ONE of the music world's most enduring double acts, Cockney duo Chas & Dave, is to end, it was announced today.Bass player Dave Peacock has decided to retire from the band following the death of his wife.

ONE of the music world's most enduring double acts, Cockney duo Chas & Dave, is to end, it was announced today.

Bass player Dave Peacock has decided to retire from the band following the death of his wife. He had been replaced for a series of live dates, including Halesworth's Gig in the Park, where the act was due to headline in August.

The duo were known for a number of hits such as Gertcha, Rabbit and Ain't No Pleasing You during the late 1970s and 1980s.

The band's agent Barry Collings said: "Dave has now decided that he will not be coming back and wanted to retire."

Peacock and Chas Hodges were session musicians before hooking up to launch their own act, which had elements of rock and music hall with a touch of the pub-rock movement of the time, in the mid-1970s.

The duo, whose Gertcha single was notably featured in ads for Courage Bitter, also recorded a number of songs for Tottenham Hotspur including Ossie's Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way To Wembley), which featured Ossie Ardiles and his mispronunciation of "Tottingham'.

They also had the distinction of appearing on the worldwide hit My Name Is by Eminem. The pair worked on the Labi Siffre track I Got The in their session days, which US rapper Eminem sampled for his hit.

Peacock withdrew from the group during the summer when his wife Sue, 62, lost her fight against lung cancer. They had been married for 36 years.

Hodges said at the time: "Sue was quite simply a remarkable human being. Loved by anyone who was lucky enough to know her, she never had a negative point of view on anyone or anything even as it became clear she was losing her fight for life.'

Hodges will continue to play all the pair's contracted tour dates and is launching his own act Chas And His Band.

Collings held out hope of a return for Peacock one day: "It's not to say that Dave won't make a comeback at some point.'

The act played Glastonbury in 2005 and even opened for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in 1979.