Shamrock Diaries

Rea wrote the material during a protracted stay in Ireland.[5] In a fresh interview for the sleeve notes in the deluxe version of the album (2019), he recalls how Dublin "reminded me so much of my home town.... Middlesbrough back then was about 65% Irish... And half my family are from Ireland." The two most popular tracks from the album were written for members of Rea's family. Stainsby Girls was a tribute to his wife, Joan, a former student of the Stainsby Secondary Modern School. Josephine was written for his daughter, after whom it is named. Almost a decade later, Rea would also name a song after his youngest daughter, Julia, on the album Espresso Logic (1993).

Rea told Q magazine that he wrote Steel River after returning to Middlesbrough "to see me father after me mother died, and [they] had knocked the whole place down. I’d been gone three years, hard touring in Europe, I literally went to drive somewhere that wasn’t there. It was like a sci-fi movie. That’s when I wrote Steel River. The Middlesbrough I knew, it’s as if there was a war there 10 years ago."[6] Chisel Hill refers to a house Rea bought in the vicinity of Roseberry Topping, which lies just south of Middlesbrough, and has a distinctive half-cone shaped summit.[5] Rea says that the song "can make me cry quite easily... We'd reached the point where we'd bought a house, I had a child, we were happy. We'd kept the wolf from the door and things were okay... [I] wrote that song all in one quick go... whoever wrote that song back then, he must have been a really happy guy. Yeah, that song gets me."[7] "You're looking back at yourself", he said, "remembering what you thought was going to happen, and then what actually happened... I definitely should have stayed in Chisel Hill, without a doubt!"[5]

The track Stone was covered by the Law on their self-titled album, with Rea on guitar. In 2000, Josephine was sampled by Superfunk for their song "Lucky Star", with Ron Carroll, although the samples come from another (shorter) version of the song, rather than the original album version.[8]

All songs by Chris Rea.

1. "Steel River" – 6:15
2. "Stainsby Girls" – 3:51
3. "Chisel Hill" – 4:03
4. "Josephine" – 4:26 (3:56 in later pressings)
5. "One Golden Rule" – 4:29
6. "All Summer Long" – 4:09
7. "Stone" – 4:23
8. "Shamrock Diaries" – 4:55
9. "Love Turns to Lies" – 4:11
10. "Hired Gun" – 8:03

• Chris Rea – lead and backing vocals, organ, synthesizers, guitars, slide guitar
• Kevin Leach – keyboards, grand piano, Rhodes
• Max Middleton – keyboards, grand piano, Rhodes
• Robert Ahwai – additional rhythm guitar
• Simon Nicol – additional rhythm guitar
• Eoghan O'Neill – bass
• Dave Mattacks – drums
• Adrian Rea – drums
• Martin Ditcham – percussion
• Mel Collins – saxophone
• Annie Whitehead – trombone
• The Sultanas (Ian Barnett, Donnie Hilstad, Jesse Lortz and Kimberly Morrison) – backing vocals

1. "Stainsby Girls" b/w "And When She Smiles", "Sunrise", "Dancing Shoes", "September Blue"
2. "Josephine" b/w "Josephine (Remix)", "Everytime It Rains"