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Eminem is famous for his drug taking, famous for his on-stage antics with a revved up chainsaw, and famous because his debut hit had Chas playing guitar and Dave playing bass.
In the seventies Chas & Dave were prolific session musicians. One such album was Labi Siffre’s ‘Remember My Song’ from 1975. One of the tracks on her album was ‘I Got The’, which was the main sample used by Eminem on his breakthrough hit ‘My Name Is’. Whether Eminem is familiar with the later works of Chas & Dave is probably an easy question to answer – no, not in a million years does the Detroit born star know the words to ‘Snooker Loopy’! – but, for many, Chas & Dave will always be associated not with Eminem but with one team: Tottenham Hotspur.
Tottenham are an unusual club, unlike many clubs of the nineteenth century which were set up to help local areas and provide a focus for working men, their White Hart Lane ground was originally a disused nursery owned by a brewer. When the brewer realised how many men would visit his pub if the club played next to him he invited them in. Carling don’t do origin stories, but if they did….
The club quickly found success. Winning the FA Cup for the first time in 1901 when they became the first non-football league to do so. They were also the first club to achieve the league and FA Cup double, winning both in the 1960-61 season before also becoming the first to win a European trophy when they won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1963. But it was their later cup triumphs that were celebrated in song.
Chas & Dave have always been Tottenham fans, despite their cockney image. And in 1981 they released the first of four FA Cup final songs, reaching number 5 in the charts with “Ossie’s Dream”.
The song made the most of the cult status of fan favourite and Argentinian legend, Ossie Ardiles, by putting him at the centre of the piece and giving him the immortal line and comic pronunciation “in de cup for Tooting-ham”.
Ardiles had his doubts about saying the line at all—he could say the name of the club just fine—but he went along with it and in doing so became a household name.
“In our ranks there’s Ossie Ardiles,
He’s had a dream for a year or two,
That one day he’s gonna play at Wembley,
Now his dream is coming true,
Ossie we’re gonna be behind, you,
Altogether man for man,
We know you’re gonna play a blinder
[Ossie] In de cup for Tooting-ham”
Chas & Dave recorded three more songs for Tottenham but none of them matched the success of the first, or, even, the success of it’s b-side ‘Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur’, which has become the last song played before the start of every match at White Hart Lane.
Their fourth and final song was the prophetic ‘It’s Lucky for Spurs When the Year Ends in One’ which was recorded for the 1991 FA Cup final and commemorate their victories in the FA and League Cups in 1961, 1971, 1981, and, luckily for Chas & Dave, 1991 too.
And if you want to know which one is Chas and which one is Dave, their official website gives the following helpful guide: Chas is the slightly bigger one sitting at the piano, Dave is the slightly thinner one on the bass. Easy.
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About the Author
After too many years as season ticket holder at Parkhead, Andy Todd renounced the SPL three years ago to support Queens Park. One team is a rank bunch of amateurs who play in a state of the art stadium and the other is…(I think we can all see where this is going).
Andy has been performing comedy for 18 months but is currently ‘between gigs’ while he writes a book on Scottish property law to be published in Summer 2012. Its potential audience will be less than 300 but his mum will be very proud.
Follow Andy on Twitter: @toddandy
Check out Andy’s website: www.toddandy.com
Thats not true! i have seen Eminem drinking in the Bricklayers pub on Tottenham high road on many occasion. Secretly recording… Great article and brings back good memories. Thanks
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