Chris Rea

The gravelly voiced Chris Rea first came to public attention in the late 1970s when his debut album Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? scored a hit with "Fool (If You Think It’s Over)". The song peaked at No.12 in the Billboard Hot 100, and it remains his highest charting single to date in America. Most of his success thereafter was won in Europe.

Although he released several albums during the early 80s, it wasn’t until Shamrock Diaries that the record-buying public began to pay attention. Four subsequent albums also fared well, though only in Europe, and soon he had a string of popular albums to his name. By the time Espresso Logic was released, he had enjoyed eleven Top 40 singles, but his appeal was beginning to fade and The Blue Café resulted in no single releases and little in the way of promotion.

The new millennium brought a hard battle with pancreatitis which encouraged him to review the path his music career had taken. He made a personal choice to return to the blues, his first love, and true to his word he released Dancing Down the Stony Road in 2002. All releases since then have been bluesy culminating in the 11CD box set, Blue Guitars.

Rea has announced that he does not intend to release any further solo albums and all future releases will be collaborative efforts as, amongst others, The Memphis Fireflies.