LAST year Chris nearly died. After a 14-hour operation which he was told he had only a one in three chance of surviving, he had lost his pancreas, duodenum and most of his stomach and rediscovered his first musical love - the blues.

But that was only after seven weeks of heavy sedation after the op during which time he hallucinated about everyone from his mother to blues singer Blind Willie Johnson. This 20-track blues-driven album must give him great solace for all the pain and misery he endured because it is a cracker.

The Middlesbrough-born son of an ice-cream parlour 'magnate' marks his "resurrection" with a CD he always wanted to do, not his record company. "I am going to write the album to go on my headstone," he said. And he has. Slide guitars, wailing harmonicas and heart-wrenching lyrics. It's a must.

Updated: 09:13 Thursday, September 19, 2002