Chas n Dave

When I heard that ageing cockney rockers ‘Chas n Dave' were playing around the corner from me, I knew this was a gig that I had to see. With a new generation of listeners taking notice of this duo due to the announcement by Pete Doherty's that he is a fan, I really hoped to see them live up to the hype. What surprised me the most upon my arrival was the fact that this gig was completely sold out. I walked in to the venue expecting to see the place packed full of old men supping their beers at tables and the venue having that ‘old man' aroma that you tend to find in working class clubs. What I saw was a heaving dance floor made up of men and women between the ages of 20- 50 cheering for Chas n Dave to start playing. The atmosphere was fantastic, and this is how it remained for the full hour and a quarter.

With Chas in a garish loud yellow and black shirt playing the piano and Dave in his flat cap, looking all the part as a cockney barrow boy they started the set with ‘Wallop (he's gone down)'. Immediately the crowd were jumping up and down singing along. I thought that I was too young to ever experience what my Dad would refer to as a ‘good old knees up' but from start to finish I was stuck right in the middle of one. They played all their classic numbers including ‘My Melancholy Baby', ‘Gertcha', ‘Snooker Loopy', ‘Rabbit', ‘The Sideboard Song' and ‘Ain't no pleasing you' as well as a couple of songs that weren't so well known like ‘flying' and ‘Poor old Mr Woogie'.

From my point of view this wasn't so much a gig as it was an experience, and an amazing one at that. I will make sure that I see these guys play live again at some point this year. They are playing at Glastonbury too so if you were to get the chance to see the unlikely revival of London's best known duo, I would highly recommend it.