For no reason a‘ all: My tribute to London pub rock duo Chas & Dave

I am predominantly into ‚black music‘ (resp., for the more politically correct readers, into funk, soul, hip-hop, blues, and gospel), plus gutsy and/or soulful country.

But there also are other kinds of artists, which – to me – are the musical equivalent of ‚comfort food‘. For many decades, I have been loving Chas & Dave – since „Ain’t No Pleasing You“ (1982) …


… and „London Girls“ (1983):

In my Last.FM list of favourite songs of all time, the former is #2 – in between Parliament’s „Up for the Down Stroke“ (#1) and Bootsy Collins‘ „Winterfunkyland (A.K.A. Winter Wonderland)“ (#3).

Why am I rambling on about this?

I recently ran across the wonderful BBC4 documentary „Chas & Dave: Last Orders“ which contained some facts I hadn’t been familiar with before:

E.g., I did not know that Chas & Dave can also be heard on Eminem’s „My Name Is“ – in a sample of Labi Siffre’s „I Got The“ (1975). Chas Hodges played guitar, Dave Peacock bass. Check out the latter at timecode 2:08:

I did know that Chas Hodges was part of Heads Hands & Feet, a band around my favourite Brtish country, rockabilly and rock’n’roll guitarist Albert Lee who later joined Eric Clapton’s band – which is why it was a nice (albeit expectable) surprise to see Eric & Albert join the jolly gang for a Christmas show:

For more nostalgia about the London pub scene, check out my tribute to the Piccadilly Circus pub Cockney Pride – which generated a heart-warming follow-up (in German).

Released this year: „Live at Rockpalast Zeche, Bochum, Germany 9th March, 1983“

Chas & Dave (Photo: Andrew D. Hurley / This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.)

Peter Jebsen