Chris Rea

Christopher Anton Rea was born on 4 March 1951 in Middlesbrough, North Riding of Yorkshire, England. His father, Camillo Rea, was born in Guisborough in 1922 to a father from Arpino in Lazio, Italy. His mother, Winifred K. Slee, was Irish. He was one of seven children in a Roman Catholic family whose ice cream factory and cafe chain made the Rea name well known on Teesside. At twelve he was clearing tables and making ice cream for the family business, and he later recalled that his ideas for improving it got no support from his father.

Rea attended St Mary's College, Middlesbrough. Journalism was his first passion and he hoped to write about motor racing. Music came late: he bought a second-hand 1961 Hofner V3 guitar and a 25-watt Laney amplifier in his early twenties and taught himself bottleneck slide guitar, inspired by Charlie Patton, Blind Willie Johnson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ry Cooder and Joe Walsh, as well as Delta blues, gospel blues, opera and light orchestral music.

Rea joined the Middlesbrough band Magdalene in 1973 and became its singer when the vocalist failed to show up. His band The Beautiful Losers won Melody Maker's Best Newcomers award that year. Signed to Magnet Records, he released his first single, "So Much Love", in 1974 and his debut album, Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?, produced by Gus Dudgeon, in 1978. "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, earning a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.

After Deltics (1979), Tennis (1980) and Chris Rea (1981) struggled in Britain, Water Sign (1983) sold over half a million copies in Ireland and Europe. Wired to the Moon (1984) was his first UK Top 40 album, and Shamrock Diaries (1985) brought "Stainsby Girls" and "Josephine". On the Beach (1986) and Dancing with Strangers (1987), which reached No. 2 in the UK behind Michael Jackson's Bad, made him a stadium act in Europe. In 1986 he supported Queen at Slane Castle.

The Road to Hell (1989) was his first UK No. 1 album and was later certified 6x Platinum. Auberge (1991) also topped the chart, followed by God's Great Banana Skin (1992) and Espresso Logic (1993). He sang on Band Aid II in 1989 and recorded a duet with Elton John, "If You Were Me". After illness he founded Jazzee Blue and turned to the blues with Dancing Down the Stony Road (2002), Blue Street, Hofner Blue Notes (2003), The Blue Jukebox (2004), Blue Guitars (2005), The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes (2008) and Santo Spirito Blues (2011). His twenty-fourth album, Road Songs for Lovers, came out in 2017. He recorded twenty-five studio albums in all.

Rea met Joan Lesley in Middlesbrough on 6 April 1968, when both were teenagers, and they stayed together for the rest of his life. They had two daughters, Josephine and Julia, and he wrote songs named after each of them. "Stainsby Girls" was written for his wife. The family lived in Cookham, Berkshire, where he owned Sol Mill Recording Studios. He painted, read widely, and raced historic cars including a Ferrari Dino, a Ferrari 328, a 1955 Lotus 6 and a 1964 Lotus Elan 26R. He sold the Caterham 7 from the Auberge album cover in 2005 and gave the proceeds, 11,762 pounds, to the NSPCC.

Rea rejected the label of rock star throughout his career and said none of his heroes were rock stars. He came to regret the commercial compromises of his early records and, after nearly dying, resolved to make the blues records he had always wanted to make. Politically, during the 2017 general election he voiced support for Jeremy Corbyn and wrote a song called "What's So Wrong with a Man Who Tells the Truth?". He was sceptical of European unification, arguing that a common market forced different people to live together when they did not want to.

Rea sold more than 30 million records. "Driving Home for Christmas" became a perennial British Christmas favourite, reaching the UK Top 10 in 2021 and again shortly after his death. The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick wrote that any musician would feel proud to have penned songs half as gorgeous and touching as his, and The Guardian's Adam Sweeting said he proved it was possible to become a big-selling international artist while remaining low-key and publicity-shy. Critics in Germany, France, Italy and Croatia described him as an antistar, a silent master and a great blues guitarist long misunderstood as a soft rocker. Blues Rock Review called Blue Guitars arguably the most ambitious blues-related project of the 21st century.

Rea was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 21st Annual Grammy Awards, and for the Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist in 1988, 1989 and 1990. The Beautiful Losers won Melody Maker's Best Newcomers award in 1973. The Road to Hell was certified 6x Platinum by the BPI, and Dancing Down the Stony Road and Still So Far to Go were certified Gold. "Working on It" topped the US Mainstream Rock chart.

Rea wrote the title song and score for Soft Top Hard Shoulder (1993), wrote and produced La Passione (1996), inspired by his childhood love of Ferrari and driver Wolfgang von Trips, and starred in the 1999 comedy Parting Shots with John Cleese, Felicity Kendal, Bob Hoskins and Joanna Lumley. He made two feature-length films for the Santo Spirito Blues project. He appeared on Late Night with David Letterman and, in December 2020, on the Christmas edition of Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, discussing his health. His song "Saudade" paid tribute to Ayrton Senna.

In 1994 Rea developed stomach ulcers and in 1995 he nearly died of peritonitis. In 2001 he had pancreatic cancer and underwent a Whipple procedure, removing the head of the pancreas and parts of the duodenum, bile duct and gall bladder. Afterwards he lived with diabetes and a weakened immune system, taking many pills and injections a day. He had two further operations in 2011, a stroke in 2016 that affected his speech and hands, and a collapse on stage in Oxford in December 2017.

Chris Rea died in hospital on 22 December 2025, aged 74, following a short illness, a spokesperson for his family said. He was the third of his siblings to die within a few months. Tributes came from Middlesbrough FC, which called him a Teesside icon, Middlesbrough mayor Chris Cooke, broadcasters and fellow Teessider Bob Mortimer. His funeral arrangements and resting place were not made public.