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Chas and Dave were one of those fun musical acts that you would struggle to find in the pop charts these days. You really don’t seem to get many comedy songs being popular any more, which I feel is a great shame.
Their musical style was firmly in the Cockney knees-up style, and they had a number of hits during the 1980’s, with Chas Hodges tinkling away at the ivories with gusto and Dave Peacock playing the guitar, and the pair of them singing. It has to be said that they weren’t the tidiest looking of musicians, being just a few steps away from having the label of “tramps” apply, which wasn’t helped by their scruffy looking beards and clothes.
They may have had rather gruff sounding singing voices, but for the songs they sang this was perfect, as many of them told a story of a normal put-upon London bloke. Probably the best known Chas and Dave song is Rabbit, which is sung from the point of view of a man who has a gorgeous girlfriend who never stops talking and nagging him (rabbit being a slang word for incessant talking).
Rabbiting is what Chas and Dave did best themselves though, as most of their songs were incredibly fast paced and more like tongue twisters when you tried to sing along. Rabbit itself is a good example with the pair of them repeatedly singing the word rabbit slightly out of step with each other to make a really confusing cacophony of words.
Another hit to show the Chas and Dave “rabbiting” trademark was The Sideboard Song, which told of a man who had a wife and family that were forever giving him grief, which he coped with by ignoring the commotion around him and letting his wife deal with it whilst enjoying his “beer in the sideboard here”.
Chas and Dave are still playing their unique brand of music to this day, so check out their official website for more information about them and a list of tour dates.
Update! Sadly Chas and Dave split up in September 2009 after 35 years together as Dave Peacock has decided to retire from the music business following the death of his wife. Our sympathies go out to Dave.
Chas will still be honouring all their current tour dates and bookings in the meantime under the name “Chas And His Band”.
Search for Chas and Dave items on Amazon.co.uk
I saw Chas and Dave twice before Dave decided to leave the trio (don’t forget Mick Burt on the drums) after the sad passing of his wife last year). The first was in a dodgy place in Tottenham before a Spurs game with about 750 – 1000 Spurs fans rocking along and the 2nd was in Grays in Essex in 2008. They were excellent both times and, after the Grays gig, stayed on stage to meet the fans, chat and have photos taken. I got them to sign my Carling Cup Final ticket!! My photos have pride of place in their own album on my Facebook page
Legends
We went to see them at one of those “just for adults” Warner hotels. We were the youngest people there by a clear thirty years (possibly more).
All the comments we heard afterwards were “they couldn’t sing” and “it was too loud”. Philistines! We really enjoyed it.
Actually, the funniest thing about the whole weekend was the hotel entertainer singing in the bar one afternoon. He kept singing songs like “Happy Birthday Sweet 16″ and changing the words to be less than flattering, shall we say. Again, we were the only people to get the joke, as everyone else in the room didn’t even notice the lyric changes!