I was on kitchen duty last night, a job I find much more palatable when equipped with the proper music...something driving, but moody. A riff from the past wafted into my head, so I hit YouTube and quickly found what I was looking for: “The Road to Hell” by Chris Rea. If you’re unfamiliar, Chris Rea is probably best known for his soft-rock minor hit from the ‘70s, “Fool If You Think It’s Over,” but more generally he’s a bluesy British guitar-slinger in the Mark Knopfler mold. He’s also a petrolhead of the first order: he’s a hardcore F1 fan, owns several classic Lotuses (the cover art of his 1991 album Auberge featured his Caterham Seven) and has raced a Ferrari 328 in a marque series.
So, why write about him here?
“The Road to Hell” video was a VH1 staple in 1989. Set in a rainy British traffic jam, the video features an interesting array of luxury rides, including a classic Range Rover, a Jaguar XJ-S, and a Porsche 944S2. Nice enough, but then, at 2:24, the magic happens.
Yes, LaLDers, that is a 1:64-scale traffic jam, replete with Macau-era Matchbox and other classic diecast. The cars keep popping up throughout the video, which concludes with a long pan across the line-up. What’s more, it appears that the set decorator of the video made an effort to match the model cars to the 1:1 cars that share the screen...watch and you’ll see a miniature 944 and an XJ-S.
So, Mr. Rea is somewhat obscure here in the States, but perhaps we should consider him the official blues-rocker of LaLD? Are there any other references to diecast in popular music?