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A trip down music's memory lane with Chris Rea
Chris Rea's lo-tech homage to the roots of British rock 'n' roll namechecks the guitar brand that made it all possible
Any music-loving teenager growing up in 1950s Britain could have told you about Hofner guitars.
American Gibson and Fender guitars were practically unobtainable, and even then stratospherically expensive. But closer to home, in the German city of Hamburg, Hofner were making a range of guitars that were just about within reach. Marketed in the UK by Selmer, their distinctive twang is the hallmark of British rock and pop of the Fifties and early Sixties.
As he recovered from a life-threatening illness, Chris Rea stumbled across a couple of old blues albums on vinyl while clearing out a drawer. He was at once taken back in time to his younger self, just starting out on a musical journey.
The memory he came face to face with was of that young musician, and the music he had wanted to make before joining the record industry rat race.
The result of that inspirational moment was a triple CD, double vinyl album and book collection called 'The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes'.
Filled with images selected by the musician himself, the book traces the birth of British rock 'n' roll from the working class back streets of the north, and is packed with black and white photos of band members barely out of short trousers, clutching their first guitars.
The first CD and/or vinyl record, attributed to fictional beat combo 'The Delmonts', is a pastiche of Shadows-style instrumentals featuring the familiar twang of the Hofner guitar.
The Delmonts, we are given to understand, are the boy forerunners to the men who became the (also-fictional) 'Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes'. These are recognisably bluesy Rea songs, minus the fancy production that characterised his chart successes in the Eighties and Nineties.
Rea even toured the UK this spring as both support and headline act, appearing first as a member of The Delmonts before returning to the stage as part of The Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes.
The Hofner-permeated sound of the Delmonts' music, coupled with their evolution towards blues, will be familiar to anyone who grew up, loved and played music at that time. As will the lovingly-created artwork and albums presented here.
If you know someone like this – perhaps an old art school student who played early Sixties pop and rock before gravitating towards blues jams - 'The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes' will make a wonderfully poignant gift.
