Chris Rea Bombollini – live from Loreley 1985

This is the second time I want to feature Chris Rea here (first time: click here). The reason was that today I surfed into a video on youtube from a concert I watched about 25 years ago on television:  Chris Rea on a festival from the Loreley – that famous rock on the river Rhine-  that was live broadcasted by Germany’s WDR Rockpalast. By the way, Dire Straits also played there a festival gig some years before (summer 1979). It is a beatiful place and those summer evening concerts were always a highlight.

The song is called Bombollini, a song from his 1984 album Wired to the Moon. I never liked this album that much because it sounds somewhat like a cheap and quick production to me although some of the songs were real gems. This song was the openener of the concert, and it always reminded me of the way Dire Straits used to open their concert at that time with Ride across the River: similar pace, similar groove, similar instrumentation to some extend -the flute, the bass marimba sound – … who knows, Chris Rea is known to be a huge Mark Knopfler fan.

The song builds up more and more, ending with a guitar solo on Chris’ ’63 fiesta red Strat nick-named Pinky, played through a silver-face Fender Twin for the clean sounds and an old blonde Fender Bandmaster amp.

But now enjoy:

7 thoughts on “Chris Rea Bombollini – live from Loreley 1985

  1. Just wanted to add: This is not his famous ‘Pinky’ Strat but an almost identical looking sister. This guitar is tuned to standard tuning while Pinky is tuned to E. He played both on this concert (in fact this is the only one I have seen him playing this guitar). Note that both have that Formentera decal!

  2. Chris is amazing. Very underated as a guitarist just seen him at the Apollo in London and he blew me away. Still plays the 62′ live. Wired to the moon the song is great and has very Mark Knopfler style playing and clean sound. Seek it if you can!

  3. Can anyone tell me where Chris is from? I have been checking out some other vids on Youtube and he’s incredible!!! Would love to see him play Red Rocks, not sure if he even tours the US.

    Thanks!

  4. Chris is English, from Middlesborough. He is due to tour in 2012. Great live performer.

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