When actor and comedian Hugh Laurie spoke of them, he said: “There’s this Latin motto ‘ars est celare artem’ – the art is to conceal the art. The things they do, they do so well that people don’t realise how rare they are.”

Was he talking about a particular school of cubist painters or an obscure off-shoot of the Beat Poetry movement?

No, he was talking about Chas and Dave, who play at The Central Theatre, Chatham, on Saturday, April 30.

Recent years have brought a reappraisal of the cockney rockers, who emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s with their “rockney” sound that seemed familiar even when it first arrived.

From Gertcha to Rabbit to Snooker Loopy and The Sideboard Song – every catchy, no-nonsense song sounded like a good time in a London pub and the duo, dressed in braces and caps, and supping ale, were instant national treasures; part of the country’s cultural furniture.

And that was all you needed to know...

Until suddenly people seemed to begin listening closely, and characters like Hugh Laurie started talking in Latin about them.

Both Charles Nicholas “Chas” Hodges and David Victor Peacock were skilled session musicians long before they transformed into Chas and Dave (Chas even backed Jerry Lee Lewis in the 1960s) and the sound they created was built on experience and musical knowledge.

A blend of rock and roll, skiffle, music-hall, boogie-woogie, the music was the sound of two masterful musicians on a mission to get toes tapping from the stickiest working man’s club carpet to the corridors of Buckingham Palace.

After their latest album, That’s What Happens, recent years have even seen them in danger of becoming “cool”, with the Libertines citing them as an influence

A BBC documentary on BBC Four brought input from Jools Holland, Phill Jupitus, and Pete Doherty among others.

Their 2015 Christmas Beano at the Hammersmith Odeon drew football fans, old rockers, hipsters, and even Noel Fielding.

The concert starts at The Central Theatre at 7.30pm.

Tickets are £29.50 and £27.50 from www.tickets.medway.gov.uk