The man The voice The guitar
I think the old albums before 1986 just lack the recording technology facilities, and had Dave Richard given those facilities and/or produced Chris's Warner-era albums instead of Jon Kelly, he could have done maybe not poorer than him. But I have to admit his approach is different to Kelly's, if we compare Chris Rea 1981/82 album produced by Jon to 4 latter albums done by Dave. I think Jon is more proficient in making lush hip records, compared to Dave who seems to focus more on melodics flow and the instruments' sound genuinity, that is why when Chris and his management decided to move on for the worldwide aknowledgement, they parted with Richards and invited Jon to produce latter albums. And I do agree that Auberge is the best produced CR album ever.tobi777 wrote:The old albums until 1986 still lack something - a certain kind of roundness and the tracks don't seem to be connected in a way they are on later records.
I have been working hard on this kind of music to come back, in the form of revised, remixed and remastered reissues with additional non-album and unreleased material in decent quality (similar to Phil Collins recent reissues) I have very certian projets ready to be launched and I even tried to talk it over with Jim Beach, Chris's long-time ex-manager (Dave Richards times included) and he said he has to discuss it with Chris himself but seems not to have time/possibility/interest to do that, thought it is evident now that such release would have been more (commercially) attractive than the proposed new album with supposedly old-times-like material.Munich-1983 wrote:And I admit, the "Kelly-albums" are well done and more Rocking and more successful. but the technical side is one thing, the emotional side for me even more important. what I will ever remember are the "heart-crying" ballads like midnight blue or steel river, which were perhaps impossible without Dave Richards help. And " on the beach" is undoubtely the all-time brand essence of the music of Chris Rea. Now it seems, that this kind of sensual music will not come back.
Dear Andrew,I have very certian projets ready to be launched and I even tried to talk it over with Jim Beach, Chris's long-time ex-manager (Dave Richards times included) and he said he has to discuss it with Chris himself
Hello, I wish I had a good contact with the people who actually make decisions about Chris's records, but I still have none and I even do not know exactly what contacts might that be (John Knowles or someone from BMG) and no one could help me so far to find out. My contacts are from Chris's past (Jim Beach, Stuart Epps) and they definitely have no business with Chris at the moment and not going to, so they cannot help me. Chris and his management keep all their windows shut tight.Munich-1983 wrote:Dear Andrew, if I understand you right, than you are in contact with important people of Chris´music-business. And you hve a kind of a concept, how a revival of the old music (in new style) could have been realized soon. So please DO IT! It is still more than 3 month till the tour starts. Maybe this album can be the big surprice and some of this tracks can be played live. Or this kind of revival-album follows as a REAl christmas surprice for the fans. Would be more than good!! REAgards
Hi Anneke, not this is the "funniest" thing but the fact that in the 1990s, when there was (almost) no communication on the web, there was much, much better connection between the fan club and Chris's team and label, judging by the old newletters with so many advance details and amazing news!ann268 wrote:Hi all,
Funniest thing is if you send messages through Facebook, they say they answer as soon as possible.
(Chat/Messenger), so I thought, that is great let's try...never answered me back. And that is just the promotion team, whoever that may be. And in the past I tried to contact them through ChrisReaCom. Unresponsive too. I hope someone else has more luck! See his official FB site, it's rather sad...
https://www.facebook.com/ChrisReaOfficial/
Again, partly joking, but had I been assigned to do such job and told by the management to do it this exact way, I would have quit, no matter the salary and the fact of taking part in Chris's life itself ))tobi777 wrote:Hi all, remember when the fans were encouraged to ask Chris a question via Facebook and a selection of these were supposed to be answered by Chris in a video? This was some time ago - nothing ever happened. The team (whoever this is) is much more active on FB than it has been in former days - but posting old videos and not responding to any questions or suggestions is easy. Anyone could handle this kind of social media department I find it hard to grasp that in these times - when communicating via FB, Twitter, mail etc. is so easy and cheap - it is harder to get any pieces of information about Chris than it used to be in the 90's
This all makes me feel like it is all the same as with Santo Spirito release - technically it is handled by a major label (Warner/Rhino and BMG) but in fact it is still Chris on his own, just with some minor compromises with the label that helps promote the album.tobi777 wrote:And on the official BMG page Chris is not even listed! The record company isn't helpful at all, either: in Germany the new album will be released by a division of Warner - but the official page is from 2009... These days I don't even know who's responsible!
You can pre-order it already on Amazon etc. so you can buy it on Ebay and the dealer will send it after the release, I guess. I have seen this many times.ann268 wrote:I saw the album for sale, already? How is that even possible:
http://www.ebay.nl/itm/NEU-CD-Chris-Rea ... ken=HJ1H2Z