Singer Chris Rea - famous for Driving Home For Christmas - dies aged 74

Chris Rea, known for hits including Driving Home For Christmas and The Road To Hell, has died after a short illness, according to a family spokesperson.

A statement on behalf of his wife and two children stated: "It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Chris.

"He passed away peacefully in hospital earlier today following a short illness, surrounded by his family."

The Middlesbrough-born musician was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had his pancreas removed in 2001, and in 2016 he suffered a stroke.

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Rea found fame in the late seventies and eighties with hits such as Fool (If You Think It's Over), Let's Dance and The Road To Hell.

Known for his gravelly voice and latterly for his slide guitar playing, he was nominated for a slew of top awards, including Brit Awards, at the height of his success and sold millions of records.

Rea's debut album, titled Whatever Happened To Benny Santini?, a reference to the stage name his record label wanted him to adopt, was released in 1978.

His track Fool (If You Think It's Over), from the album, went on to be nominated for a Grammy.

He did not find such success again for a few years, but by the time his eighth album On The Beach was released, he was a star in the UK and around Europe, with sporadic hits in the US.

When Road To Hell was released in 1989, he became one of the biggest solo stars in the UK. Two of his studio albums - The Road To Hell (1989) and Auberge (1991) - went to number one in the country.

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His famous song Driving Home For Christmas, first released in 1986, features in this year's M&S Food Christmas advert - which sees comedian Dawn French sing along to the single in her car.

Speaking about the song during the 2020 Mortimer And Whitehouse Gone Fishing Christmas special, he told comedian Bob Mortimer: "I was on the dole when I wrote that.

"My manager had just left me. I'd just been banned from driving, right. My now wife, Joan, she had to drive down to London, picked me up in the Mini, and take me home, and that's when I wrote it."

The singer returned to his blues roots after a string of health problems.

"I wasn't frightened of dying," he once said in an interview.

"It did look like the end, but what got me through was the thought of leaving a record that my two teenage daughters could say, 'That's what Papa did - not the pop stuff, but the blues music. That's what he was about'."

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