Chris Gethins

Chris Norman first found fame fronting huge 70's band Smokie. In 1986, Chris left the band and went on to carve a hugely successful solo career. In his career to date he has had 21 hit singles and released around 22 albums, selling over 20 million records worldwide. After the success of the last album "Rerecorded Love Songs" which contained well-known pop classics, Chris is now current with an album that contains completely newly written songs written by Chris or in collaboration with others. Three songs are written with his old friend and band member Pete Spencer, two with Geoff Carline his current band member, one with Mike Chapman and the rest on his own. The tracks are hallmarks of a true singer-songwriter with timeless melodies and memorable harmonies that soar. Recorded and produced in Chris's own studio. Chris says, “the title reflects the fact that I am at a new junction in my career and it has been 55 years since I turned pro.”

Active as a solo recording artist between the years of 1975-1981, Chris Rainbow wrote and recorded three very highly regarded albums, Home Of the Brave (1975), Looking Over My Shoulder (1978) and this release, his third full length recording, White Trails (1979), as well as a collection of singles throughout his valued career. Chris Rainbow also worked extensively adding vocal contributions to artists’ work of the calibre of The Alan Parsons Project, Culture Club, Elaine Paige and Toyah Wilcox, as well as producing albums for the likes of Scottish Gaelic rock group Runrig.
Features the sought after bonus tracks ‘Body Music’ (7” Version), ‘Girl In Collision’ (12” Version) and ‘Body Music’ (12” Version). All material has been fully remastered especially for this release.

Success continued to elude Chris Rea on his third album, Tennis, on which he began to experiment with slightly longer songs and more free-form jamming, the songs "Every Time I See You Smile," "Stick It," and the title track all being over five minutes long. For Tennis, he enlisted the assistance of Raphael Ravenscroft on saxophone fresh from his crowning moment on the Gerry Rafferty "Baker Street" single and Pete Wingfield on keyboards, among many other musicians to contribute to this album, but Chris Rea himself stamped his personal mark on the album, writing all the songs, providing vocals, guitar, and keyboards, and he even dispensed with the need for an outside producer.

Covering all of his crucial eighties material, Spark to a Flame: The Very Best of Chris de Burgh offers up most of this songwriter's best work, while also including a few of his better pieces from early in his career…

Chris Rea's voice is like the smoke off a prairie fire or the sparks and flame from a flint and steel. Coupled with his robust, tasteful songwriting, the effect is to pull the listener into a song or album, grabbing at the brain – not just the ears. Auberge is the follow-up to Road to Hell, an ambitious, dark-toned album that found European and critical success. Auberge may not be as dark as its predecessor, but Rea seemingly can't sing a word without sharpening its flinty edges, making it a bit threatening. That said, his latest effort tempers that wariness with a mixture of cavalier spontaneity and sighing recall. It's the thoughts and feelings of a man on a meandering road trip, thinking over the things he's said and done.