Band Aid is number one, an overbearing inhabitant occupies Number 10 and, to complete the return of the Eighties, cheery cockney duo Chas 'n' Dave are back.

The purveyors of "rockney" haven't been off the road much since they first got together in 1972 but had largely disappeared since their early-Eighties zenith, when their bouncy ragtime hits, such as Rabbit, Snooker Loopy and Ossie's Dream, were popular.

They haven't regained that status yet but they could be on their way.

The impenetrable cockney anthem, Gertcha, was used in a recent Courage beer advert. They played The Big Chill festival in August last year. Then The Libertines' Pete Doherty cited them as an influence and the twosome duly supported them at the Forum last December.

But despite one of the most cutting-edge bands having helped publicise one of the least, Chas 'n' Dave, who kicked off the first date of their tour at Concorde 2, remain proudly beholden to no one.

As soon as Chas, wearing braces and tinted glasses from Mike Reid's optician, lumbered on stage, pint aloft, and was joined by Dave, in trademark shades and pork-pie hat (both with apparently undyed beards), it was clear they hadn't changed a bit.

After the first verse of Wallop He's Gone Down, it was obvious their music hadn't either.

With their football shirts and beer bellies, Chas 'n' Dave's dedicated fans were conspicuous.

During the bootlegging master-class from support set Cartel Communique (avowed Chas 'n' Dave fans themselves), the white-sliced blokes watched football in the bar.

Only when Cartel did a couple of cheeky bootlegs which combined the Only Fools And Horses theme with Eminem and another, combining Rabbit with Dizzee Rascal, did the hardcore fans near the stage.

Once the boys were on, the tracks came thick and fast: The Sideboard Song, Margate, Pretty Baby. Soon the audience was a jigging mosh-pit of would-be barrow boys having a right old knees-up.

The lyrics were strictly from the mother-in-law school of comedy. Rabbit, a song about a girlfriend's chattering, was introduced as "one for the ladies".

Some of the words to London Girls and Pretty Baby were suspect although an adlibbed verse to Mustn't Grumble about a visually impaired person giving a dog a biscuit was the night's highlight.

The songs were hilarious and the music, for what it was, faultless. But after an hour, the joke started to wear thin, which is probably what happened in the Eighties.

Yet Chas 'n' Dave are indifferent to trends and will keep doing what they do. After all, there will always be punters up for a salmon and trout and a Jack Palance.