Christopher Anton Rea is a British rock and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known in the U.S. for the 1978 single “Fool”, which reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. His most successful studio albums, The Road to Hell and Auberge, topped the UK Albums Chart.
About Chris Rea in brief
Christopher Anton Rea is a British rock and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. Born and raised in Middlesbrough, he is of Italian and Irish descent. He is known for his distinctive, husky-gravel voice and slide guitar playing. Rea was nominated three times for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist: in 1988, 1989 and 1990. As of 2009, Rea had sold more than 30 million records worldwide. He was self-taught and tried to join a friend’s band, The Elastic Band, as the choice for guitar or bass. He did not join as his father’s advice would not be enough to cover the costs of being in the group. In 1973 he joined the local band, Deep Purple, which had earlier included David Coverdale who had left to join Deep Purple. He has produced twenty-five solo albums, but some of them from his later blues period like Blue Guitars have multiple discs. His most successful studio albums, The Road to Hell and Auberge, topped the UK Albums Chart. His other hit songs include \”I Can Hear Your Heartbeat\”, \”Stainsby Girls\”, Josephine, and “If You Were Me” Rea’s playing style was inspired by Charlie Patton, Blind Willie Johnson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe as well as by the playing of Ry Cooder and Joe Walsh. 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.
He once said that when compared to Mark Knopfler and Eric Clon, “I definitely missed the boat, I think” Rea is best known in the U.S. for the 1978 single “Fool”, which reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. He also recorded a duet with Elton John, “If you were me”, which was released as a single in 1986. Re a has released two solo albums: “The Road To Hell” and “Auberge”, both of which were released in the 1980s. He currently lives in London with his wife and two children. He and his family have a son and a daughter, both of whom live in the north of England and have two step-daughters and one step-son. He lives with his family in London and has a daughter and a son-in-law in the south of England, and a step-daughter in the North of England. He used to work in his father’s ice cream business, including working in the coffee bar and making ice cream in the factory. He bought his first guitar when he was 21 – 22, a 1961 Hofner V3 and 25-watt Laney amplifier, after he left school. He had initially thought Patton’s playing sounded like a violin, but later realised it was a slide guitar.
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