By Elliott West
Introduction
Snooker was massive in the 1980s and was actually more popular than football for a large part of the decade. If you had to think of a musical accompaniment to this success, a song that instantly springs to mind is Chas and Dave’s rendition of the song Snooker Loopy in 1986. A humorous tune that combined the east-end duo and the players from Barry Hearn’s Matchroom stable. An instant hit, this song just grew and grew, rising to a high of number six in the music charts and a definitely a secret purchase on 7 inch in Woolworths. This was the A side of the single with Wallop (Snookered) on the B side.
The Story behind the Hit
Panned by the doubters when this idea was first revealed, the song was conceived after a telephone conversation between Barry Hearn and the cockney duo, Chas and Dave. Penned by the two, the song cleverly creates a beat that is based on the seven dwarves and combines the sequential actions of potting balls in snooker with the personalities and idiosyncrasies of the players mentioned in the song.
Matchroom was already highly successful and combined promotion of players, events and even products such aftershave. Hearn saw a golden opportunity and used his own company success to combine with the highly popular singers, Chas and Dave. The musicians had already had two hits in the world of sport, writing and performing two FA Cup final songs for Tottenham, Ossie’s Dream, which reached number 5 in 1981 and Tottenham peaked at number 19 in 1982.
Every player mentioned was given a part in the recording of the single and the music video with debatable results. Let’s just say Chas and Dave were great singers. The release of the single, coincided with the start of the 1986 World Championship, won by my dear friend, Joe Johnson, who ironically didn’t appear in the song. Hearn didn’t see Johnson being big enough to br part of the Matchroom Mob. A former professional who has a brilliant singing voice and was the lead singer in the band, Made in Japan.
As the song grew, so it seemed that it was played everywhere including during the World Championship intervals at the Crucible. Perhaps the success of the song, did make the players involved, slightly delusional. This was a song about snooker and the players but Chas and Dave were the stars of the piece, not the players. They already had their own fame on the table. Spurred on by this success, Barry Hearn asked the players to be involved in another single, The Romford Rap, a song that the general public were not impressed by and this was reflected in their chart position of 91.
Snooker Loopy was a tribute to that halcyon decade of snooker and could be seen as a swan song to a farewell to this mass hysteria for the sport. Snooker is still popular but probably won’t ever capture that percentage of the UK population ever again. Both television and music have moved on and people have as much choice as a child in a sweetshop. Vinyl and cassettes died the death and came back to life for a niche market a few years ago with many now wanting to stream rather than going to purchase the physical product.
However, this was a hit that reached every corner of the country, played on radio stations and appearances on Top of the Pops. It joined Madonna, Peter Gabriel and Level 42 in the charts and was one of a string of hits that remains cemented at the back of your mind. When you hear it played, it makes you hum the tune and the simple lyrics come back to you. A winning formula and one that will be remembered for many generations.
