Imagine if Chas & Dave had not, in fact, come up through 70’s rock and blues bands before coming together to create their “truly English sing-along music” but were the product of the modern dance age. That their chosen musical weapons were not pianos and banjos and bass guitars but digital beats and bass pulses, their voices not that of gruff east-end geezers but a crystal clear female vocal. And now, here’s the twist: what if Chaz and Dave were actually May and Frank, two Italian musicians and producers with a love of all things pop and dance?
So, obviously, you don’t have to imagine any of that; you have to play Cheerio (Knock Back A Pint), their latest release, a song that is the natural successor to the cockney pub sing-along.
When things go wrong, when life is taking away rather than giving, when dark clouds are on the horizon, some turn to religion, others to friends, and others seek solace in their own company. But the English way, at least if the cliches are true, is to have a few pints in good company and drown your sorrows, as the saying goes…even if some of those sorrows have learned to swim. And that is what the song is all about.
Annerley Gordon is the resident cheerleader, the person assigned the job of lifting spirits, such as rum, gin, whiskey, and…god forbid…flaming sambuca! No, actually, I’ll just have a pint. And another, and maybe just one more.
Okay, this isn’t a Christmas song. It is the perfect sing-along all year round. Still, the timing is perfect. I can imagine this being played at parties and in pubs as everyone sloshes their beer around and celebrates the silver linings rather than the darkness, the things we are fortunate to have rather than the stuff that keeps you awake worrying at night. A couple more drinks, and you will be too sleepy to stay awake anyway.
It’s a quirky little number, an infectious and fun bop-along, and given the recent trend of one-off, silly songs getting to the top of the UK charts on Christmas week, this could very well be in the running. After all, it’s better than most songs that have claimed that coveted title in the last decade or so.
Pub? Yeah, why not?
