Rea on road to health
SERIOUS ill health, like nothing else, is a great leveller.And that's certainly the case for Chris Rea, who slammed the brakes on a frustrating career as a major label recording artist to go it alone and get back to his roots.
For Rea, facing a 50-50 chance of survival after being diagnosed with pancreatitis snapped him out of a top 10 mentality and forced him to make a solemn promise that, if he recovered, he would go back to playing the blues rock that turned him on to music in the first place.
A surgical operation, commonly known as the Whipple Procedure, left him without a pancreas, a gall-bladder and a digestive tube between his stomach and small intestine. But, in exchange, he left the hospital with a renewed enthusiasm for making music - and doing it on his own terms.
Six years on, he's released as many records that encapsulate both Rea's passion for the blues and his inimitable flair for the genre. But the scare also woke him up to the pros and cons of the digital revolution on the music industry; on one hand, DIY was finally an option, but on the other, people were becoming increasingly estranged from the joy of collecting music.
His latest record, last December's The Return Of The Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes, aimed to redress the balance.
A spectacular ensemble of vinyl and CDs all contained in an 80-page book, it documents the progression of two fictional bands - The Delmonts and the Hofner Bluenotes - from obscurity to blues heroes.
The record is set to dominate his latest live shows: part A, The Delmonts; part B, the Hofner Bluenotes; and part C? "Then you get Chris Rea," he told the M.E.N. last week.
"We still do On the Beach and Josephine but we do them in a new way. It's going down a storm because we open up with the Delmonts and we've got 70 flying guitars.
"We've filled the lighting trusses with Hofner guitars and got an old Fifties backdrop."
Sounds like the vision is complete.
Chris Rea plays the Apollo on Wednesday, March 26. The Return Of The Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes is out now. £27. Call the Box Office on 0870 060 1768 or click here .
Published: Thu, 20 March, 2008
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