Chris Rea
Christopher Anton "Chris" Rea (born March 4, 1951 in Middlesbrough , England ) is a British singer , musician , composer and guitarist of Italian - Irish descent.
Career
The early years
In the 1970s, Rea, who has two brothers (Nick and Mike) and four sisters (Catherine, Geraldine, Paula and Camille), played guitar and singer in the band "Magdalene". In 1975 the group won a talent competition under the name "The Beautiful Losers" , but did not get a record deal . Rea recorded a solo album in 1978 called Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? came up with the release Fool (If You Think It's Over) immediately in the US top 20 and was also nominated for a Grammy . However, Rea was unable to build on this initial success with the follow-up albums.
1983 to 1992
With titles from his album Water Sign , Rea had hit hits again since 1978, which continued in 1984 and 1985 with Wired to the Moon and Shamrock Diaries . Some of his big hits, including Josephine , I Can Hear Your Heartbeat and Ace of Hearts , fell during this period. With the albums On the Beach (1986) (the music video for the song of the same name was shot in Formentera ), Dancing with Strangers (1987) and The Road to Hell (1989) (the title track was his most successful single release), Rea became a million-seller. With Auberge (1991) and God's Great Banana Skin (1992) he again attracted attention in the USA.
1993 to 2000
More albums followed and Rea became one of the most successful British musicians. Above all in Great Britain and Germany, Rea was also known as a cinema and television film composer (including Basic Instinct , Soft Top, Hard Shoulder , Schimanski: Blood Brothers , Madhouse , Alles Paletti , Der Schattenmann ). The year 1994 started for Rea with health problems, he had stomach ulcers. In 1995 he was attacked by another disease, peritonitis; so he had to undergo five operations. After recovering, Rea made his own film in 1996, La passione (which remotely reproduces his own family history), a documentary about the German racing driver Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips , who died in an accident in 1961 , and also published the music for it . Several times, e.g. B. 1999, Rea tried to follow up on his previous successes, but with waning success.
2001 to 2006
Shortly after he made a notable comeback with the album King of the Beach in 2000, Chris Rea was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer . As a result, major parts of his stomach had to be removed in a risky operation. Rea had the operations carried out in Germany. During his hospital stay he was particularly impressed by the story and courage of a young cancer patient. She also said to him the words: “We are both dancing on a rocky road now”, which led him straight to his next project “Stony Road”. The confrontation with his possibly imminent death brought Rea the realization that in his entire career he had never put the music on record that he really loved, namely pure blues . While he was slowly getting back to health at home, he expressed himself by painting pictures. After his recovery, he worked through his illness musically. The resulting songs have little in common with his old titles.
Since his previous label insisted on Rea's old style, he founded his own label Jazzee Blue in 2002 in order to realize his ideas. There he published four CDs by 2004: Stony Road , The Blue Jukebox , Blue Street and Hofner Blue Notes . Then he devoted himself to the big project Blue Guitars . In October 2005 he released his (for the time being) last records as a solo artist with Blue Guitars : a work with eleven albums (a so-called earbook sound carrier) with the different genres of blues music, together with an illustrated book containing his works from his convalescence, and a DVD . In just 18 months Rea had composed and recorded over 130 new songs and painted over 50 pictures.
In 2006, Rea completed his farewell tour and has lived with his wife and two daughters in Cookham / Buckinghamshire ever since .
"Farewell Tour 2006"
With his European tour in 2006, Rea wanted to say goodbye to almost 30 successful years that had brought him record sales of almost 30 million albums and singles worldwide. “Going on tour is still the best job in the world [...] if I had a different body for it. How my health will go is difficult to predict. Things can get worse there too. So this is my last tour now. I have to and will find a different way of working for myself […] ”, says Rea on his website.
After the last curtain of the farewell tour had fallen on April 28, 2006 at the Olympic Theater in Dublin , Rea declared that he would no longer publish any music under his name and would only be part of the trio "The Fire Flies". To present a live recording of the farewell tour, which was released on DVD, he played a concert in London in autumn 2006 that was announced as the “very last live concert”.
However, the desire to be on stage and play live brought Chris Rea back on a tour in 2010 (see below).
"The Delmonts" and "The Hofner Bluenotes" and autobiography
Almost two years after his stage farewell, Rea surprisingly returned in the winter of 2007. The reason was a more stable state of health and the unexpectedly great commercial success of Blue Guitars . With more than 150,000 EarBooks sold (eleven CDs and one DVD each, more than 1.8 million records), the project brought him a financial plus of several million euros. Rea had already discarded the idea of “The Fire Flies” in the summer of 2007, developed a new concept for it and came up with the following legend: In the 1960s (according to Rea) there would have been a quintet called “The Delmonts” in Great Britain that was similar how the legendary Spotnicks were successful with guitar instrumentals. This quintet would later have been renamed “The Hofner Bluenotes” and then played vocal titles. But one thing remained: both bands carried the sound of the Hofner / Höfner guitars into the world. In spring 2008 (so Rea continues in his fictional story) the now aged musicians of the “Hofner Bluenotes” will return to perform together on the European stages.
As proof, so to speak, Rea presents his newly formed live band "The Hofner Bluenotes" with long-time companions Robert Ahwai on guitar and Martin Ditcham on drums and the new musicians Neil Drinkwater (formerly with Van Morrison and Phil Collins ) on keyboard and ex- Whitesnake bassist Colin Hodgkinson on bass. As a support act in their own concert, so to speak, the five perform as “The Delmonts” for 30 minutes, with Ahwai playing almost all of the solo guitar parts and Rea being only the rhythm guitarist.
For the tour, Chris Rea also presented another lavish earbook under the title The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes , consisting of two vinyl LPs and a CD from the "Delmonts" as well as two further CDs from the "Hofner Bluenotes". When introducing the recordings, Rea pointed out that he wanted to make songs with a bluesy touch of the sixties, which also paid homage to his idol BB King . “It's the music I've always wanted to play, real guitar music,” explains Rea. While the Delmonts play “their” music in the concerts, the Hofner Bluenotes present songs from the Blue Guitar album as well as many Chris Rea classics in new versions live. Rea announced in the tour booklet that if the performance of the opening act “The Delmonts” was too short, they could perhaps expect a longer tour later.
On October 5, 2009, Rea's best-of album Still so Far to Go: The Best of Chris Rea was released . In January 2010 he went on tour again after his farewell tour in 2006 and began his European tour in Germany. In 2012 he went on another tour from the beginning of February to the beginning of March through 14 German cities (Santo Spirito Tour) .
In 2016 he suffered a stroke. In autumn 2017 he went on a tour for the album "Road Songs for Lovers". In December 2017 he suffered a breakdown while performing in Oxford and his tour of Great Britain had to be canceled.
Musical peculiarities
Rea's trademark is the slide style on his Fender Stratocaster (nickname Pinky), but also on other guitars. The introduction to Chris Rea's title Nothing to Fear is considered a milestone in modern slide guitar technology .
Private life
He is married and has two daughters with his wife Joan (Josephine, * 1983 and Julia Christina, * 1989). He wrote his own music tracks for his wife and two daughters, all of which became hits ( Stainsby Girls , Josephine and Julia ).
Discography
Studio albums
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
1978 | Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? | - | - | - | - |
US49
gold
(12 weeks)US |
First published: July 1978
Producer: Gus Dudgeon |
1979 | Deltics | - | - | - |
UK54 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: April 1979
Producer: Gus Dudgeon |
1980 | tennis | - | - | - |
UK60 (1 week) UK |
- |
First published: March 1980
Producer: Chris Rea |
1982 | Chris Rea | - | - | - |
UK52 (4 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: March 1982
Producers: Chris Rea, Jon Kelly |
1983 | Water sign |
DE30 (13 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK64 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: June 1983
Producers: Chris Rea, Dave Richards |
1984 | Wired to the moon |
DE17 (25 weeks) DE |
- | - |
UK35 (7 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: April 1984
Producers: Chris Rea, Dave Richards |
1985 | Shamrock Diaries |
DE12
gold
(46 weeks)DE |
- |
CH18 (5 weeks) CH |
UK15th
silver
(14 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: March 1985
Producers: Chris Rea, Dave Richards |
1986 | On the beach |
DE2
gold
(37 weeks)DE |
AT20 (2 weeks) AT |
CH10 (15 weeks) CH |
UK11
platinum
(48 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: April 1986
Producers: Chris Rea, Dave Richards |
1987 | Dancing with Strangers |
DE5
gold
(29 weeks)DE |
AT13 (10 weeks) AT |
CH7 (9 weeks) CH |
UK2
platinum
(46 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: September 1987
Producer: Chris Rea |
1989 | The Road to Hell |
DE3 × 3
(38 weeks)DE |
AT2
platinum
(26 weeks)AT |
CH6th
platinum
(27 weeks)CH |
UK1 × 6
(79 weeks)UK |
US107 (19 weeks) US |
First published: October 1989
Producers: Chris Rea, Jon Kelly |
1991 | Auberge |
DE1
platinum
(48 weeks)DE |
AT5
gold
(13 weeks)AT |
CH2
platinum
(22 weeks)CH |
UK1 × 2
(37 weeks)UK |
US176 (1 week) US |
First published: February 1991
Producer: Jon Kelly |
1992 | God's Great Banana Skin |
DE16
gold
(17 weeks)DE |
AT26th
gold
(2 weeks)AT |
CH16 (12 weeks) CH |
UK4th
platinum
(15 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: October 1992
Producer: Chris Rea |
1993 | Espresso Logic |
DE14th
gold
(20 weeks)DE |
AT16 (10 weeks) AT |
CH24 (11 weeks) CH |
UK8th
gold
(10 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: November 1993
Producer: Chris Rea |
1996 | La passione |
DE60 (7 weeks) DE |
AT44 (1 week) AT |
- |
UK43
silver
(6 weeks)UK |
- |
First release: November 1996
Soundtrack to Chris Rea's film of the same name. Producer: Chris Rea |
1998 | The Blue Cafe |
DE7 (23 weeks) DE |
AT20 (9 weeks) AT |
CH28 (9 weeks) CH |
UK10
silver
(8 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: January 1998
Producer: Chris Rea |
1999 | The Road to Hell Part 2 |
DE16 (4 weeks) DE |
- |
CH96 (1 week) CH |
UK54
silver
(2 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: November 1999
Producer: Kiadan KQ Quinn |
2000 | King of the Beach |
DE11 (8 weeks) DE |
AT13 (12 weeks) AT |
CH29 (6 weeks) CH |
UK26 (4 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: October 2000
Producer: Chris Rea |
2002 | Stony Road (DE, AT, CH) Dancing Down the Stoney Road (UK) |
DE11 (13 weeks) DE |
AT18 (5 weeks) AT |
CH28 (6 weeks) CH |
UK14th
gold
(9 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: September 2002
Producer: Chris Rea |
2004 | The Blue Jukebox |
DE30 (5 weeks) DE |
AT41 (4 weeks) AT |
CH49 (5 weeks) CH |
UK27 (5 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: March 2004
Producer: Kiadan KQ Quinn |
2005 |
Blue Guitars 11 CDs + DVD |
- | - | - |
UK85 (1 week) UK |
- |
First published: October 14, 2005
including Earbook picture book with paintings by Chris Rea Producers: Chris Rea, Andy Wilman |
2011 | Santo Spirito Blues |
DE10 (4 weeks) DE |
AT30 (1 week) AT |
CH31 (3 weeks) CH |
UK13 (5 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: September 5th, 2011
Producer: Chris Rea |
2017 | Road Songs for Lovers |
DE19 (5 weeks) DE |
AT22 (2 weeks) AT |
CH18 (5 weeks) CH |
UK11 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: September 29, 2017
Producer: Chris Rea |
gray hatching : no chart data available for this year
Awards
- 1994: in the category "Power Groove of the Year"
Web links
- Official website
- Chris Rea at Discogs (English)
- Nothing to fear , sound sample on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ Garth Pearce: If cancer hadn't nearly killed me, I'd be just another selfish celebrity egomaniac, says Chris Rea. Retrieved December 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Chris Rea in Imdb
- ↑ Chris Rea glides over strings again , welt.de, October 14, 2017
- ↑ Chris Rea cancels tour finale following on stage collapse , completemusicuptdate, December 12, 2017
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH DE UK1 UK2 US
- ↑ RSH Gold Award 1994
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Rea, Chris |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rea, Christopher Anton (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British singer, musician, composer and guitarist of Italian-Irish descent |
DATE OF BIRTH | March 4th 1951 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Middlesbrough , UK |