Tottenham History: Diamond Lights

The year was 1987. Tottenham Hotspur were coming off among the most successful ten year periods in their history – perhaps second only to the title winning side of the early sixties. Keith Burkinshaw, Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricky Villa all earned their status as club legends over that time period, but by the summer of ’87 two names stood out most of all: England teammates Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle.

Hoddle joined up into Tottenham’s youth program in 1974 at the age of 17. He became a regular in the first team in 1976 as the club fought to be promoted back into the English First Division after being relegated the season before.

After their return to the top flight, Hoddle proved to be an instrumental part of the club’s revitalization. Over 377 appearances for the club, Hoddle earned an PFA Young Player of the Year Award in 1979 and an England call up. He helped Tottenham win consecutive FA Cups in 1981 and 1982 and a UEFA Cup in 1984.

By the time Chris Waddle joined the club from Newcastle in 1985, Hoddle was already something of a legend. Waddle himself earned an England call up playing alongside Hoddle in Tottenham’s midfield and it seemed like the pair would go on to create beautiful music together.

No one expected that to be anything more than a cliched metaphor.

Then, in the spring of 1987 a song by the name of Diamond Lights hit the British airwaves.

Waddle and Hoddle had become “Glenn & Chris” after a night of karaoke had brought them to the attention of a modestly successful record producer who agreed to write and produce a pop song for the pair to sing.

Now, readers have to understand that this was in the post-Super Bowl Shuffle 80s. The idea of sports stars segueing their fame into at least momentarily viable pop music careers didn’t exactly seem as ridiculous as it would today. How far Hoddle and Waddle thought they were get with all this isn’t exactly clear, but for the briefest of moments their names were synonymous with something more than Tottenham or England.

Diamond Lights pits the eponymous duo against one another for the affection of an erratically dancing lady. Judging by the vast gulf in enthusiasm that separates the stone-faced Waddle and the thoroughly into-it Hoddle, it’s fair to assume that the latter got the girl in the end.

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The song reached as high as 12th on UK Singles Chart in May before fading into obscurity shortly thereafter. Despite the duo’s attempt to rekindle that modest spark with a follow up song – titled It’s Goodbye – they never gained the momentum they’d need to seamlessly transition into a career in music after they were done with football.

As it stood, Hoddle left Tottenham for AS Monaco soon after Diamond Lights disappeared from both the charts and the United Kingdom’s collective conscious. Waddle departed for Marseille in short order. While the pair of them never teamed up again, Hoddle did record a track with his Ivorian teammate at Monaco Basile Boli called We’ve Got a Feeling. Needless to say, it performed no better than Diamond Lights.

What lessons, then, can we learn from Diamond Lights? That the 80s were a terrible nightmare decade where everyone assumed success in one field would guarantee success in another? That the UK and the world at large simply wasn’t ready for Chris & Glenn’s unique blend of sport and feelings? Perhaps it’s that we all make mistakes and the Internet’s primary reason for being is to replay those mistakes over and over again. In any case, we’re all left thankful that Hoddle and Waddle’s most enduring influence was on football pitches for both Tottenham and England and not in the recording studio.

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Tottenham History: Diamond Lights

By Ryan Wrenn | Oct 28, 2015

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