Chris Rea’s latest death: ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ singer dies at 74

“When Chris Rea listened to the music from his new CD, his homely qualities and all-round good behavior stood out clearly, blue jukeboxRecently at Bush Hall in Shepherd’s Bush, London. Playing music that was more tied to blues traditions than anything else, his manner on stage was well suited to the old blues phrase ‘he never said a word’ as he and his group worked purposefully through the tunes.

“On that particular night Ria was not only in good voice, but playing superb slide guitar with a flexibility and individuality beyond most guitarists, no matter which side of the Atlantic they live on. Out of curiosity, I popped over to her Cookham studio premises in Berkshire for an interview…”

In An interview a few weeks before his deathri told Independent: “It’s got that hope and warmth that all the classic Christmas songs have. That and the frustration of being stuck in motorway traffic – that’s what people connect with!

“The funny thing is, right before we wrote it I was banned from driving, and we originally thought we’d give it to Van Morrison. It was a fifties jazz thing, like he used to do. Then the record label offered it as my B-side, and a DJ started playing it. And here we are today.”

Television presenter Timmy Mallett recalls buying a house from Ree in posted tribute x,

“RIP Chris Rea,” Mallett wrote. “I bought her house in 1991, the Merry Christmas message her daughters sprayed is still there Chris is driving home for Christmas and is now singing to our nearest and dearest. Grateful for her wonderful gravelly voice. God bless you Chris.”

The late musician may have released “Driving Home for Christmas” in 1986, but it took him nearly 20 years to perform it live for the first time.

After booking a gig at the Hammersmith Odeon in December 2014, five days before Christmas, Rea was booed by the road crew for performing the track.

he told Guardian: “I went, ‘If I’m going to sing this nonsense, we’ll do it right.’ So, we rented 12 snow cannons. When we started the song, you couldn’t hear it because of the crowd noise and we left the machines on. We put three feet of artificial snow in the stalls.

He claims the venue charged him £12,000 to clean up the mess.

Middlesbrough Mayor Chris Cook has paid tribute to Rea.

In a statement, Cook said: “This is truly sad news and my thoughts are with Chris’s loved ones.

Chris Rea was very proud of his Middlesbrough roots and the people of our town were equally proud to call him one of their own.

“Tonight millions of people around the world will hear his music. His songs helped put Middlesbrough on the map and he leaves behind a wonderful legacy.”

Lizzie Cundy is the latest star to pay tribute to Chris Rea. Kandi was one of several celebrities to appear in a charity music video for the singer’s festive track “Driving Home for Christmas”, filmed in 2009.

Speaking about the song during the 2020 Mortimer & Whitehouse Gone Fishing Christmas special, Rea told comedian Bob Mortimer: “I was on the dole when I wrote it.

“My manager had just dumped me. I was banned from driving, okay. My now wife, Joan, she had to go to London, pick me up in the Mini, and drive me home, and that’s when I wrote it.”

Rea was a good friend of Mortimer and in 1997 he recorded “Let’s Dance” for Middlesbrough Football Club’s FA Cup Final appearance.

Bad news was heard about Chris Ree. I’ll be including the Driving Home for Christmas video on this week’s Heritage Chart TV as a little tribute. This is a photo I took of the lovely man outside Broadcasting House in 1989.

Chris Rea with eggs in his bath. That is all.

(From Mortimer’s memoir.)