Obituary
He did amazingly well to last as long as he did following his cancer diagnosis, but Wilko Johnson’s Twitter has just announced that he died on Monday. I never got to see the Wilko incarnation of Dr. Feelgood, but will have the warm memories of some great solo gigs to sustain me.
He will be much missed and was touring to the end, including dates booked for 2023 (some rescheduled from July 2022).
I didn’t manage to get tickets for his last Cambridge visit, but did for the next.
His 2014 album, Goin Back Home, with Roger Daltrey is a cracker.
Sad news RIP
Very sad to hear that. He meant a lot to a lot of people. RIP.
Shit.
Bugger
After his predicted demise didnt happen didn’t he say “this is getting embarassing”?
Great individual guitarist.
Isn’t this a wonderful clip? I’ve watched it many times and it’s always life affirming. The guitar style looks straightforward but it bloody isn’t, there’s a real knack to it.
Saw him quite a few times over the years, mainly in small club/pub type venues before his more recent elevation back to bigger venues. It was always like a smash and grab…get on, get on with it, knock ’em dead and get off again. Superb stuff. A life lived to the full but still very sad.
I think he approached guitar playing like a funk guitarist. The primary output is rhythmic, punctuated with occasional melodic and chord stabs. The notes played are less important than the combined onslaught.
His style was also influenced by being left handed and playing a right handed guitar
Nice bloke, brilliant and one of a kind guitarists. Very sad
RIP Wilko.
Only saw him the once (with ID and the Blockheads) but a wonderful night it was
Saw him on his farewell tour after his terminal diagnosis and said goodbye then, miraculously he got another 9 years. RIP Wilko.
One of my favourite players, must have seen him perform more than 50 times.
Here’s a little-known fact – he played uncredited on the first couple of Talking Heads LPs. I heard him confirm it at an in-store interview at Rough Trade but he also looked very embarrassed and quickly shut the conversation down. I assume he’d signed some kind of agreement and was still keeping his word decades later.
Without wanting to go too off-piste from this sad occasion, is this really likely? They had two guitar players in the band and the albums were recorded in New York and Nassau. When they started recording the first album they were still without Jerry Harrison, who they had been trying to poach for some time. He joined them a few days into the recording. I can’t imagine they would bring in another guitarist and potentially piss him off during these delicate negotiations. I also can’t hear anything on those albums that Byrne or Harrison were not able to play.
On a more delightful note, while checking the above I stumbled upon the fact that the bird sounds on Drugs (from Fear of Music) were recorded at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane, just across the river from where I grew up and a common childhood haunt of mine. I have a photo of my brother and I being mauled by Koalas there from about that time. Those are two worlds that I never thought would intersect.
Down to earth bloke, brilliant performer, great character. Saw him with his Solid Senders just after the Feelgood days, and I still remember the crackling pulse of energy he brought to the evening, even after all these years. Condolences to friends and family, his passing is a sad loss to us all.
The penultimate act on the first night of the ’75 Reading Festival delivered one of the most thrilling sets I’ve ever witnessed.
Here they are on TV from the same year:
RIP Wilko – one of a kind.
I remember seeing that on the Whistle Test. I’d hear about them but had never seen Wilko playing. I’d never seen anything like it, or him! One of a kind. His passing isn’t a surprise but still sad. RIP!
Rotten news….he really was special
On his radio show, Jeremy Vine just mentioned the sad death of Wilko Johnson, and, rather inevitably, played Milk and Alcohol. I’m no expert, but Wilko wasn’t even on that track, was he?
No. Vine = Dick.
Saw the Feelgoods once, on the Naughty Rhythms tour, what seems a 100 years ago. Then in full unblinking psycho stride forward and back, whenever playing. More recently caught his band at festivals, remembering a particularly good set at Bearded Theory, with Billy Bragg, side stage, and later despairing how he could ever follow that.
Much as I will grieve Wilko, I hope this doesn’t mean the end of the line for the great Norman Watt-Roy, sweatiest suit wearer in the music biz.
Norman Watt-Roy, sweatiest suit wearer.
I saw the ‘farewell’ tour and watched as NWR’s suit got darker with sweat as the night wore on. He rushed off at the end, threw up and came back on to do the encore.
I was at the 75 Reading festival for Dr Feelgood too.
In fairness, that’s probably the one Dr Feelgood song the wider public would recognise. The reality is that Wilko was much more familiar to the wider public in his later years than ever he was in the 70s.
True, but Stupidity was a number one album. I still can’t believe that happened in sleepy old 1976. Perhaps it was an administrative error.
Great guitarist and personality. He was a fighter to the end. Loved the Feelgoods and saw them twice in their heyday. I also loved Wilko’s band – a guaranteed great night out. RIP Wilko.
I never saw the Feelgoods with Wilko but I saw his band a few times – always a great night and NWR such a great foil/bass player.
I remember standing two feet in front of him, under the arch of his Tele neck, at a Word gig at The Lexington. Wilco, Norman and Steve Howe’s boy in drums, I think. Not a single effects pedal between them.
There’s a quote from Wilko on one of the obit pages where someone had asked him about his technique, which he exploained, and then asked him “What about pedals” and Wilko replied “Pedals? I’m not a cyclist”.
I must have been standing next to you.
RIP
`kin hell, very sad news.
Like others I never saw Wilco play with Dr. Feelgood but I did see him quite a few times with his band. Superb musician and stage presence, that 1,000 yard stare that seemed to bore into your brain and the movement across the stage without err, moving.
R.I.P. Wilco, you gave joy to many.
RIP Wilko. A one-off
He was the first act I saw on leaving home for London all those ages ago. I think it was the first Saturday night, even. He was playing the Town and Country Club in Kentish Town and I was stood at the back in the fug of beer, weed and sweat.
It was brilliant. Thanks, man.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/23/wilko-johnson-obituary?CMP=share_btn_fb
I wasv lucky to see him in Dr Feelgood at Birmingham Town Hall. The whole band were on fire and Lee Brilleaux and Wilko made a menacing double act.
Saw him twice post C
Don’t know what happened there:
Saw him twice post Covid diagnosis – first time excellent, second time knew what to expect but still a great showman.
His Utobiograohy is well worth a read.
Seconded on the autobiography.
Julien Temple’s The Ecstasy Of Wilko Johnson is also worth seeing
I was in Bristol in the 70s and saw them in, I think, 1975. We were walking up Park Street back to Clifton after the gig and we were just passing the Raj Doot, the best Indian restaurant in town, when a cab pulled up and the Feelgood’s all piled out. I went over and thanked them for a great night and shook Wilko’s hand…I remember he had that same startled look that he always had on stage! He was absolutely charming and thanked me for coming.
I took several photos when he played Holmfirth Picturedrome 2013
This is the only one I could find.