THE founders of a unique style known as rockney – the evergreen Chas & Dave – come to the City Hall on Saturday, one year after the release of their first studio album in 27 years.

For Chas Hodges, who forms one half of the band along with Dave Peacock, the City Hall brings back happy memories from his days playing there back in the early 1960s.

He said: “I played there years ago with a band called The Outlaws. I have got a lot of good memories from gigs that have happened at the City Hall in the past.”

At the age of 70 Hodges has no plans to retire just yet and is enjoying playing now more than ever.

He continued: “I love performing as we both like getting out there on stage.

“It doesn’t seem very different from years ago when we started and is more enjoyable than ever so I have no plans to retire just yet.”

The band released the album That's What Happens last year and Hodges hasn’t ruled out another one in the future.

“Anything can happen but there isn’t one in the pipeline. With the last album Warner Brothers approached us and said they would like to put out a Chas and Dave album.

“Me and my son, who plays drums for us, met the record company who suggested that we go back to our roots and our skiffle days.

“We chose Abbey Road because we like a big studio for the drum sound and a lot of the big studios have shut down now. It is important because to get an ambient natural drum sound you need a big studio.

“So we went into Abbey Road with all of our musician friends such as Albert Lee, Martin Taylor and Hugh Laurie. We had a great enjoyable week and a sound that we were pleased with.”

Hodges’ son Nicholas joined the band in 2009 after the previous drummer retired.

He said: “Nicholas has been playing the drums since he was two and when our drummer retired I didn’t want to ask him because he was involved in other projects at the time.

“However, he asked for the job so he joined and I said see how we feel after three months and thankfully we were both happy with each other professionally.”

Apart from their trademark cockney accents, distinctive even when singing, Chas and Dave are perhaps most famous for their collection of Tottenham Hotspur songs that gave them a big cult terrace following.

He said: “We enjoyed the time recording the Tottenham songs but we never perform any Spurs songs on stage and we let people know that for obvious reasons.

“But we are lucky to have had so many hits over the years. If I had to pick one to take to a desert island it would be Ain’t No Losing You.”

Chas & Dave will be at the City Hall on Saturday at 6.30pm with tickets starting at £24.50. Tickets can be bought at cityhall salisbury.co.uk or the ticket office on 01722 434434.