Chris Rea has died

Chris Rea he died at the age of 74. This was stated by a spokesperson for his family, according to whom the singer-songwriter passed away “peacefully in hospital… after a short illness”.

Rhea suffered from various health problems throughout his life. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and, in 2001, had the organ removed, along with parts of his stomach and small intestine. The surgery gave him diabetes. He had a stroke in 2016, which he described as a “very scary time… I convinced myself that my perception of pitch had been lost with the stroke. And it took a lot of convincing, because people said there was nothing wrong with what I was playing.” In 2017 he collapsed on stage during a concert in Oxford and was taken to hospital to recover.

Rea leaves behind his wife Joan and his daughters Josephine and Julia, to whom Rea dedicated some of his hit songs.

In his long career, Rea has blended blues, pop, soul and soft rock in 25 studio albums, including hits such as “The Road to Hell”, from the UK No. 1 album of the same name; “Driving Home for Christmas,” a timeless holiday hit; and songs like “On the Beach” and “Josephine”, which gained popularity in the Balearic dance scene.

Born in 1951 in Middlesbrough to an Italian father and an Irish mother, he had six brothers. “Being a Italian-Irish in a bar in Middlesbrough… I started my life as an outsider,” Rea once declared. As a young man he tried his hand at music while working as a worker: He also worked in his father’s ice cream factory, and for a while he thought about becoming a journalist. At 22 he joined a band, Magdalene, which had previously featured David Coverdale (later in Deep Purple). He then joined the Beautiful Losers, but retired as a solo artist when offered a recording contract, releasing his debut single, “So Much Love”, in 1974.

His first success came in the United States, where his 1978 song, “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)”, reached No. 12 on the charts and earned him a nomination for the Grammys as best emerging artist. The late 1980s were his most commercially successful period: finally welcomed into the UK, despite often remaining outside of mainstream pop trends, 1987’s ‘Dancing With Strangers’ began a run of six UK top 10 albums, two of which reached number one.