Summer Romances, “On The Beach” and RIP Chris Rea

I was saddened to hear of the death Chris Rea just before Christmas. He was just 74 but once you read about the various ailments he had suffered over the years it seems he did well to live that long. In 1995 he got peritonitis and nearly died. Pancreatic cancer came along in 2001 which led to diabetes, and then he had a stroke in 2016. Some people are very unlucky when it comes to health issues whereas others, against all the odds, seem to live a very long and charmed life (I’m looking at some octogenarian band members here).

Most of us know that Chris was a Middlesbrough lad, and his accent confirmed that, but I have just found out that his father was an Italian who had come over to Britain and set up an ice-cream factory. The unusual surname, ending in a vowel, should have given a clue but in the world of music you don’t question such things. Chris apparently started dating his wife Joan when he was just 17 so they were together a very long time – she will be bereft.

Chris Rea blended blues, pop, soul and soft rock and made 25 studio albums, featuring chart hits which included The Road to Hell, Driving Home for Christmas, and tracks such as On the Beach and Josephine that earned popularity in the Balearic dance scene.

The one I’m going to share however is On The Beach from 1986. I had a particularly nice summer that year as I went with the flatmates of the time to Zakynthos in Greece for my first ever all-girls holiday. Two of those flatmates I am going to have a Zoom call with tonight as we have a weekend away to plan. Since the kids have grown up and people have started to retire there is much more time for such adventures, and other than my biological family and the family I created with Mr WIAA, it’s the only other family I’ve ever been part of, the urban family we had for nine years in the Aberdeen of the ’70s and ’80s. Not sure if we’ll be planning a weekend in Zakynthos however.

But my beach holiday is not necessarily why I chose to feature this lovely song. I’m going to bore regular readers with a story that I know I’ve mentioned before, but worth retelling I think. One of the flatmates I went on that holiday with ended up moving south in 1987, the same year I moved north to the Highlands (yes, our little urban family had broken up). After moving around a bit over the years she ended up in a lovely house in Berkshire, which had been a gardener’s cottage, but not like any gardener’s cottage I’ve seen. She was too late but it was next door to the house Chris Rea used to own and from which he had recorded the song about the “road to hell” (driving home to Berkshire from London). His recording studio in the garden had shared a party wall with the home office my friend set up there and I often wondered when we went to visit whether On The Beach had actually been made there.

One more story before I go, Chris Rea also had himself a nice summer in 1986 as On the Beach was inspired by a trip to the Spanish island of Formentera off the coast of Ibiza. Chris is quoted as saying, ‘That’s where me and my wife, became me and my wife. That’s what it’s about. Yeah, I was ‘between the eyes of love.’ It’s a lovely island’. In the summer of 1986 I had just come out of a very long relationship which obviously wasn’t going anywhere and is why I was having my first “girls holiday”. We all had a little holiday romance which was exciting indeed but upon my return, looking all tanned and dressed in summery clothes, I met a chap in a local nightspot and instantly fell in love! He worked for a local oil company which was the norm back in the Aberdeen of the 1980s but we spent the next six weeks practically joined at the hip and one of the first things he did was buy me the On The Beach album, which I still have. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was, as we just seemed to click so perfectly.

But these chaps who worked for oil companies were slippery characters and as the weeks went by I started to question him about his past and like me he’d had a long-term relationship, but unlike me, he was still in it! I was devastated and felt such a fool. I was out of practice with the rules of dating and had only ever gone out with people whose past I was fully aware of. I had given my ex an ultimatum and accepted that the relationship had to end. My new chap had also been given an ultimatum but was weak, and had a new job lined up in our capital city so they could finally get married (against his will so he said?!). I still believe we had something special that On The Beach summer, and we did speak on the phone a few times after he moved away, but who knows, maybe I was just a massive Fool who was tricked into thinking that. I’ll never know the answer, but I do know he didn’t stay married for long, which is not surprising.

One more song before I go. The version of On The Beach I shared above was the one released as a single, however the original version from the  album was a much slower, more contemplative affair. It seems most people now prefer the original, but in case you want to compare and contrast for yourself, here is a clip.

Until next time, RIP Chris Rea, and remember to watch out for slippery characters who work for oil companies.

On The Beach Lyrics
(Song by Chris Rea)

Between the eyes of love I call your name
Behind the guarded walls I used to go
Upon a summer wind there’s a certain melody
Takes me back to the place that I know
Down on the beach

The secrets of the summer I will keep
The sands of time will blow a mystery
No-one but you and I
Underneath that moonlit sky
Take me back to the place that I know
On the beach

Forever in my dreams my heart will be
Hanging on to this sweet memory
A day of strange desire
And a night that burned like fire
Take me back to the place that I know
On the beach