On This Day 15/12/2014 Chris Rea

On this day, 15 December 2014, singer/songwriter Chris Rea played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on his The Last Open Road Tour.

Known for his distinctive voice and his slide guitar playing, Rea has recorded twenty five studio albums, two of which topped the UK Albums Chart, The Road to Hell in 1989 and its successor, Auberge, in 1991.

He had already become "a major European star by the time he finally cracked the UK Top 10" with the single "The Road to Hell (Part 2)".

Over the course of his long career, Rea's work has at times been informed by his struggles with serious health issues.[6] His many hit songs include "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat", "Stainsby Girls", "Josephine", "On the Beach", "Let's Dance", "Driving Home for Christmas", "Working on It", "Tell Me There's a Heaven", "Auberge", and "Julia".

He also recorded a duet with Elton John, "If You Were Me".Rea was nominated three times for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist: in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

Setlist

The Last Open Road

Work Gang

Where the Blues Come From

Josephine

Easy Rider

'Til the Morning Sun Shines on My Love and Me

Julia

Stony Road

Come So Far, Yet Still So Far to Go

Somewhere Between Highway 61 & 49

Stainsby Girls

The Road to Hell (Part 1)

Encore:

On the Beach

Let's Dance

Driving Home for Christmas

On This Day 16/04/2006 Chris Rea

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On this day, 16 April 2006, rock and blues singer/ songwriter Chris Rea played Cardiff’s St David’s Hall on his Blue Guitars tour.

Known for his distinctive voice and his slide guitar playing, Rea has recorded twenty five solo albums, two of which topped the UK Albums Chart, The Road to Hell in 1989 and its successor, Auberge, in 1991. He had already become "a major European star by the time he finally cracked the UK Top 10" with the single "The Road to Hell (Part 2)".

Over the course of his long career, Rea's work has at times been informed by his struggles with serious health issues. His many hit songs include "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat", "Stainsby Girls", "Josephine", "On the Beach", "Let's Dance", "Driving Home for Christmas", "Working on It", "Tell Me There's a Heaven", "Auberge" and "Julia". He also recorded a duet with Elton John, "If You Were Me". Rea was nominated three times for the Brit Award for Best British Male Artist: in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

In 2003, Rea released Blue Street (Five Guitars) and Hofner Blue Notes, and The Blue Jukebox the following year. 2005 saw the release of Blue Guitars, a box set of 11 CDs containing 137 blues-inspired tracks with Rea's paintings as album covers, which is a once in a lifetime ambitious project about the history of blues music. Rea said, "I was never a rock star or pop star and all the illness has been my chance to do what I'd always wanted to do with music [...] the best change for my music has been concentrating on stuff which really interests me".