Chris Rea

Chris Rea is a guy who wanted to rock without being a rock star at a time when the Dire Straits and Bruce Springsteen were at the top of the charts. He's a diesel who took a long time to get started but who finally managed to make a place for himself alongside his idols, selling more than 30 million albums on both sides of the Atlantic.

This lover of beautiful cars, Formula 1 and Ayrton Senna takes us to the edge of the blues, in a road-trip that we imagine sunny and windy and which has known few breaks in 40 years. It tells the story of our wanderings, our strolls, our destinies through journeys that are sometimes sentimental, sometimes epic and sometimes as banal as a road that crosses a monotonous landscape over kilometres. With a voice that is broken, hoarse and tailor-made for the genre he loves so much, he reminds us of an old backpacker who would tell anyone about his adventures with nostalgic accents.

 
Against a backdrop of licked melodies, endless introductions, sounds calibrated for radio waves and even his lack of charisma are nevertheless pointed out by critics. So many obstacles along the way that Chris Rea has no use for. Anyone who has looked death in the eye after pancreatic cancer no longer has time for these squabbles.

If he staked everything on his hit-maker talents at the beginning of his career, what he wants to do from now on is to continue doing the blues, with frankness and simplicity, as he always did. And if his career and his concerts have become more intimate, he prefers to rejoice and hit the road as always, his banjo slung across his shoulder.