“I played a gig at the Montreax Jazz Festival once - and on a song call...” — Chris Rea Quote

“I played a gig at the Montreax Jazz Festival once - and on a song called 'It's All Gone,' I had to do free-form slide solo. It's the best thing I've ever done - because I wasn't thinking about it.”

“I'm never happy with anything I've done! If you sat me down and played everything I've ever recorded, I'd just sit there going, 'No... that could be better.'”

“I remember my first day at grammar school, being the only person who was me. Everybody else was like everybody else, and there I was, tanned, in a freezing cold playground in the middle of Middlesbrough, wondering what on earth I was doing there.”

“The Royal Festival Hall in London is nice; people hang out there. I think this inviting, non-exclusive character is very important.”

“In Sweden we have a jazz festival, and I would try to see all these people like Angie Stone there when I was younger.”

“There's so many things that can go wrong, and if I'm merely playing and not hosting a festival, none of those things reflect on me.”