Meet one of the most famous men in South Yorkshire-- Dave Cherry.
You would pass him in the street and not recognise him, but he is a household name and his songs are loved by all age groups and he has made thousands of pounds for the Barnsley Hospice.
He is often asked “ Why do people like your songs and why are you so popular ?“
“I am one of them, from the backstreets and do not pretend to be something I am not. “ Dave replies.
An ordinary bloke from Barnsley in South Yorkshire he wrote a song called STAIRFOOT RARNDABART , poking fun at the local bottleneck, especially to raise funds for the local hospice in October 2004.
The song made thousands of pounds and since then Dave has released 3 more singles. The cd’s have generated more than £19k and with special concerts around the town the figure is well passed £30k.
These are the quotes from people:
Dave is known as Mr Barnsley. - Phil Butler BBC Radio Sheffield
He is in our paper more than the Mayor --John Threlkeld Deputy Editor of The Barnsley Chronicle
“We first worked with Dave on the Stairfoot Roundabout song in 2004 and have worked with him on many projects since. The charity work that Dave does has helped thousands of locals already and is closely linked to caring about Barnsley and the people who live here-something we wholeheartedly support“ - Matt Jones - Programme Manager Dearne FM
Dave is an absolute hero - Andy Kershaw BBC Radio Sheffield
He was born into a working class background on March 12 1946 in Worsborough Bridge, near Barnsley. The third child in a family of four he was brought up in a council house. “Bread and Jam days, they were, jumble sale clothes and playing on the streets. It didn’t do me any harm “he said.
He said "I got my musical talent from my dad Walter. He could knock up any tune on the piano, not able to read music and he only played on the black notes, in sharps and flats. Pianists nowadays avoid these like the plague."
Not very bright at Junior School he had a terrible speech impediment and was often bullied for his stutter. Later in life he completely cured the stutter.
"I used to hate going to school. The teacher always made me read to the class. It was awful. Some of the kids were cruel. They always made me read out in class. The funny thing was I never stuttered when I sang." He promised himself he would cure the stammer one day. He did just that.
He met the comedian Frankie Howard in a club in Doncaster. “We were on the same bill and I had read somewhere of his similar stutter. Rather boldly I asked him about it and he told me how he masked it. He employed a kick start method. All his sentences started with 'Who' and 'Now Then'. I tried this at the bar. Instead of asking for a "p-p-p-pint." I said "Right I think I’ll have a pint of bitter." It worked. A miracle cure.
He went to Worsborough High School and was very good at History and Geography.
"Both jobs ran in parallel, as all the miners went into the local Working Mens Clubs. I would listen to the banter and the jokes and knew exactly what they wanted."
Dave was one of the original LEVVY TAGGERS, a 7 piece showband who packed the clubs with a zany, comedy style show. It was during this time around 1976 that Dave found he had a talent to write songs and jingles. He wrote the groups showstopping song TV WILLIE which lasted nine minutes.
He did a few years with the TOBY TYKE duo and then did the clubs on his own but retired around 1985.
Dave is married to Sandra, who he met in 1965 and has two sons, Simon and Andrew. Simon is a policeman living in New Zealand with his wife Lisa and their son Ryan and Andrew lives in London.
In 1982 he went to the Sheffield University and studied Economics and Trade Union Studies with the NUM. This taught him how to debate and he became a Trade Union Official with the NUM and lately with the CWU.
He still works as an Electrician but is looking forward to retirement.
“I always loved George Formby and Lonnie Donegan and I suppose their style influenced the RARNDABART with its false ending. I always loved DONEGANS DOES YOUR CHEWING GUM LOSE IT’S FLAVOUR with its false tacit at the end. If you listen to the CLUB TRIP the riff played slow, sounds very classical and I based the song on young girls skipping. They would make songs up when they were skipping and sing a load of songs mixed together. I make great use of Major Seventh Chords which I have always loved and play the guitar with a capo to enhance the sound. I write the music first and fit the words to it. If you notice there is no middle eight in the songs so they are all repetitive. Not being a poet I write in Two Line Stanzas and all the songs are in the unique Barnsley dialect which always sounds comical. Of course I try and make them as funny as possible and people tell me the songs are very happy sounding and always cheer them up. The secret is to keep the humour going so that people laugh and miss the next bit. They are then surprised to hear things that they did not hear the first time.
Mixing with people and listening to funny stories
Social History and is quite an expert on endemic dialects, Henry V111, The Spanish Civil War and The First and Second World Wars
Football and is a keen supporter of Barnsley FC
Fish Chips and Sloppy Peas, Chinese and Indian Dishes, Penny Duck and a good pint of Bitter
Good Music of any kind. He particularly loves film music by John Barry and is fascinated by the work of the 1930’s writers such as Eric Wolfgang Korngold who wrote the scores for the Errol Flynn films. He enjoys listening to singers like Don Henley , Michael Buble and Dusty Springfield. His favourite album is Jeff Wayne’s WAR OF THE WORLDS and loves a good guitarist such as Eric Clapton and Joe Brown.
He loves a good film. His favourite of all time is the 1938 film, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD followed by THE GODFATHER, but films such as GOSFORD PARK and ELIZABETH and musicals such as CAMELOT he watches over and over.
Good television such as the American SOPRANOS and ER and must have watched WORLD AT WAR a thousand times. His favourite channel is the History channel.
Railways: He was a keen train spotter as a lad and loves travelling by train
Dislikes
Snobbery, sarcasm and jealousy and people that look down on folk less fortunate than themselves
Foul Mouth Bullies and Know It All Braggers who cannot debate issues.
The way that people's manners have changed. He believes there is far too much swearing and the young people do not respect their elders as in his younger days.
The way that news is portrayed and managed by the media. Being an ex coal miner he is suspicious of the Establishment and always feels for the little guy.
Getting Writers Block. His brain freezes at times when he is writing anything. This happens to every creative artist but it annoys him.
It’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice It’s Roy Orbison IT’S OVER With Respect I’m crap but I’m good company Pardon My Impertinence If I cannot do someone a good turn I will not do him a bad un Matthew seven, verses one and two—“ Judge yee not lest thou be judged “ Henry V—We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,--that fought with us on Saint Crispin’s day.
I would love to write a play or score music in a film and am thinking of having long holidays in New Zealand so I can see more of our Ryan. I love it there. I am getting close to retirement but I need to keep my brain active.
I seem to be in the newspapers all the time and would like to write a weekly article. I know enough funny material to keep it going.
When Dave did the clubs he always had a little gimmick. At the end of a song he would break into:
“Dem from Sheffield talk like this - dee dah, dee dah“ and “I can see Brierley now the pit has gone“ and would sing the first two lines of the now famous “I’d like to get mi hand upon the fart, who thowt up the Stairfoot Rarndabart“
He retired from the club scene around 1985 but still amused himself on the guitar at home.
In August 2004 Dave rewrote the song and conjured up the verses about his Uncle Ronnie and Sister Kath. He went to see his old friend JIMMY ECHO at a Barnsley pub THE SHAW. Jimmy got Dave on the stage and he borrowed Jimmy’s guitar and he sang for the first time the new version of the song. "It literally pulled the house down and I decided I would record the song."
By September he had finished the song but was stuck with the end 4 bar tacit. "I needed a false ending and it was Jimmy who suggested singing about the handle bar moustache bobby, who had stood on point duty in the 1950’s Bill Harber"
'Bobby Bill at New Street. The queues he’d save. If he saw that Stairfoot. He’d turn in his grave.'
In October Dave made ten copies of the cd and went to Scarborough in the NUM convalescent home.
When he returned Jimmy told him in astonishment that he’d made sixty more copies. The BLACK BULL pub which is on the actual roundabout were playing it non stop and the local taxi drivers were clamouring to buy it. The song was a cult item and everybody wanted it.
Needing an outlet Dave approached the local Barnsley Hospice and saw the fundraiser Mark Perry. Mark allowed the cd to be sold in the nine shops around the town. Unfortunately a couple of pirates were selling the cd for their own gain. The local paper THE BARNSLEY CHRONICLE got hold of the story and the story put Dave on the front page. The adverse publicity increased the sales and people were clamouring for the cd. “I could not believe it. I went on ITV CALENDAR and BBC LOOK NORTH and all the local radio stations and one shop were selling 100 copies a day. From nowhere I was plunged into a strange media world.” Dave said. He went on BBC Radio Sheffield with Rony Robinson and now knows all the media people. "Here I was, me with the stutter, who couldn't string two words together, going on about all sorts of things to people who I would never have dreamt of meeting.
He admitted that one of the most proudest moments came when the song was played at the Barnsley FC‘s local derby with Doncaster Rovers at the Oakwell stadium. "It made me feel strange hearing the song boom around the ground." he admitted.
The CHRONICLE then ran a story of Bill the bobby mentioned in the song and told Dave he was in fact alive and they arranged for him to meet Dave in the BLACK BULL. In November a DVD was made of the song and this was released on December 21, 2004 the same day that Dave’s first grandson Ryan was born.
This was the second cd, released in June 2005. Dave got the idea when he was stuck in his van in the rain and in a traffic jam. The wipers were going and he started tapping his fingers to the beat of them.
!I remembered the Working Men’s Club Trips that we used to go on when we were kids. This was the only time that working class kids saw the seaside. The words just came to me in 4-4 time and I interlaced seven nursery rhymes into the dialect words."
Hi diddle diddle when Ar war a nip. We all sang together on the Old Club Trip
He got his cousins from Blackpool, Jade and Jasemine, to sing on the cd and Jimmy put on a lovely whirly gig fairground organ to give it a seaside feel. The girls were multi tracked to give the effect of a lot of children singing on a bus and he could not resist singing about his dad with his pint in the halfway house.
"I was really apprehensive about this song. The RARNDABART song was an hard act to follow. This was more of a kids song but it appealed to the older end and I was quite pleased with it. I tried it in a church hall and was astonished at some women who were crying with nostalgia. I put JUMBLE LANE on as the other track. This was about the infamous railway crossing in the town. They had me on LOOK NORTH stood in the middle of the crossing playing the guitar. I felt a right wally."
Dave hade a tremendous lift when the YORKSHIRE TRACTION bus company allowed him to use their 1938 Leyland bus on the front of the cd and they even advertised the song on all of their 300 buses. "I got more advertising than BISTO. It seemed strange driving through places like Huddersfield and Doncaster and seeing my name on the buses."
This was Dave’s third cd and was released at Christmas 2005. It poked fun at the proposed halo planned to shine over the town and he mentioned the Wigfalls man who came around to collect the money for the Telly. On the second track he got a load of local singers to sing on the chorus of BARNSLEY MAIN MUCKSTACK which was sung to the tune of ILKLEY MOOR BAHT'AT.
Dave is currently working on this song. All about a pub crawl around the town and features some of the old pubs and characters of Barnsley.
Dave pays great tribute to Jimmy Echo and says he is the secret of the sounds and quality that come out in the songs. "He is the brains behind it all and he puts the icing on the cake with his special sounds and last mix."
