Wilko Johnson - He did it right, didn’t he?!

ART58Koen goes off piste with this splendid tribute to the late Wilko Johnson...

 

 As posted last week, Wilko shuffled off the mortal coil and now is probably causing mayhem somewhere in Paradise, which is a bit ironic considering that track was supposedly the cause for him leaving Dr Feelgood as Lee Brilleaux and the other Feelgoods had issues with a song about Wilko’s love for his wife and girlfriend…

Obviously they had never been in Thailand ‘cause there (here for me!) nobody would be bothered about it!

Anyway, I guess that most of the regular visitors here are familiar with Dr Feelgood and Wilko’s machine gun style of playing guitar, but a brief overview can never do any harm.

Wilko’s first job as guitar slinger was for Heinz (of all people!) at The London Rock N Roll Show, Wembley Stadium in 1972.

 

 

A bit later Wilko teamed up with Lee, Sparko, and The Big Figure and all hell broke loose. Four groundbreaking albums, Down By The Jetty, Malpractice, Stupidity (a UK no. 1 chart-topper) and Sneakin’ Suspicion, put Wilko and the Feelgoods firmly on the rock landscape from 1974 to 1977.  In that era of turgid progressive and fey glam-rock, their high-energy dirty R&B and be-suited appearance was a mini-revolution, bringing rock’n’roll back to the roots and giving inspiration to both the UK and US fledgling punk scenes. 

 

After leaving the Feelgoods,, Wilko formed the Solid Senders and signed to Virgin for an eponymous album. Then under his own name he released further albums, including Ice On The Motorway, Barbed Wire Blues and Going Back Home, and finding a live audience particularly in Europe and Japan for his frantic, exciting gigs. 

For a while Wilko became a member of Ian Dury’s Blockheads which lead to a partnership with Norman Watt-Roy, a much-revered bassist on future albums.

In 2009 Julien Temple released a pretty cool documentary about Dr Feelgood: Oil City Confidential (trailer below) which put Wilko back into the limelight.

 

Being an avid fantasy & sci-fi fan (unbelievable, right?) I watched Game of Thrones as soon as it came on screen (2010) and got a bit of a surprise when seeing the episode with the mute executioner Ser Ilyn Payne giving his ‘cold death-glare’, nobody else but Wilko of course!

 

Also in 2010 Wilko met Roger Daltrey (The Who’s lead singer as if you didn’t know that already! You didn’t? Get out of The Good Old Major's Hole right now!)  and decided to work together. Daltrey said, "It turned out we both loved Johnny Kidd & the Pirates. They'd been a big influence on both our bands. That heavy power-trio sound, backing up a singer; it's a British institution. No-one does that better than us."

As usual it took quite a while before this event actually happened…

In the meantime Wilko was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2013, but was well enough to press ahead with the collaboration when The Who finished their world tour. Going Back Home was recorded in the space of a week in November 2013 and it rocks from beginning to end, although seeing the video of "Going Back Home" (below) with flashbacks of both Wilko & Roger from years ago made me a bit uncomfortable, realizing how old we’re all getting…

 

 

In his review for Mojo magazine, Mark Blake wrote that "Johnson's chopping rhythm guitar and Daltrey's geezerish growl make perfect bedfellows." Blake described Going Back Home as a "joyful, celebratory affair", and I fully agree.

Luckily Wilko’s cancer was less aggressive (although very unusual) and following radical surgery he was later declared cancer-free.

Wilko continued touring and releasing occasional records until his death…

A great tribute documentary has just been made available on YouTube:The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson.

 

Although there have been several Dr Feelgood compilation albums, Wilko has only one: Back In The Night (Best Of) by Wilko Johnson (CD, 2002)

 

 

In 2010 The Best Of Wilko Johnson, Volume 1 ‎& 2 were released BUT the songs included are all rerecorded versions…

For our devoted Good Old Major's Hole’s members (I know, gross!) I’m in process of compiling a decent selection of odds & sods...

 

Just answer ART58Koen's laughably simple question in the comments below and his Wilko compilation could be yours!