Belfast 1990, a 15 year old Casey stands watching Chris perform at the King’s Hall as part of ‘The Road To Hell’ Tour. It changes everything…
Belfast 1993, Paul meets Chris backstage. Chris recalls that first meeting vividly. “He was very inquisitive, he wanted to know absolutely everything about my pedal board… he even wrote it all down”
London 1998, again Paul finds himself backstage and gets a demo to Chris via his drummer Martin Ditcham. A few days later he gets a call from Chris asking for a meeting. Chris recognises a young version of himself and writes and produces an album for Paul.
From that moment on Paul accompanied Chris on international promo tours, opened for all of Chris Rea’s concerts for years, and became a core member of his live band as rhythm guitarist. At the same time, he became Chris’s trusted confidant in the studio and lead engineer on major projects such as The Santo Spirito Blues.
Up until a few weeks before his passing, Paul and Chris were still making plans, with the idea of creating new material together. The unexpected farewell hit Paul hard: his hero, mentor, and friend was gone. But the music lives on.
