Chris Rea
Middlesbrough’s
finest son and one of the world’s best slide guitarist,
Chris Rea, released his first record in 1978 after signing
a deal with Magnet Records.
Whatever Happened To Benny Santini? gave Chris one of
his biggest hit singles in the US when Fool (If You
Think It’s Over) reached number 12 on the Billboard
Hot 100 and also resulted in a Grammy nomination for
Song Of The Year.
Deltics followed in 1979 as Chris began to focus his
attention on continental Europe, releasing eight albums
in the 1980s including Tennis (1980), Chris Rea (1982),
Water Sign (1983), Wired To The Moon (1984), Shamrock
Diaries (1985), On The Beach (1986) and Dancing With
Strangers (1987).
It wasn't until 1985's Shamrock Diaries and the songs
Stainsby Girls and Josephine that UK audiences began
to take notice of Chris and on 5 July 1986 he played
in front of 95,000 people at Slane Castle, Ireland,
as support act for Queen on their Magic Tour.
On The Beach and Dancing with Strangers were big UK
hit records before the New Light Through Old Windows
compilation album in 1988 brought Chris further chart
success and recognition.
Two UK No.1 albums followed – the seminal The
Road To Hell (1989) and Auberge (1991) bringing Chris
chart success both in the UK and in Europe.
After Auberge, Chris released God's Great Banana Skin
(1992) which reached Number 4 in the UK. The album was
a return to the harder rock territory of Road to Hell
and the single Nothing to Fear delivered another Top
20 hit.
Espresso Logic (1993) followed hitting the UK Top 10
and Julia written about his second daughter gave Chris
his 11th UK Top 40 hit record.
La Passione (1996) was followed by The Blue Café
(1998) ,The Road To Hell: Part 2 (1999) and the new
millennium saw the release of King Of The Beach (2000)
to both critical acclaim and commercial success.
Following a severe bout of pancreatitis, and a predicted
fifty percent chance of survival after an operation
called a Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy)
in 2001, Chris promised that if he recovered, he would
return to his blues roots.
"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.”
In 2002, Chris returned to his blues roots, releasing
the album Dancing Down The Stony Road following recording
sessions in France and the UK. The album was followed
by a DVD of the same name, comprising a "Making
Of" documentary and footage from a concert in Cologne.
Chris set up his own JazzeeBlue label in 2003 and since
then he has released the blues albums Blue Street (Five
Guitars) (2003) and then The Blue Jukebox (2004) and
he has also worked with David Knopfler on two albums
Wishbones (2001) and Ship of Dreams (2004).
Blue Guitars was released in 2005 - this 11 CD collection
of 137 blues inspired tracks was recorded in just 18
months and included his own paintings as album covers.
The Return Of The Fabulous Hofner Blue Notes (2008)
album featured 38 new tracks on three CDs and two LPs
and was accompanied by an extensive European & UK
tour.
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