Interview: Guitarist and singer Chris ReaBy Simon Hayes on August 22, 2011 4:56 PM
http://www.wharf.co.uk/2011/08/interview-guitarist-and-singer.htmlBack in the 1980s it seemed every rock star worth his salt had some crusade or other to bring to the masses.
It might be deeply unfashionable now, but Chris Rea isn't bothered about that, which is why his latest album, Santo Spirito, includes a powerful film about bullfighting, which he wants to see banned.
He said: "I'd been into it, but never seen what really happens. My daughters took me to Seville for a birthday, we went to a bullfight, and I was horrified. When the guy puts the sword in he goes over to the grandstand and they throw flowers and all that.
"But there's this poor thing on the floor and it's not dead. These guys look like little kids who have done something terrible and don't know what to do anymore.
"I'm going to honour the bullfighters because they are brave. It's wrong to say they aren't brave. People say the bull doesn't stand a chance, but that's not to say it can't kill you. They do get very close to death.
"As one of the lines in the movie says, 'you touch the horn of that that's trying to kill you. They are also economically pinned down to it because they have no other way of making a living.
"The bullfighters are brave, they get very close to death, but they are economically pinned down. They have no other way of making a living, even though none of them seemed to enjoy it at all.
"It'll have to come from Brussels to stop it. If the EU thinks it's alright for farmers not to grow food or pay fishermen to throw fish back, the least they can do is pay bullfighters not to torture animals."
It might sound like a rich rock star's conceit, but Rea wants to get his message across, which is why the three cd and two dvd Santo Spirito package will retail for