Memories of The Lane by Chas Hodges

Author:Chas Hodges
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spurs, memories, white hart lane, Tottenham, famous football fan, chas hodges, dave peacock, chas and dave, glenn hoddle, ossie ardiles, singers, singing, Tottenham songs, joe meek, snooker, Tottenham hotspur football club, coys, new stadium, fa cup, league cup, winning, losing, legend
ISBN: 9781911476467
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2018
Published: 2018-04-19T00:00:00+00:00

4: Music and Football Magic

As the ‘Double Side’ was beginning to take shape with the likes of Danny Blanchflower (I saw his first match. Slow motion precision is how I remember his style that day), Dave Mackay (so pleased and proud when, years later, he came to see me and Dave saying we were his all-time favourites. They played ‘The Sideboard Song’ at his funeral), Cliff Jones, a good pal, and the great Jimmy Greaves (a smashing bloke and a Chas and Dave fan too). Well, it so happens that, though Spurs were about to achieve great things, music had begun to grab me in a big way and football and everything else were to take a back seat. Music was about to become not only my great love, but my whole life. Firstly, Lonnie Donegan got me playing the guitar, and then Jerry Lee Lewis got me wanting to play piano when I saw him live at the Regal Edmonton in 1958.

I remember my mum asking when Spurs won the double, “You gonna come down the High Street and watch the boys parade?”

“I’ll see you down there,” I said. I meant to, but I never made it. I was in The Outlaws at the time and I was busy working out the arrangement for our next recording session.

Although music was destined to be my life, Spurs never left my heart.

For the next twenty years my actual visits to the Lane probably totalled only about a dozen. Those games would have been mostly floodlit too as weekends were out because for a musician that was when you earned your money. So it had to be music or football and music being my living, it had to come first.

But then there came the day when I was able to mix the two.

It was at the beginning of the eighties and our manager at the time, Bob England, was Spurs mad and he got me and Dave to do a song for ‘em. Perfect! Days were made free so we could get down the Lane to research for the song. The theme was to be ‘Ossie’s Dream’ and, as our manager pointed out, the fans were latching onto ‘Ossies Going to Wembley’ anyway. Dave came up with the original demo, I added some bits and the song was born. We were happy to spend more time down the Lane again and the Spurs team were more than happy to spend time on things like Top of the Pops.

The boys were great in the recording studio too. Especially Ossie Ardiles. We had him down to do a solo line, ‘In de cup for Tottingham’.

He said, “But I can say ‘Tottenham’ now!”

But we wanted him to say TOTTINGHAM.

And so he did. What a professional! He did it in one take. He was a star. Still is.

Then, of course, we won the cup again the year after. This time I had

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