Cheers, Chas
The rabbit is over for Chas and Dave legend as he dies aged 74
WHEN singer Chas Hodges was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer last year, he went into the studio with his musical partner Dave Peacock and wrote a track called Sling Your Hook.
‘It was my way of saying f*** off to cancer,’ Hodges told The Mail on Sunday earlier this year. ‘Sling your hook, on your bike, vamoose, skedaddle.’
But in the early hours of yesterday he died, aged 74, passing away in his sleep from organ failure.
His blunt response to his diagnosis had been in keeping with Chas & Dave’s reputation as downto-earth stars whose blend of rock ’n’ roll, pub singalong and Cockney rhyming slang made them household names.
That appeal was clear as tributes poured in last night. Singer Billy Bragg wrote: ‘He was an original skiffler, a boogie-woogie great and singing Midnight Special with him and Dave at Union Chapel [in London] was on my career highlights.’
Sir Lenny Henry said of the duo: ‘When they were on Tiswas, they were always kind respectful and played live.’
Boxer Frank Bruno said: ‘I worked with Chas & Dave loads of times in the 1980s and had a good laugh with them every time.’
Chas’s career began as a session musician in the 1950s, working with stars including Jerry Lee Lewis and Gene Vincent.
As a member of Cliff Bennett And The Rebel Rousers, he supported the Beatles on their final British tour in 1966, before teaming up with guitarist Dave Peacock in the 1970s. Chas & Dave first tasted chart success in 1979 when their track Gertcha reached No 20, but it was their track Rabbit, which reached No 8 in 1981, that really put them on the musical map.
The song took its name from ‘rabbit and pork’, rhyming slang for talk, and features an exasperated man complaining that his girlfriend never stops talking. More hits followed, including Ain’t No Pleasing You and Snooker Loopy.
Hodges was a huge fan of Totten- ham Hotspur and in 1981 they wrote Ossie’s Dream (Spurs Are on Their Way to Wembley), the club’s official FA Cup Final track, and performed it with the team, including the Argentinian Osvaldo Ardiles. Fellow Spurs fan Labour MP David Lammy tweeted yesterday: ‘So sad that Chas Hodges has lost his battle with cancer. What a legend he was.’
Chas leaves his wife of 52 years, Joan, who was one of the original Playboy bunny girls.
They had three children, Juliet, Kate, a singer/ songwriter, and Nik, a musician and composer, and two grandchildren.
Chas last performed with Dave, 73, at the British Summer Time festival in London’s Hyde Park in July, and a greatest hits album is due out next week.