Wilko Johnson as Ser Ilyn Payne in Game of Thrones. Johnson remained with Dr Feelgood for their first four albums, the latter three of which charted in the top 20 of the UK albums chart, before inter-band conflict led him to part ways with the group. The band went on to become mainstays of the British pub rock scene, and Johnson quickly became known for his distinctive style of guitar playing, which utilised fingerpicking in order to play riffs or solos while playing rhythm, as well as his flamboyant performances, which often featured him raising his guitar to his shoulders like a gun.ĭr Feelgood’s intense, brutal take on R&B was a major influence on the British punk music that would emerge in the 70s and 80s. He began playing guitar as a teenager, but his career began in earnest in 1971, when he formed Dr Feelgood with singer Lee Brilleaux, bass player John B Sparks, and drummer John Martin. Johnson was born John Peter Wilkinson in Canvey Island, Essex, in 1947. His presence will be felt for many more years.” “When I interviewed him a few years ago, he was bright, thoughtful and an astonishing story teller. “His unique, wired playing and stage presence thrilled and inspired many guitarists, myself included,” he tweeted. Photograph: Ian Dickson/Rex/ShutterstockĪlex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand was among those to pay tribute to Johnson. But by the end of 1992 even he was flagging, in constant ill-health.Dr Feelgood … Wilko Johnson with Lee Brilleaux and John B Sparks. Long-serving rhythm section John B Sparks and The Big Figure were also both soon gone, similarly exhausted. Johnson’s replacement, John ‘Gypie’ Mayo, left in 1980, worn down by relentless touring and heroin. They were on their way to being forgotten. They rallied, but the early-’80s were brutal. The Feelgoods were rocked in 1977 by an acrimonious split with totemic guitarist and songwriter Wilko Johnson. When he was dying, he added a smoking jacket, a smoking cap with a little tassel, velvet smoking slippers and a monocle to his eccentric wardrobe. He affected tweeds, cavalry twills and Barbour jackets, was reinvented as a country gentleman. Later, he frequented bespoke Berwick Street tailors Mr Eddie and Chris Kerr, wore hand-made shoes from New & Lingwood of Jermyn Street. So it’s a hoot to discover that at school he was the leader of The Utterly Club – subsequently The Lovely Club – who sported cravats, waistcoats, watch-chains, canes, the occasional hat and monocles. There was also something of the dandy about Lee, even when he came offstage looking as if he’d just been put through a car wash. He was volatile, too, occasionally fierce company when he was drinking, which was often. Brilleaux was the livid personification of their raw noise and snarling contempt for the era’s musical self-indulgence, crop-haired, fists-clenched, predatory, coiled, about to strike and, until Johnny Rotten happened along, English rock’s most charismatic frontman.Īs many of the people who knew him recall in this vivid, entertaining and overdue biography, Lee was well-read (among his favourite writers were Dickens, Trollope, Steinbeck, Patricia Highsmith and Eric Newby), sharply intelligent, outspoken and hilarious. Twenty years earlier, of course, Lee had been all over the music weeklies as singer for mad-dog Canvey Island rhythm and blues monsters Dr Feelgood. Lee’s passing became therefore a mere footnote to the unfolding drama in Seattle, briefly mentioned. Two days earlier Kurt Cobain had killed himself. Zoe Howe doesn’t make much of it in Lee Brilleaux: Rock’N’Roll Gentleman, but Lee’s death on April 7, 1994, was barely noticed by the music press.
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