Chris Rea(I)

He was born in Middlesborough to Irish and Italian parents in 1951. His first ambition was to be a journalist which ended when a college teacher tore up one of his essays after which he went to work in his father's ice cream factory. Away from music Chris' passion was for motor racing and Ferrari cars and he holds a full racing licence, doing 18 laps in a Jordan Formula One car and raced a BMW touring car shoot out in the TOCA shoot out at Donington Park side by side with Nigel Mansell. .Having given up motor racing he almost lost his life when a medical ailment imobilised him for 18 months, However confined to bed he used his time to dictate the script for La Passione. He had no need to work though as his father owned an ice cream business which Chris is the only inheritor, His ambition was to travel to his Italian homeland and to own a Ferrari.