I have long been a fan of Chris Rea, beginning some time before his bestselling On the Beach album from 1986. Quite why he has never received the plaudits of other singer-songwriters has always puzzled me and I would highly recommend anyone unfamiliar with his work to have a listen, or, if nothing else to read his lyrics.

Rea hit the big time in the 1980s and most especially with his stellar hits The Road to Hell and Driving Home for Christmas but following a horrendous period of ill health he turned his back on more commercially viable songs and returned to his grassroots love of blues and rock and roll.

The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Brothers from 2008 was the second part of a self-published project by Rea on his own label Jazzee Blue. It is a remarkable package containing three CD’s packaged as old vinyl singles and two 10” vinyls within an eighty page hardback book. The cover is designed to look well worn and a tribute to the old album box set.

The project revolves around an imaginary three-piece instrumental band called The Delfonts who subsequently become known as The Hofner Bluenotes, a British blues band from the early sixties. The name clearly derives from Rea’s love of the Hofner guitar which runs through the music and the artwork. In fact his first guitar was a 1961 Hofner V3 solid. The book contains information on the guitar and its influence on British music as they were within reach of most people’s pockets.

The music was recorded by Rea on vocals and lead guitar, Martin Ditcham on drums and Colin Hodgkinson on bass with contributions on keyboards from Neil Drinkwater and Robert Ahawi on guitar.

Is it my favourite Chris Rea album? No, far from it but it’s an important addition to my collection. It’s a labour of love by Rea and it’s easy to see why he wanted to record his affection for both the Hofner guitar and the music from the late fifties and early sixties. It’s easy to forget just how important music was to young people pre internet and dvd. For many, it was all they had, myself included to a degree and above all else it was an escape and this is an album of escape for Chris Rea, a boy growing up in Middlesbrough in the 1950s.