Tim Hughes joins a diverse audience for a lively sing-along with London pub-rockers Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock

Gertcha! After 40 years as a duo, if Chas & Dave have demonstrated one thing, it’s staying power. Despite some misplaced lingering snobbery that they are a mere novelty act, they have roundly proved their critics wrong, outlasting many a ‘serious’ rock act.

The reason for this is simple: they are excellent musicians. Not just good, but virtuoso. Before they got into the game they were successful sessionists, even providing the hook to Eminem’s My Name Is, which is a riff from a Labi Siffre tune, on which both performed.

Far from being a gimmick, their Rockney style and accent was a response to the fraud of UK bands singing in American accents. They are rooted in honesty and true to their roots – and their fans can’t get enough of them. And what fans. Sunday night’s show had easily the most diverse audience of any show I have seen anywhere, with parents bringing their children, rowdy lads, beery 40-somethings and a smattering of pensioners – including 84 year-old Jean Tappin, from Watlington, but originally from South London, who was up the front singing along with the rest.

The hits came thick and fast: Gertcha! Diddle Um Song, Margate, London Girls, Rabbit (of course), and ending in an emotional sing-along to Ain’t No Pleasin You. They returned for a quick encore with The Sideboard Song and left shortly after.

There was no razzmatazz, no stage set and no fancy lights. Hardly any banter even – though they did give a birthday shout out to a starstruck Beccy Webb, landlady of East Oxford’s Chester pub (Chas and Dave like pubs and strong landladies!). What there was, though, was well-honed musicianship, brain-spinning vocal dexterity (check the breakneck end to Diddle Um Song!) and the kind of musical ping pong that comes from having a near telepathic link with your bandmate.

Chas & Dave have been around the block so many times, they know it like the Holloway Road. Indeed, they can do this blindfold. But it doesn’t sound tired. They may be short on ‘rabbit’ but they clearly love what they do.

The last word should go to Mrs Tappin, who told me after the show: “They are just good aren’t they. And they are proper Londoners. We had a great time!”

I’ll drink to that, with this beer... on the sideboard here.

4/5