A former presenter has recalled Chris Rea asking for his song to be played on radio before he signed a recording contract.

Stan Laundon, 82, said the Middlesbrough musician, who died on Monday aged 74, walked into the former BBC Radio Teesside building in Linthorpe Road with a track called Love Is The Way.

He said it was while Rea was working at his family’s ice cream parlour and coffee bar opposite the studio in the early 1970s, and he walked across and said: “I’ve got this reel-to-reel tape – is there any chance you would play it?”

Describing Rea as a “very quiet young lad”, Mr Laundon said he played the song and “it was quite enjoyable”.

Mr Laundon, who worked at BBC Radio Teesside and BBC Radio Cleveland for 21 years, said he had seen Rea a few times in his family business.

“I knew his face, but I had no idea he was a singer, guitar player and a songwriter,” he told BBC Radio Tees.

“It was nice to meet him, a very pleasant person.”

Born in 1951 in Middlesbrough, the musician worked at his father’s ice cream and cafe business, Rea’s Cafe, as a teenager.

The plan was to take over the family business but aged 21 he taught himself how to play the guitar and played in local bands, including Magdalene.

He landed his first record deal with Magnet Records in the mid-1970s.

Middlesbrough heavily influenced his song writing, especially songs like Steel River, which reflects the town’s industrial identity.

Rea’s cousin and fellow musician Adrian Rea told BBC Radio Tees due to his relative’s failing health “we half expected the worse but thought he’d at least see the new year in”.

Recalling his time growing up next door to Rea, he said both their dads built up the ice cream business “but we were into the music”.

He recalled “doing regular gigs” with Rea in Middlesbrough and “growing together” while producing records.

Sound engineer and producer Stuart Epps worked with Rea on his early albums.

“I just was really looking to working with him because I loved the demos,” he told BBC Radio Tees.

He visited Middlesbrough and met Rea’s band, which was “full of Middlesbrough lads”.

Local fans have also paid tribute to the musician, including Susan Robertson, manager of the Tees Valley Music Service, who said Rea had been “a big part of my life”.

“I’ve been to about six [Chris Rea] concerts over the years, I’ve had all of his albums, I’d play them on repeat,” she said.

She told BBC Radio Tees she was “gutted” to find out he had died, as she had been hoping he would be well enough to tour again.