“They do it down on Camber Sands, they do it at Waikiki,” sing Squeeze in the opening line to Pulling Mussels (From the Shell), heralding four minutes of pure pop gold.

The words speak of fat ladies, coach drivers and teenage trysts “behind a chalet”, while the melody, like many tunes the band produced throughout their career, has been compared to the very best of the Beatles.

But the inspiration behind this 35-year-old classic isn’t Camber’s golden dunes or Honolulu beach.

No, the muse for the evocative musical caper where “topless ladies look away” as “shrinking” swimmers emerge from the chilly sea, is a lot closer to home – Leysdown.

Double Ivor Novello Award winner Chris Difford is the hand behind the saucy postcard lyrics which hark back to the golden age of British holidaying.

“My neighbour’s dad couldn’t drive very well, and it seemed like we were going miles. We lived on a council estate in Deptford, so a trip to Sheppey was like going to the Riviera”- Chris Difford

He said although many summers have passed and recollections are lost to the midst of time, a few memories of his immortalised first trip to Sheppey remain: “It was a terrifying visit with my friend, and his mum and dad, in about 1968.”

Terrifying? The song refers to toy pandas, Harold Robbins paperbacks and “creepy crickets”, but there’s no mention of potent fear.

Did some other incident take place in Leysdown which Chris omitted to commit to verse?

A death-defying brush with a promenade whirling waltzer? A near-choking experience on a stick of unfortunately chewy candy floss?

It transpires the terror was contained to the journey from the songwriter and guitarist’s then south east London home to the Island.

Chris said: “My neighbour’s dad couldn’t drive very well, and it seemed like we were going miles.

“We lived on a council estate in Deptford, so a trip to Sheppey was like going to the Riviera.”

Chris, now 60, said the week-long stay in Leysdown took place in a caravan park, the name of which – not surprisingly – has long since escaped him.

Lyrically, the communal location sets the scene for the song’s soaring chorus where a coupling takes place “behind the chalet” between a figurative William Tell and Maid Marian “on her tiptoed feet”.

Could it be Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) is also an ode to a loss of sexual innocence? The title itself is said to allude to the ultimate act of intimacy. Chris insists, being aged 12 when the holiday took place, he was “too young” to have taken part in any Carry On-style, knotted-hanky panky.

“It was a bit early for those sort of feelings,” he said. “But it’s quite possible I would have been able to relate to the mystery that surrounded it.”

With hits such as Cool for Cats and Up the Junction, Squeeze – who featured a young Jools Holland – had already established themselves as purveyors of Great British pop in the tradition of The Kinks and the aforementioned Fab Four, by the time Pulling Mussels was released in May 1980.

Like all the band’s finest work, it was a dual creation between wordsmith Chris and sweet melody maker Glenn Tilbrook.

How was the writer able to revive, in song, the salty seaside goings-on from nearly a decade before?

He said: “I don’t have to reflect much deeper than my imagination.

“I’ve got photos of that trip to Leysdown, but I see them in my mind.”

Lovers of legendary 1960s beat groups will also be intrigued to hear him add: “I’m sure I heard the Small Faces in a social club while I was there,” a memory in need of some clarification.

But there is no quibble with the musician’s recollection of his last visit to Sheppey which involved a Category B, rather than a caravan.

“It would’ve been a couple of years ago when I went to see a mate in Swaleside Prison,” he said.