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Published: 17 March 2011
by DAN CARRIER

ROCK’n’roll influenced a generation of  musicians in the 1950s. But for London teenagers, songs about drive-in movies, diners and Chevrolets were about an American world they’d only seen in the movies. 

It was partly in response to this that piano and bass combo Chas and Dave set about inventing their own musical genre. Called Rockney, it drew on American rock’n’roll but was written for London accents, with lyrics relating to themes that teenagers in Britain could relate to. 

Pianist Chas Hodges is currently in the midst of a farewell tour with his partner, Dave Peacock. And while you can hear the influence of his hero, Jerry Lee Lewis, their set includes songs and references that date much further back.

“My great grandfather William Shaw played the clarinet and the penny whistle,” he says. “My mum used to go busking with him.”

They would play outside the pubs of Camden, Islington, and elsewhere in north London, and provide music at fairgrounds.

“My mum would play a little harmonium,” he says. “I remember it clearly – I also remember the day she gave it to the ragman when I was a kid. I got the right hump.”

For Chas, William’s musical legacy is a clear link to Victorian music hall. He was born in 1860, and Chas can recall him talking about the songs he loved. “I remember him telling me about an instrument he’d play called the Sousaphone,” he says. “It was invented in 1880, when he was about 20.”

Chas’s grandmother, Daisy Shaw, inherited William’s musical ear. “She used to play the mouth organ and she taught me it,” he says. Nan Daisy lived in Islington near Ironmonger Row in Clerkenwell and as well as busking, she had Sadler’s Wells Theatre on her doorstep. “She used to bunk in, but if they stopped her, she’d stand by the stage door and press her ear to it to hear the orchestra,” says Chas.

Nan Daisy was a crack piano player, and this ability was passed down to Chas’s mum – also called Daisy – and then on to Chas. 

“Nan Daisy had never been taught the piano, but she could hear when something was right,” he says. “She taught my mum. They would sit there, and my mum would play a chord, and then Nan would say that’s not right, so she’d do it again, and Nan would say, no that’s still not right...on and on they would go, until it sounded how it should.”

With a piano in the parlour of his childhood home in Tottenham, Chas was surrounded by music and showed the same ability to pick it up as previous generations of his family had without needing formal music training. 

This influence is obvious at Chas and Dave’s gigs. As well as playing songs such as The Side­board Song and Ain’t No Pleasing You, they work in numbers like Sunshine Of Your Smile, written in 1913, yet sounding as if it were a contemporary ballad. 

And while this is the last tour, it comes on the back of a decade of success, with festivals such as Glastonbury giving them leading slots on big stages. “We went on a New Year’s Eve show with Jools Holland in the early Noughties, then Pete Doherty told people we were a massive influence,” he says. “We went on tour with The Libertines and we noticed lots of new fans. We hear on stage how people have got into singing all our songs with us – if we’d forgotten the lyrics, it wouldn’t have mattered. The crowd belt it out too.”

But time to catch a Chas and Dave gig is running out. They announced they would no longer be touring last year following the death of Dave’s wife Sue. “Every­thing went out of the window – when you lose someone, you just don’t where you are,” says Chas.

Chas gigged on his own, as well as tending an allotment and doting on his grandchildren, who he is now teaching the harmonica and piano. “After a few months, we thought it would be nice thing to do one last tour,” says Chas. 

And he will carry on, playing in the Chas Hodges Band, while Dave will still bash out a tune or two – but in more sedate surroundings. “Dave will be doing what he likes doing – driving horses, restoring Gypsy wagons, and sitting on the porch playing his banjo,” says Chas.“For me, it is not a case of sitting back and reminiscing – I’m not putting on my slippers,” he says. 

He is already writing a new album, inspired by classical music. “All you need for a good song is a good beat and a nice melody,” he says. “These are the essential elements that make up Rockney.”

There may be a new release in May – depending on how Spurs do in the Champions League. “I couldn’t say,” says Chas. “But we’ll see what’s what, if Spurs get there.”

• Together Again – the Final Tour. Full details of venues and dates at: www.chasndave.net/tour_dates