Went to Chris Rea's Farewell Tour last night at Birmingham Symphony Hall. He held me spellbound for 2 hours. Just loved the fact that there was no announcment, he just walked on stage and in fact apart from mentioning some of the band names and a few 'thank you's' he didn't speak at all. But it wasn't out of an arrogance, it was kinda well 'this is what I do so I am just going to get on with it'

Highlights of course were The Road To Hell and Long Gone. I am not sure I like the soft, sentimental stuff as it's in too much a contrast with the raw stuff .. and can he belt out the raw stuff. Goes without saying that his guitar playing is phenomenal, he seems to tease the strings, pulling the most amazing sounds from them. And he had a vast array of guitars and a banjo.

This has been a long tour, he's been on the road since early Feb and has 3 more gigs till it's done and then that's it. He says it's because of his health and he did look thin.

3 encores and we still wanted more. Great concert.

Made me think that he's never on a radio station's playlist unless it's the safe 'Fool If You Think It's Over'. Musn't start on my radio soapbox again but this country does not play real music on most major radio stations.

Here's a somewhat fuzzy picture from last night.