{"id":369079,"date":"2025-12-24T15:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/369079\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T15:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T15:24:12","slug":"unsigned-chris-rea-asked-me-to-play-his-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/369079\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Unsigned Chris Rea asked me to play his song’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naj ModakNorth East and Cumbria<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Chris Rea walked in to the radio station and asked for his song to be played<\/p>\n

A former presenter has recalled Chris Rea asking for his song to be played on radio before he signed a recording contract.<\/p>\n

Stan Laundon, 82, said the Middlesbrough musician, who died on Monday aged 74, walked into the former BBC Radio Teesside building in Linthorpe Road with a track called Love Is The Way.<\/p>\n

He said it was while Rea was working at his family’s ice cream parlour and coffee bar opposite the studio in the early 1970s, and he walked across and said: “I’ve got this reel-to-reel tape – is there any chance you would play it?”<\/p>\n

Describing Rea as a “very quiet young lad”, Mr Laundon said he played the song and “it was quite enjoyable”.<\/p>\n

Mr Laundon, who worked at BBC Radio Teesside and BBC Radio Cleveland for 21 years, said he had seen Rea a few times in his family business.<\/p>\n

“I knew his face, but I had no idea he was a singer, guitar player and a songwriter,” he told BBC Radio Tees.<\/p>\n

“It was nice to meet him, a very pleasant person.”<\/p>\n

\"StanStan Laundon<\/p>\n

Stan Laundon said he played Rea’s song on the radio before he had signed a recording contract<\/p>\n

Born in 1951 in Middlesbrough, the musician worked at his father’s ice cream and cafe business, Rea’s Cafe, as a teenager.<\/p>\n

The plan was to take over the family business but aged 21 he taught himself how to play the guitar and played in local bands, including Magdalene.<\/p>\n

He landed his first record deal with Magnet Records in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n

Middlesbrough heavily influenced his song writing, especially songs like Steel River, which reflects the town’s industrial identity.<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Chris Rea’s family were known in Middlesbrough for making and selling ice cream<\/p>\n

Rea’s cousin and fellow musician Adrian Rea told BBC Radio Tees<\/a> due to his relative’s failing health “we half expected the worse but thought he’d at least see the new year in”.<\/p>\n

Recalling his time growing up next door to Rea, he said both their dads built up the ice cream business “but we were into the music”.<\/p>\n

He recalled “doing regular gigs” with Rea in Middlesbrough and “growing together” while producing records.<\/p>\n

\"BBC\/MarkBBC\/Mark Allen<\/p>\n

Chris Rea was an “amazing musician” his sound engineer said<\/p>\n

Sound engineer and producer Stuart Epps worked with Rea on his early albums. <\/p>\n

“I just was really looking to working with him because I loved the demos,” he told BBC Radio Tees.<\/p>\n

He visited Middlesbrough and met Rea’s band, which was “full of Middlesbrough lads”.<\/p>\n

Local fans have also paid tribute to the musician, including Susan Robertson, manager of the Tees Valley Music Service, who said Rea had been “a big part of my life”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been to about six [Chris Rea] concerts over the years, I’ve had all of his albums, I’d play them on repeat,” she said.<\/p>\n

She told BBC Radio Tees she was “gutted” to find out he had died, as she had been hoping he would be well enough to tour again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Naj ModakNorth East and Cumbria Getty Images Chris Rea walked in to the radio station and asked for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-369079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}