Chas & Dave

Chas & Dave
Chas & Dave at "Let's Rock Bristol", June 2015
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Pop rock Folk Rockney
Years active	1975 (1975)–2009, 2011–present
Labels	Cooking Vinyl Retreat EMI Rockney
Website	www.chasndave.com
Members	Chas Hodges Dave Peacock Nicholas Hodges
Past members	Mick Burt

Chas & Dave (often billed as Chas 'n' Dave) are an English pop rock duo, most notable as creators and performers of a musical style labelled "rockney" (a portmanteau of "rock" and "cockney"), which mixes "pub singalong, music-hall humour, boogie-woogie piano and pre-Beatles rock 'n' roll". For a time, "Rockney" was also the name of their record label, and they achieved several British chart hits, their major breakthrough being "Gertcha" in 1979, which peaked at No. 20 in the UK Singles Chart, and was the first of eight Top 40 hit singles the duo played on. They also had nine charting albums. In October 2013 they released That's What Happens, their first studio album in 18 years.

The group originally consisted of Charles Nicholas "Chas" Hodges (piano, vocals, banjo, guitars) and David Victor "Dave" Peacock (bass guitar, vocals, piano, banjo, guitar, ukulele), with sidesman Mick Burt on drums. In 2011, Burt retired from the band with Chas's son, Nicholas Charles "Nik" Hodges taking over on drums. In the 1970s Chas & Dave were prominent session musicians, playing for a wide range of artists; for instance – the hook used on Eminem's "My Name Is" was taken from a Labi Siffre tune, "I Got The", on which Chas & Dave performed.

The rockney style was from the start intentional, as they felt an alternative to the way British bands copied American accents was needed. Chas has said:

I was singing in an American accent. I thought, 'You're being a fraud, you should sing in your own accent', and that's when I started to work on the idea.

The songs for which they are most known are partly comic, and Chas & Dave are strongly identified with London's blue collar and working class pub sing-song culture. However, their 1982 number two hit, "Ain't No Pleasing You" was a more romantic record, with strings added to the usual piano, drum and bass sound.

Their single "Gertcha" was used as the music behind a notable television commercial for Courage Bitter.