Musical Heroes with Kal – Chas ‘n’ Dave

September 25th, 2009 | By Kal

What do you think about when you hear of a two name musical act? Well, I thought of Chas & Dave when Rob and I first came up with the “Rob and Kal”. They’re from not far from where we live – just within greater London, and support my team, Spurs.  In fact, (and I know you won’t care about this Rob!) they released singles for all four of Tottenham Hotspur’s visits to Wembley for the FA Cup final between 1981 and 1991.

That’s why I was so sad to hear this week that Dave was taking a break and that Chas ‘n’ Dave were effectively over. It’s forgotten that before they made it big, they were well regarded session musicians. They could play!

Almost following on from my last blog (neatly), I remember hearing Chas in a radio interview a few years ago. He spoke of being inspired by the great Jerry Lee Lewis and how he watched and learnt a lot from him when he played with him on tour. In a way, that inspired me – as does any time a good musician talks about how they learnt and what really got them going.

As I started to say before I rudely interrupted myself, Chas ‘n’ Dave are (were) the epitome of a double act. Talented multi-instrumentalists in the true sense of the word, they also spoke about things that people could and still can identify with.

They gained popularity the right way by getting something – rock and roll -and putting their own stamp on it by singing in their own North London accents.  To do that is  perhaps the dream of most serious songwriter-performers.  How many dodgy female pop acts singing to a chorus of synths before one steps up and does something different?

And last but not least, they wrote a song about something really important (well I like it!) – snooker!  If you can manage that, and make it a good song, you can do anything. Here’s to Chas ‘n’ Dave, and Chas & his band who will be continuing to pack out and entertain pubs across the country.