A new Tour "last open Road

[hi it'sme]

Hi again,
be sure I don't want to start a contest. I only saw Richard Eglen's photos on the Facebook link and noticed the 'Julia' snowflakes appear on pic 6 as well. Here you can clearly identify the brown Fender.
In any way I'm grateful for your corrections of my December 2nd post - after some days of absence I edited it today.
Have a nice Christmas time.

[andrew fischer]

Hi, it is really amazing how Chris seemed to have used different guitars for different songs on each gig. As I also have taken shots for every song in Hannover I can follow his use there. For those who are interested, here is the Hannover list:

Last Open Road: a Hofner( ? - that's at least what the logo on the headstock says) with red-brown body and yellow side and black pickguard and headstock as for the first song in 2012
Long Gone: Italia Blue Maranello
Where the Blues Come From: gold-brownish speckled Fender Strat
Josephine: Italia Blue
Easy Rider: Italia Blue
Morning Sun: maplewood Fender Thinline
Julia: gold-brownish speckled Fender Strat
Looking For The summer: as above
Stony Road: Italia Blue
Come So Far, Yet... Italia Blue
Highway 61 & 49: Italia Blue
Stainsby Girls: Pinky
Road to Hell: Pinky
On the Beach: Pinky
Let's Dance: Bluey
So it comes to 6 different guitars for that gig.
______________________________________

Correction, written December 16th:

Thanks to Andrey and with help of my Bleekerstreet USB-stick I checked my photos again and found that
Where the Blues Come From was indeed played on Italia Blue and
Josephine on the Brown Fender Strat.
The Last Open Road was played on Maranello Classic (anyone any idea about the golden logo on the headstock?)
Sorry about my mistakes - the rest of the list is correct.
Thank you very much, Andrey, for your friendly assistance!

Always welcome! Your correction of my post regarding the Strat used in the picture with snowflakes was also very useful. And I really do appreciate your attention to this subject and my posts here.

best regards
Andrey

[ann268]

Morning,

After watching some starts of the UK shows (small parts on You Tube), it seems that there were shown movie parts of la Passione, and not in the end like in Europe?
And the finishing touch from the Newcastle show "Driving home for Christmas" and some cities with a snowcannon.
Is my assumption right or did he do the same in the UK after all she snow, the La Passione part?

The girls of Island Sky were wonderful they have their own facebook site by now and say they will come with a musical thing soon, for those who are not on Facebook. Link:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Island-S ... 10?fref=ts

Have a wonderful Christmas!
Anneke

[Chris]

Yeah, Merry Christmas everyone and let us hope for a great, new CD by Chris, in the early 2015!
Chris

[andrew fischer]

Hi everyone,

as the tour now is done, and the Christmas Day has gone by, I would like to do some summarizing posts dedicated to this tour. I think it is also important to consider that (almost) every concert was recorded and 'officially' released for sale, so that we have a kind of live album (in 33 versions, haha!).

First, I would like to focus on the setlist and the guitars that were used. With a considerable help of Ann268 and hi it'sme I could manage to make a summary on this sudject, here it is:

1. Last Open Road: 2001 ESP Italia Maranello Classic, ‘Firey Red’, open A tuning (???)

2. Work Gang (Long Gone);
3. Where the Blues Come From: 2000 ESP Italia Maranello Classic "Blue Sparkle", open E tuning

4. Josephine: ???? Fender Stratocaster, gold-brownish American Standard, straight E tuning

5. Easy Rider: 2000 ESP Italia Maranello Classic "Blue Sparkle", open E tuning

6a. The Truth;
6b. ‘Til the Morning Sun Shines on My Love and Me (main tune): 1972 Fender Telecaster Thinline Maplewood

6c. ‘Til the Morning Sun Shines on My Love and Me (final solo);
7. Julia;
8*. Looking for the Summer: ???? Fender Stratocaster, gold-brownish American Standard, straight E tuning

9. Stony Road;
10. Come So Far, Yet Still So Far to Go;
11. Somewhere Between Highway 61 & 49: 2000 ESP Italia Maranello Classic "Blue Sparkle", open E tuning

12. Stainsby Girls;
13. The Road to Hell;
14. On the Beach: 1962 Fender Stratocaster, ‘Pinky’, open E tuning

15. Let's Dance: 1964 Fender Stratocaster, ‘Bluey’, standard D tuning

16**. Driving Home for Christmas: ???? Fender Stratocaster, gold-brownish American Standard, straight E tuning.

All photos are taken in Amsterdam in 2012 & 2014 and appear courtesy of Anneke Holman (Ann268)

Some notes:
* - Looking for the Summer was dropped from the list through the British/Irish leg of the tour, starting from Manchester gig.
** - Driving Home was as extra encore starting from the gig at Newcastle City Hall.

- The exact building year of the battered brown strat is unknown as it is too little information in general on this guitar. It is only evident that Chris uses it as substitution for the old and tired Bluey strat and tunes it in standard E, just like Bluey.
- As I am not a guitar player, it is not simple for me to guess which exact tuning is used. Maybe somebody could help me with that, considering the CAPO position, or something else. E.g., I see that tuning of the red Italia (Last Open Road) is different to the tuning of the blue one, and I know Chris used open A tuning for Italia guitars (e.g., for The Hustler).


I really do wish somebody would bring more on this subject and make some details more subtle. Thanks.

best regards
Andrey

[ann268]

Hi Andrey,

As far as I heard and saw on You Tube and Facebook Drving Home For Christmas was done without guitar.
Maybe not at every gig since Newcastle, but I saw many pics of Chris without guitar A real strange thing to watch.

Anneke

[andrew fischer]

As far as I heard and saw on You Tube and Facebook Drving Home For Christmas was done without guitar. Maybe not at every gig since Newcastle, but I saw many pics of Chris without guitar A real strange thing to watch.

Hi Anneke,

yes, you are right, I forgot to mention that Chris played guitar himself only in Newcastle (and maybe some other venues afterwards, but I really doubt it), then Aтещ Drennan took over the lead guitar part which he coped with perfectly.

I read a review on Cardiff gig, where the author stated that the awkward look Chris had while singing without playing guitar proved that Chris is the guitar hero first and foremost and only then the voice that everyone is charmed with.

BTW, there were some really good prictures from Hammersmith Oden which help to get the idea how this big stage snowfall during Driving Home performance looked like:












best regards
Andrey

[ann268]

Hi Andrey,

In this clip you see the start of the show in Cardiff, it looks like the outro in Europe became the intro in UK.
Maybe you heard any of this from other fans?
I can't get it clear, if the UK got the La Passione part before the show, in Europe it was after the encore.
But it seems they changed the shows for the UK, at least untill playing Driving home for Christmas.
See link:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=15 ... =2&theater

Anneke

[andrew fischer]

Hi Andrey,

In this clip you see the start of the show in Cardiff, it looks like the outro in Europe became the intro in UK.
Maybe you heard any of this from other fans? I can't get it clear, if the UK got the La Passione part before the show, in Europe it was after the encore. But it seems they changed the shows for the UK, at least untill playing Driving home for Christmas. See link: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=15 ... =2&theater

Hi again Anneke,

with this link I can see the show starts with The Road to Hell part 1 official promo clip projected onto the screen, during this video the band appears to play The Last Open Road. Was it different in Amsterdam?

There is no any hint of La Passione in it, while everybody mentioned Girl in a Sports Car and When the Grey Skies Turn to Blue clips played in the end of European gigs. These clips seem to be logically dropped from the show when Chris added Drining Home as an extra encore.

BTW, today I have noticed that the offifical Chris Rea website turned to blank page which seems to mean it is going to be updated quite soon.



Seems logical, now that the tour is over and it is high time to announce the new album which was promised to be released in February.

best regards
Andrey

[ann268]

I can't remember where the show started with than the order of songs...to be honest.
My pictures don't show these preshow thing.
But it seems that the Passione part was skipped, or played before the show, just curious.
He still did 15 songs at every gig, only a few less in the UK?
I try to figure this out.
Looking for the summer was dropped at a point and not filled up with another song until Newcastle.
The outro could have been the same...
Not the same setlist Andrey, but you know that.
And I hope the New Year starts with the long awaited news...
Anneke

[andrew fischer]

Some more good news.

A fan site with British domain has been recently resurrected, a kind of substitution to the long gone rea-lise.co.uk.The new site has a very nice address: http://chris-rea.co.uk/

The fans' mailing list is based on this website's domain: http://chris-rea.co.uk/rea-list-mailing-list/

The veteran die-hard fan named Miro Wikgren from Finland is still taking care of the mailing list (he has been doing this for almost 20 years so far) as well as this new website, which I find very nice.

best regards
Andrey

[ann268]

Thanks for these info Andrey, see if it gives us some more interaction between fans )
Best wishes,
Anneke

[ann268]

And I found an answer to my own question, see this you tube clip of Michael:
http://youtu.be/zIvHGT2lzwE?list=UUsFf6 ... qbdphR9R8w

The outro of La Passione was played after "Driving home for Christmas" in the Hammersmith Apollo.
You hear Chris saying where his sister sits, he points and he signals for the snow cannon to start.
Very clear in this video.

Anneke

[elangelo]

Wow, thanks Anneke!

[ann268]

You're welcome elangelo!
Anneke