when Michael Parkinson, who supported him to do Dancing Down the Stony Road, told him songs longer than three minutes were not played as often on the radio anymore.
Rea released Blue Street (Five Guitars) and Hofner Blue Notes in 2003 and, later, The Blue Jukebox in 2004.
2005 saw the release of Blue Guitars, a box set of 11 CDs containing 137 blues-inspired tracks with Rea's paintings as album covers. Rea said, "I was never a rock star or pop star and all the illness has been my chance to do what I'd always wanted to do with music [...] the best chance for my music has been concentrating on stuff which really interests me".
If 137 tracks over 11CDs sounds daunting, well, that's because it is. I'm here to tell you though, that it's a journey well worth taking, especially (but not exclusively) if you dabble with the guitar yourself.
In February 2008, Rea released The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes, dedicated to the 1960s Hofner guitars, with 38 tracks on three CDs and two 10" vinyl records - the vinyl replicated the tracks contained on the first CD of the set. The box set also included a hardback book of his paintings along with period photos. The release of the album was followed by a European tour. visiting various venues across the UK, including the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Rea released the compilation Still So Far to Go in October 2009, and two new songs were included, "Come So Far, Yet Still So Far to Go" and the ballad "Valentino". The album reached No. 8, and was certified Gold by the BPI. Rea started the European tour called "Still So Far to Go" in January 2010. His special guest on stage was Irish musician Paul Casey. The tour ended on 5 April at Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
In September 2011 Santo Spirito Blues box set was released. The set contained two feature-length films on one DVD, written and directed by Rea, along with three accompanying CDs - 2 of which featured the music from the DVDs and the third being a stripped-back version of the related studio album. Shortly after this release, in October and November, Rea underwent two surgical procedures.
On 3 February 2012, the Santo Spirito Tour started at Congress Center Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany, with additional visits to Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium and France. The United Kingdom part of the tour commenced in the middle of March and finished on 5 April at Hammersmith Apollo in London.
November 2014 saw Rea embark on a European tour called The Last Open Road Tour, with the UK part of the tour commencing on 1 December in Manchester and ending on 20 December in London. He also performed at the 2014 Montreux Jazz Festival.
Rea suffered a stroke in 2016 which left him with slurred speech and reduced movement in his arms and fingers. Soon afterwards he quit smoking to deter further strokes and recovered enough to record and tour.
In a 2017 interview, amid the 2017 general election, Rea supported Jeremy Corbyn and even wrote a song called "What's So Wrong With A Man Who Tells The Truth?",
In September 2017, he released his twenty-fourth album, Road Songs for Lovers, and embarked on a European tour starting in October until December.
On 9 December, Rea collapsed during a performance at the New Theatre Oxford, the 35th concert of the tour. He was taken to hospital where his condition was stabilized. This health issue caused the last two concerts of the tour to be cancelled.
Rhino released on 18 October 2019 2xCD deluxe editions of five of Chris Rea's most commercially successful albums, Shamrock Diaries, On The Beach, Dancing With Strangers, The Road To Hell, and Auberge, containing remixes, rare and previously unreleased live tracks, single edits, and extended versions.
Preceding the deluxe edition releases - on 4 October 2019 - a limited edition album (1LP + 1CD) titled One Fine Day, with only 1000 copies and each numbered containing some unreleased, rare, and originally recorded work in 1980 at Chipping Norton Recording Studios was issued.
On 20 November 2020, the triple CD compilation Era 1: 1978 - 1984 was released. It contains a mix of A-sides, B-sides, foreign language versions and different mixes, as well as all of One Fine Day on disc 2.
Earlier this year, 2022, the news of Chris Rea’s death spread quickly, causing concern among fans across the world.
However the August 2022 report has now been confirmed as a complete hoax and just the latest in a string of fake celebrity death reports. Thankfully, the singer is alive and well.
Chris has his own "Signature," Fender Stratocaster, and the Strat was his weapon of choice for many years. You'll often see him playing an Italia Maranello Classic nowadays though, and, on occasion a 1972 Fender Telecaster Thinline. He's even been known to play the banjo.
See. He's not just that bloke that sings with a really deep gravely voice.
Chris was born in Middlesbrough in the North Riding of Yorkshire as one of seven children. The name Rea was well known locally thanks to his father's ice cream factory and café chain. When he was twelve, he worked clearing tables in the coffee bar and making ice cream in the factory. He wanted to improve the business, but his ideas got no support from his father. After leaving, he was replaced by one of his brothers. At that time he wanted to be a journalist and attended St Mary's College in Middlesbrough.
Rea bought his first guitar when he was 21 - 22, a 1961 Hofner V3 and a 25-watt Laney amplifier after he left school; he played primarily "bottleneck" guitar Rea's playing style was inspired by Charlie Patton whom he had heard on the radio. He had initially thought Patton's playing sounded like a violin. Rea was also influenced by Blind Willie Johnson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe as well as by the playing of Ry Cooder and Joe Walsh He was also listening to Delta blues musicians like Sonny Boy Williamson II and Muddy Waters, gospel blues, and opera to light orchestral classics to develop his style.
He recalls that "for many people from working-class backgrounds, rock wasn't a chosen thing, it was the only thing, the only avenue of creativity available for them", and that "when I was young I wanted most of all to be a writer of films and film music. But Middlesbrough in 1968 wasn't the place to be if you wanted to do movie scores".
Due to his late introduction to music and guitar playing, Rea commented that when compared to Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton, "I definitely missed the boat, I think". He was self-taught and soon tried to join a friend's group, The Elastic Band, as the first choice for guitar or bass. Heeding his father's advice he did not join as his potential earnings would not be enough to cover the costs of being in the group. As a result, he found himself working casual labouring jobs, including working in his father's ice cream business. Rea commented that, at that time, he was "meant to be developing my father's ice-cream cafe into a global concern, but I spent all my time in the stockroom playing slide guitar".
In 1973 he joined the local Middlesbrough band, Magdalene, which earlier had included David Coverdale who had left to join Deep Purple. He began writing songs for the band and only took up singing because the singer in the band failed to show up for a playing engagement. Rea then went on to form the band "The Beautiful Losers," which received Melody Maker's Best Newcomers award in 1973. He secured a solo recording deal with independent Magnet Records and released his first single entitled "So Much Love" in 1974. The band itself split up in 1977.
In 1977 he performed on Hank Marvin's album The Hank Marvin Guitar Syndicate and also guested on Catherine Howe's EP The Truth of the Matter. He recorded his first album that same year, but according to Michael Levy (co-founder of Magnet) the recordings were literally burned and started over again because they did not capture his whole talent.
"Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?" was Rea's debut studio album, which was released in June 1978 and was produced by the great Gus Dudgeon who had been brought in by the company to re-record the album after it had been scrapped.
The title of the album was a reference to "Benjamin Santini", the stage name that Rea had suggested when the record label insisted that his given name did not sound "croony" enough.
The album peaked at No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 200 and charted for 12 weeks. The first single taken from the album, "Fool (If You Think It's Over)", was Rea's biggest hit in the US, peaking at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary Singles chart.
I actually preferred the Album's title track and bought that when it was released as the second single from the album, on red vinyl. It peaked at #71 in America and did nothing anywhere else.
Like most of Rea's early singles, "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" failed to appear on the UK Singles Chart on its first release and only reached No. 30 when it was re-released in late 1978 to capitalise on its U.S. achievement. The overall success was Magnet Records' major breakthrough and their first Top-10 success in the U.S., making Rea their biggest artist. Levy remembers him as "more of a thoughtful, introspective poet than a natural pop performer" which Levy felt stopped Rea from becoming a major star.
Since the record label saw him as a piano-playing singer-songwriter similar to Elton John and Billy Joel instead of the guitar player he was, the label gave the record buyers a different impression of him than what he felt was correct for three or four years. Rea noted that the hit song "is still the only song I've ever not played the guitar on, but it just so happened to be my first single, and it just so happened to be a massive hit".
He also felt that he "always had a difficult relationship with fame, even before my first illness. None of my heroes were rock stars. I arrived in Hollywood for the Grammy Awards once and thought I was going to bump into people who mattered, like Ry Cooder or Randy Newman. But I was surrounded by pop stars".
Dudgeon went on to produce Rea's next studio album Deltics (1979). Rea recorded his third album, Tennis (1980), utilizing musicians from Middlesbrough; which received positive reviews.
As both albums had failed commercially the record company refused his artwork intended for the cover of his fourth album Chris Rea (1982). None of these albums managed to enter the Top 50 in the UK. The released singles at this time also failed to provide further hits as "Diamonds" reached No. 44 and "Loving You" went to No. 88 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Rea has since spoken about the difficult working relationship he had at the time with Dudgeon and other "men in suits" who he felt 'smoothed out' the blues-influenced elements of his music. During one interview he recalled that he "always thought that they [producers] knew best. I never thought for a minute that they might have another agenda" and "all of a sudden I was the goose that laid the golden egg, and it was hell for me". He's also said that (I) "can't blame anyone but myself. I gave them what they wanted rather than what I wanted".
Since 1983, his music had begun to better reflect his wishes and capabilities. At this time he was under pressure from the record company due to the accumulated costs of the production for his previous four albums. To keep costs low the label accepted the demo tapes of his fifth studio album Water Sign.
After finding out that Dudgeon made more money than he did, Rea changed managers and went on a UK club tour. Afterwards, he continued on to a 60-date tour as a support act for Canadian band Saga. Suddenly, even to his record company's surprise, the album became a hit in Ireland and Europe, selling over half a million copies in just a few months. The single "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat" lifted from the album entered the top 20 across Europe.
With the album's success along with that of the subsequent Wired to the Moon (1984), which was his first Top 40 album in the UK (#35), Rea began to focus his attention on touring continental Europe and built up a significant fan base. He particularly became popular in Germany, and believes this audience saved his career as there was no "image-led market", but only "by music and by word of mouth".
It was not until 1985's million-selling Shamrock Diaries and the songs "Stainsby Girls" (a tribute to the girls – including his wife – that he knew from Stainsby secondary modern school near Middlesbrough) and "Josephine" (a tribute to his daughter) that UK audiences began to take notice of him.
Back in the days before t'internet and things like Spotify record companies looked for ways to publicise record releases. I first heard Stainsby Girls on the telephone, via an ad for the '84 single in the music press and a telephone number to call if you wanted to listen to it. That probably cost the company I was based in at the time a pretty penny in phone bills as I was quite parital to it. It reminded me a bit of Springsteen.
His following albums were also million-selling On The Beach (1986), and Dancing with Strangers (1987), including his first Top 20 UK single "Let's Dance" (No. 12), with the latter album reaching No. 2 on the UK albums chart, being behind Michael Jackson's Bad. It was not until 1987 that he could pay off the amassed £320,000 debt to the record company, and start to receive significant revenue.
In 1986 he was a support act along with The Bangles and The Fountainhead for Queen at Slane Concert for an estimated 80,000 audience. The Dancing with Strangers tour in 1987 saw Rea sell out stadium-size venues for the first time across the world, including Wembley Arena twice, as well as having concerts in Japan. In the spring of 1987, he toured Australia for the first time. Rea's American label, Tamla Motown, had told him that "(he) should stay and tour there for three years". Out of deference to his family, he did not do so. He commented that at the time he realized that "I could be as big as I liked if I was prepared to do the touring".
His next album was his first compilation, New Light Through Old Windows (1988); which reached No.5 in the UK and was another million-seller. The album included re-workings of some of his charting singles Some of them were successful in the US, such as the new song "Working On It" which reached No. 73 on Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Mainstream Rock chart. The re-recorded version of "On the Beach (1988)" reached the Top 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart and also No. 12 in the UK. The album's release, and success, were followed by an international tour with over 45 dates.
His 10th studio album was Rea's major breakthrough. The Road to Hell (1989) enjoyed massive success and became his first No. 1 album in the UK, being certified 6× Platinum by the BPI in 2004. I remember it fondly, as I was given it (on vinyl) as a Christmas present by a rather gorgeous young lady I was quite keen on at the time. Her husband wasn't quite so keen on me though, and I didn't get a present from him.
The album only reached 107 in the US. One track from the album, "Texas", achieved extensive radio airplay in the state itself while the song "The Road to Hell (Part 2)" peaked at No. 11 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The title track was Rea's first and only UK Top 10 single. Rea appeared and performed on the Band Aid II project's single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1989. His next album Auberge (1991) was also a No. 1 UK and European hit album, including the single of the same title which reached the Top 20 in the UK.
After Auberge, Rea released God's Great Banana Skin (1992) which reached No. 4 in the UK, while the single "Nothing to Fear" gave him another Top 20 hit.
A year later the album Espresso Logic made the Top 10 and "Julia", written about his second daughter, gave him his sixth and last Top 20 single. The album was partly promoted by Rea's taking part in the non-Championship "TOCA Shootout" round of the 1993 British Touring Car Championship, although he was eliminated in the first round. In 1994 another compilation album, The Best of Chris Rea was released which peaked at No. 3 in the UK.
Following the release of the soundtrack album for La Passione; Rea's fourteenth studio album, The Blue Cafe, was released in 1998, 5 years after the previous one. It made it to the UK Top 10. This long break between two studio albums was caused by Rea's health issues: in 1994 he had stomach ulcers, and in 1995 peritonitis, the latter was followed by five operations. On December 15, 1998, Chris Rea released the compilation album The Best of Chris Rea 1998. In 1999 (ten years after Road to Hell), Rea released the electronica album, The Road to Hell: Part 2 in 1999, which fared less well than his more recent albums, never charting into the UK Top 40. Conversely, in 2000, he released King of the Beach which did comparatively better making it to the UK Top 30.
n 2000 Chris Rea was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent a "Whipple procedure." Since having this surgery Rea had problems with diabetes and a weaker immune system, necessitating the need to take thirty-four pills and seven injections a day He has undergone several subsequent operations.
Nevertheless, he found a greater appreciation for life, his family, and the things he loves.
In an interview, he said, "it's not until you become seriously ill and you nearly die and you're at home for six months, that you suddenly stop, to realize that this isn't the way I intended it to be in the beginning. Everything that you've done falls away and you start wondering why you went through all that rock business stuff."
A record company offered him millions of dollars to do a duets album with notable artists. Having promised himself that if he recovered he would return to his blues roots, he started the record label Jazzee Blue to free himself from his then-current company's expectations. The first album under this label, Dancing Down the Stony Road (2002), reached No. 14 and was certified Gold by the BPI.
He wanted the label to be a place "where musicians came and made a record" of this style of music. Jazzee Blue released several blues and jazz albums mostly by members of his then-current band. He was disappointed with the music business when Michael Parkinson, who supported him to do Dancing Down the Stony Road, told him songs longer than three minutes were not played as often on the radio anymore.
Rea released Blue Street (Five Guitars) and Hofner Blue Notes in 2003 and, later, The Blue Jukebox in 2004.
2005 saw the release of Blue Guitars, a box set of 11 CDs containing 137 blues-inspired tracks with Rea's paintings as album covers. Rea said, "I was never a rock star or pop star and all the illness has been my chance to do what I'd always wanted to do with music [...] the best chance for my music has been concentrating on stuff which really interests me".
If 137 tracks over 11CDs sounds daunting, well, that's because it is. I'm here to tell you though, that it's a journey well worth taking, especially (but not exclusively) if you dabble with the guitar yourself.
In February 2008, Rea released The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes, dedicated to the 1960s Hofner guitars, with 38 tracks on three CDs and two 10" vinyl records - the vinyl replicated the tracks contained on the first CD of the set. The box set also included a hardback book of his paintings along with period photos. The release of the album was followed by a European tour. visiting various venues across the UK, including the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Rea released the compilation Still So Far to Go in October 2009, and two new songs were included, "Come So Far, Yet Still So Far to Go" and the ballad "Valentino". The album reached No. 8, and was certified Gold by the BPI. Rea started the European tour called "Still So Far to Go" in January 2010. His special guest on stage was Irish musician Paul Casey. The tour ended on 5 April at Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
In September 2011 Santo Spirito Blues box set was released. The set contained two feature-length films on one DVD, written and directed by Rea, along with three accompanying CDs - 2 of which featured the music from the DVDs and the third being a stripped-back version of the related studio album. Shortly after this release, in October and November, Rea underwent two surgical procedures.
On 3 February 2012, the Santo Spirito Tour started at Congress Center Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany, with additional visits to Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium and France. The United Kingdom part of the tour commenced in the middle of March and finished on 5 April at Hammersmith Apollo in London.
November 2014 saw Rea embark on a European tour called The Last Open Road Tour, with the UK part of the tour commencing on 1 December in Manchester and ending on 20 December in London. He also performed at the 2014 Montreux Jazz Festival.
Rea suffered a stroke in 2016 which left him with slurred speech and reduced movement in his arms and fingers. Soon afterwards he quit smoking to deter further strokes and recovered enough to record and tour.
In a 2017 interview, amid the 2017 general election, Rea supported Jeremy Corbyn and even wrote a song called "What's So Wrong With A Man Who Tells The Truth?",
In September 2017, he released his twenty-fourth album, Road Songs for Lovers, and embarked on a European tour starting in October until December.
On 9 December, Rea collapsed during a performance at the New Theatre Oxford, the 35th concert of the tour. He was taken to hospital where his condition was stabilized. This health issue caused the last two concerts of the tour to be cancelled.
Rhino released on 18 October 2019 2xCD deluxe editions of five of Chris Rea's most commercially successful albums, Shamrock Diaries, On The Beach, Dancing With Strangers, The Road To Hell, and Auberge, containing remixes, rare and previously unreleased live tracks, single edits, and extended versions.
Preceding the deluxe edition releases - on 4 October 2019 - a limited edition album (1LP + 1CD) titled One Fine Day, with only 1000 copies and each numbered containing some unreleased, rare, and originally recorded work in 1980 at Chipping Norton Recording Studios was issued.
On 20 November 2020, the triple CD compilation Era 1: 1978 - 1984 was released. It contains a mix of A-sides, B-sides, foreign language versions and different mixes, as well as all of One Fine Day on disc 2.
Earlier this year, 2022, the news of Chris Rea’s death spread quickly, causing concern among fans across the world.
However the August 2022 report has now been confirmed as a complete hoax and just the latest in a string of fake celebrity death reports. Thankfully, the singer is alive and well.
Chris has his own "Signature," Fender Stratocaster, and the Strat was his weapon of choice for many years. You'll often see him playing an Italia Maranello Classic nowadays though, and, on occasion a 1972 Fender Telecaster Thinline. He's even been known to play the banjo.
See. He's not just that bloke that sings with a really deep gravely voice.
