Doctor Feelgood: heroes of pre-punk, or the Canvey Quo?

oh right, thanks for that.

Wonder what was bugging a friend of mine that messaged me about it.

Unless he was going to see him tomorrow or owt.

Sounds more promising, anyway.

Julien Temple's doc on Dr. Feelgood, "Oil City Confidential"
on DVD November 5th in the US (re-release?)

Never released on DVD in the U.S. before as far as I could tell

The All Through The city box set is very tasty. Especiaaly now taht it's come down heavily in price.
Might have been nice to get some of the nicknacks taht you got with the more expensive initial version of the box but the music is pretty cool anyway. Especially on material like the title track.

Got my copy of Oil City Confidential in the mail. Subtitles in French, Italian, German, and Spanish, but no English, which sucks 'cause some of these guys are incomprehensible mumblers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBBfVBqQif8

Whole 1975 TV appearance (on "The Geordie Scene") in VHS fidelity. Fucking great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBBfVBqQif8

That live in Finland clip is so fucking great. They look even more like psychopaths on cheap speed than usual.

Wilko Johnson has radical cancer surgery

Former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson has had a major operation in an attempt to treat his pancreatic cancer.

Johnson was diagnosed at the end of 2012 and was given 10 months to live after rejecting chemotherapy.

But he defied the doctors' predictions and it was recently found that his tumour was less aggressive than normal.

He has now had the "football-size tumour" removed as well as his pancreas, spleen and part of his stomach. He has cancelled 14 concerts.

A statement said: "Doctors are hopeful that following the surgery the prognosis for Wilko will be positive."

Oh man, please let him be well again.

Still can't forgive him for not calling his collaboration with Roger Daltrey Roger Wilko, but other than that, fantastic news.

They must have avoided that one on purpose, as opposed to "never thought of it", but hey

Would be so great if he could "beat" cancer.

Would be so great if he could "beat" cancer.

― ۩, Wednesday, April 30, 2014 11:49 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It appears that he has!

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29727632

This makes me very, very happy.

whoa, that's an amazing story.

been listening to them a lot lately, or watching as much as listening. the studio albums have great moments but there are always a few tracks that sound a bit too much like blueshammer for comfort. don't ever need to hear their version of "rollin and tumblin" again. but they had amazing stage presence.

i do wonder if in 50 years --presuming human civilization survives in some form-- the distinctions between the first wave of british R&B, the brit invasion stuff, mid-70s stuff like ducks deluxe and the feelgoods, and all the subsequent "revivals" of this sort of thing will mean anything whatsoever. it's tempting just to see it as one continuous thing that just happened to get more popular/surface nationally on occasion.

And a new interview with Wilko

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/10/wilko-johnson-interview-ive-got-a-future?CMP=fb_gu

Extremely moving paragraph:

He keeps chuckling while he says things like that, but the more he talks, the more clear it becomes how complicated his response to being cured is: he’s obviously incredibly grateful, but it isn’t as straightforward as “waving my arms in the air, going ‘I’m alive!’” After a lifelong struggle with depression, he found the illness evaporated when he thought he had 10 months to live. Now it’s back. “For instance, since coming out and recovering, oh man, I’ve started grieving for my wife, Irene, again. It’s 10 years, nearly 11 since she died, and I never, ever got over her. I just … ” He lets out a huge sigh. “I’m still in love with her. And it hurts now, to think of her. During all that year, I dunno, if you’ve got no future, you do think, ‘Well, I don’t have to sit here and think about how I’ve got to go on for years without her.’ So perhaps it receded a bit, just thinking about her every quarter of an hour instead of every minute. Now I’m recovered, I do find myself sometimes … ” His voice tails off, and there’s another mammoth sigh. “Oh man, it hurts.”

Man, Wilko's Ice on the Motorway album from 1980 is pretty satisfying. Basically a slightly punkier Feelgood vibe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V5WlQ8u3jA

they are playing berlin tonight. not sure if i should go.

Aww, Wilko finally passed. RIP.

aw no! i had been wondering about him a lot recently. what a hero.

One of the nicest and funniest people I ever interviewed, and his autobiography was an utter delight. RIP Wilko.

Oh no! RIP Wilko :((((((((

lovely interview Mike. i also recall reading your Guardian piece at the time. excellent work.

a sad day.

Absolutely brilliant guitarist who forged such an immediately identifiable, personal style and stage presence. RIP.

RIP to a legend

All the Youtube videos in this thread seem to have disappeared, I should do somehting about that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzF0AETdRF8

john b "sparko" sparks's tache is a thing of beauty, and brilleaux's pale begrime suit even more so

"they looked as if they’d met each other in some unsavoury part of the army," as mick farren put it long ago

Three of them were called John so I assume the nicknames came in handy - and then Wilko was replaced by another John so they had to come up with another nickname!

Three of them were called John

not the only band to have had that issue tbh!

Some other observations:

1. I saw one of those expert Youtube guitarists trying to reproduce Wilko's guitar part on "Goin' Back Home", playing exactly like Wilko, and it is ridiculously difficult, especially if you're constantly striding backwards and forwards with your eyes popping out your head (he didn't do that part).

2. Not an instrument I'm especially interested in but Lee Brilleaux was a very good blues harp player (harpist?).

3. Had no idea The Big Figure did most of the backing vocals.

this guy does a good guitar tutorial...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LifmFE63kHQ

... that's the one! He had to admit "Goin' Back Home" was somewhat outside his comfort zone.

yeah comfort is not a word that springs to mind while watching any of that!

Doctor Feelgood: heroes of pre-punk, or the Canvey Quo?

but Quo are heroes of pre-punk (in mah book)

Heroes of pre-punk, AND the Canvey Quo

(xp) Except not many actual punks in 1976-77 would have given Quo as an influence, which I thought was the point of the title. Dr. Feelgood seem a lot more 60s R&B than Quo, there are similarities but Dr. Feelgood rarely strayed about 4 minutes and guitar solos were kept short and sweet.

That's why mah book is different than the punks of 1976-77. They would have missed Is There a Better Way, and before that Just Take Me, and ignored Down Down's economical motorik totality.

Down Down is just unstoppable. I was extremely annoyed though when I bought the 7" single in Belgium a few years ago only to find out that it's the fuckin album version that I like.

Yeah I can't listen to the 7". As well as removing some of the middle it fades out right before one a whole succession of inventive parts, just when you think the music has disclosed everything. When the music unexpectedly goes 'up' and the bass drops out only to re-emerge as strange little wriggles, accompanied by arbitrary offbeat hats, before everyone locks furiously into step for the real, very splashy fadeout.

I LOVE that song.

I danced to Rockin All Over The World tonight, I have no shame.

looking a little into the life and times of MICK GREEN of the johnny kidd and the pirates, who wilko cites as precursor whose plectrum he is not fit to lick ect ect, i
(a) was reminded of the live at the hope and anchor LP, which attempted (tho i think failed) to establish 60s UK r&b, pub rock, power pop and punk as a unified broad new wave front (it sold fairly well but was beloved of no one much critically), and
(b) discovered that said mick green co-wrote some quo songs w/alan lancaster (quo bassist and co-founder), and
(c) noted w/pleasure that the post-kidd pirates put out an LP in 1978 called SKULL WARS and a ten-inch in 1981 called A FISTFUL OF DUBLOONS

as you can see my hints, quo are krautrock (this is canon)

(s/b as you can see me from westbury white horse hints etc)

Quo are basically Guru Guru with better songs, but maybe a discussion for a different thread.

Adrian's attempts to play like Wilko prove that you can learn all the technique you want, but if you're not an angry dysfunctional weirdo it'll never sound right.

Re: Mick Green, the guitar playing on this is absolutely brutal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS8uC7ea9oE

ditto the singer's hairstyle tbf

the angriest garfunkel

nevertheless, hfs at that clip.

HFS x 2!