LENNON and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, Bono and the Edge, even Doherty and Barat. Some musicians simply come as pairs.

So when it was announced last September that “rockney” duo Chas and Dave would be going their separate ways after 35 years together, there was genuine shock in the music world.

Fans of the twosome’s music should fear not, however, as the knees-up look set to continue as Chas Hodges goes it alone. The pianist is taking his band out on the road with the Rock, Rabbit and Roll Tour, which stops at the Princes Theatre, Clacton, on August 20.

Now 66, Chas explains why he’s not closing the lid on the old Joanna just yet.

“It’s in my blood,” he says, in his cockney purr. “I just love what I’m doing and feel alive when I’m doing it. I could never stop performing live, and will do it until the day I die.”

This seems all the more fitting when you discover it hasn’t just been 35 years on the stage with Dave Peacock.

Prior to his days in the pub rock pair, Chas was a prominent session musician, performing on tracks such as John Leyton’s number one hit Johnny Remember Me, and Labi Siffre’s Eminem sampling I Got The.

In 1963, he played bass guitar for the Outlaws, who toured with American rock ‘n’ roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis, who was to become his mentor.

Chas even supported the Beatles on their last European tour in 1966, as part of the band Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers.

“Paul McCartney called us into their dressing room, sat us down and played us the latest acetate of their album Revolver,” recalls Chas.

“When Got to Get You into My Life played, he said it would be a good one for us to do. And it was, as it went to number six when we released it.”

During the early Sixties, Chas spent time in the studio with the eccentric record producer Joe Meek. His part in the Outlaws, the house band at Meek’s London studio, was immortalised by actor Ralf Little in Nick Moran’s 2009 film Telstar.

But it was his partnership with Dave that Chas was best known for, with the pair providing the soundtrack to the Eighties through tracks like Rabbit, Ain’t No Pleasing You and Snooker Loopy becoming both top ten hits, and pub sing-a-longs.

From opening for Led Zeppelin at the Knebworth Festival in 1979, to a set in front of 30,000 people at 2005’s Glastonbury Festival, the outfit enjoyed more than three decades of popularity.

The reason for this, Chas says, is the musicianship and humour in the songs they produced over the years.

“It’s not pretentious, of a trend or of an era, it’s just honest,” he says.

“Before I got together with Dave, I used to sing in an American accent, but I started changing the words and singing in my own accent, and it felt better. Tracks like Gertcha came from morose studio sessions which we injected humour into, and the music always sounds better with a bit of humour.”

Although the Clacton gig will be without Dave, who chose to call time on the partnership after the death of his wife from cancer last summer, Chas insists it’s still mostly about their music.

“The Chas and his band show is mainly Chas and Dave songs,” he says. “I will be putting in one or two new songs but I’m keen not to push them on people.”

Chas and his band will be at the Princess Theatre, Clacton, on August 21, at 7.30pm. Tickets are £17.50 and £15 for concessions, available on 01255 686633.