Chris Rea - BBC Sessions, Volume 4: In Concert, Wembley Arena, London, Britain, 12-19-1988

Here's a fourth BBC album starring singer-songwriter Chris Rea. This is a concert from 1988. I've got a lot more of these coming soon. 

Since the last BBC concert from him I posted, in 1986, his career continued to gather momentum. He had one of the biggest hits of his entire career in 1987, with "Let's Dance." It made it to Number 12 on the British singles chart. (He was still having no success in the U.S., and so he wasn't bothering to tour there.) Then, just a month prior to this concert, he had probably his best known hit, "Driving Home for Christmas." It reached Number 10. But it became one of those Christmas songs that keeps coming back every Christmas season. It has returned to the charts in Britain every year since 2007, and has gone Triple Platinum in Britain as a result.

Given all that, it's a disappointment that neither of those songs are included here. According to setlist.fm, he actually DID play both songs in this concert, as you can see here:

Chris Rea Concert Setlist at Wembley Arena, London on December 19, 1988 | setlist.fm 

Unfortunately, the BBC chopped this concert down to an hour's length, as they often do to fit the music into hour-long radio time slots. And for some reason, they didn't include those two, as well as some of his other best known songs, like "Fool (If You Think It's Over)." If anyone has more of this concert, please let me know and I'll add it here. Rea only played "Driving Home for Christmas" sometimes in the late 1980s, then dropped it from his concerts until 2014. So you won't find it on most of the BBC albums I post after this as well.

The music here is unreleased, and the sound quality is excellent. 

This album is 54 minutes long. 

01 Nothing's Happening by the Sea (Chris Rea)
02 Stainsby Girls (Chris Rea)
03 Josephine (Chris Rea)
04 On the Beach (Chris Rea)
05 Working on It (Chris Rea)
06 Loving You Again (Chris Rea)
07 Steel River (Chris Rea)
08 It's All Gone (Chris Rea)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/7mcoJceH

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/EMn8hkrkTLuVQaW/file

The cover photo shows Rea at the San Remo Music Festival, in San Remo, Italy, on February 24, 1988.