Couldn't find anything I wanted to watch on TV this evening so I watched the Christmas Gone Fishing 2020 with Mortimer and Whitehouse which I had recorded a couple of weeks ago and their guest was Chris Rea. Christ, he  talked about the health problems he had had. There could not have been much left inside him, but  he was quite amusing talking about it. A sad loss.

Saw him at the exhibition centre on the "Auberge" tour and expected a middling-to-good gig.  He was awesome.  It started with an empty stage and the sound of a family round a table coming from speakers under the banked seats.  Then you hear the dad saying "just going out now" and the sound of his footsteps in the hall and then on the gravel outside start to follow the rythmn of the title track as he starts to whistle the brassy intro.  The sound went all the ay round the hall, section by section and then the brass kicks in and a figure appears on stage in front of a giant translucent curtain and the man himself is there, singing &  playing.  You only got to see the band in silhouette and his voice literally shook the seating, expecially on "Texas". All the hits & best album tracks were played with no banter and yet his personality truly filled the space.  Finishing up on "road to hell", Stainsby Girls, Working On it" after taking it down a little for "Tell Me There's a Heaven", which was especially poignant live.  I thought he would be good and didn't expect a near spiritual experience, it was the best staged gig I have ever been to.  

Will be well behind schedule and well over budget.