Chris Rea Announces New Compilation Album, ‘ERA 1 (As, Bs and Rarities 1978-1984)’

Chris Rea – ERA 1 (As, Bs And Rarities 1978-1984) marks a new compilation album of the singer’s early work between 1978 and 1984. The set will provide a comprehensive look at Chris Rea’s progression as a solo artist, which started following spells in bands Magdalene and The Beautiful Losers. After securing a solo record deal with Magnet Records, Chris released his debut solo album Whatever Happened To Benny Santini? in 1978, and his career took off.

The compilation kicks off with an edited version of his first big hit, Fool (If You Think It’s Over), from his debut album. The song went on to earn him a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 1979.

Following on from this are a whole host of rarities, including B-sides, language
variations and different mixes released throughout this period. During this time Chris Rea
released six studio albums, including Wired To The Moon – of which this compilation’s cover
artwork is adapted from. This new release also comes with a booklet which includes pictures of the various original singles artwork.

With a career spanning over 40 years and more than 30 million album sales, Chris Rea’s
distinctive husky-gravel vocal and incredible body of work has seen him become one of the
most loved solo artists the UK have ever produced. A formidable songwriter, and still playing live to this day, he has released an whopping 24 studio albums, the most recent being Road Songs For Lovers’, in 2017.

ERA 1 1978-1984 As, Bs And Rarities is released everywhere as a digital download or 3CD set, and also on streaming platforms. It marks the first time that many of these tracks will be available digitally.

In addition to this, a cutdown version of the compilation will be released as a single LP that features a collection of some of Chris’ rarest tracks, and which is available exclusively from the Dig! store.

To pre-order the exclusive LP and other formats, click here