A long-lost radio interview featuring Middlesbrough-born music legend Chris Rea was unearthed recently in Hartlepool and aired again by Paul ‘Goffy’ Gough in a BBC Radio Tees special and received worldwide acclaim from fans.
The two-hour interview was originally broadcast on Century Radio’s ‘Goffy in the Morning’ back in September 2000 and it was a rare opportunity to hear Chris reflect on his early life in Middlesbrough, the venues he remembered playing at, his love of former home of Middlesbrough FC Ayresome Park, his reasons for rarely playing at Middlesbrough Town Hall, his family, personal health problems, and more.
Goffy, who is this year celebrating 30 years in the media, issued an appeal for lost radio audio of his previous celebrity interviews to replay in 2023 on his radio shows for BBC Radio Tees.
He currently presents his Goffy at the Weekend show 2pm-4pm on Sundays but announced recently that he will be quitting the station later this summer.
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John Cooke from Hartlepool contacted the show to say that he had kept the audio from the original Century Radio broadcast as he had been a lifelong Chris Rea fan and loved how comfortable Chris had sounded that day.
John said: “Chris was at his very best that morning and he just sounded really happy to be having a laugh on the radio, despite even at that time highlighting his ongoing health issues.
“The show included many callers to the programme and lots of iconic venues were discussed so it was a memorable listen.
“I have replayed in many times since and shared it around.”
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Goffy then got to work with Hartlepool based friend Stu White, a radio DJ who also presents his own shows on TX1 based in Doncaster and Rotherham Radio which serves South Yorkshire.
Goffy commented: “Stu is a great radio presenter and a very experienced producer so we got together and spent hours getting the audio ready for broadcast in 2023. He worked tirelessly in cleaning up the audio which had been recorded from an FM radio by John.”
Goffy continued: “I remember the day so well as Chris had agreed to stay with us on air for the duration and he was live in the studio.
“He had travelled the day before to be back in the area to be with us on Century Radio – it was clear to see that the connections with listeners took him to some great personal times.
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“He was candid throughout and very honest with the many questions that were fired his way.
“He loved all the local talk that was ongoing and that was reflected with so very many listener calls.
“I remember being surprised when I played his first hit on the show ‘Fool if you think it’s over’ and he spoke of how he hated performing the song. When we put the new show together it lasted 70 mins and included many of his memorable hits. The soundtrack featured ‘Loving you again’, ‘Road to Hell’, ‘I can hear your heartbeat’, ‘On the Beach’, ‘Josephine’ and more.
“Since the show went out on air, the lovely messages have poured in from listeners, via his Facebook related pages, and ex pats around the world saying how great it was to hear the lengthy conversation and many saying how wonderfully local it was too.”
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