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| Wilko Johnson UK Tour Wilko Johnson, the phenomenal guitarist and founding member of Dr. Feelgood, who has influenced everyone from Joe Strummer and Mick Jones to Steve Albini, will embark on a nationwide UK tour throughout September and October 2011. Very special guest on all UK dates will be the award-winning blues singer Ian Siegal and his band. The tour kicks off at the Edinburgh Caves on Thursday 15th September. Tickets go on sale on Friday 15th April at 9am and can be ordered by calling the 24 Hour Box Office on: 0871 230 1101 or book online at: www.seetickets.com. In addition to pioneering Dr. Feelgood's distinctive mid-seventies, pre-punk British R&B sound, in 1980 Johnson went on to play guitar for Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Today, Johnson's solo band features Blockheads' Norman Watt-Roy (bass guitar), and Dylan Howe (drums). In 2009 Johnson featured in Julien Temple's "Oil City Confidential"; a fascinating full-length feature film documentary about Dr. Feelgood. The film received many accolades including the MOJO Vision Award at the MOJO Honours List 2010. Dr. Feelgood originally formed in 1971 as a British pub rock band who hailed from Canvey Island, Essex. Their name derived from a slang term for heroin or for a doctor who was willing to overprescribe drugs. It is also a reference to a 1962 record by the American blues pianist and singer Willie Perryman (also known as "Piano Red") called "Dr Feel-Good", which Perryman originally recorded under the name of Dr Feelgood & The Interns. Dr. Feelgood's distinctive British R&B sound was centered on Wilko Johnson's choppy guitar style. The original band line-up also included singer Lee Brilleaux, and the rhythm section of John B. Sparks (aka "Sparko") on bass guitar and John Martin (aka "The Big Figure") on drums. Dr. Feelgood was known primarily for their high energy live performances, although studio albums like Down by the Jetty (1974) and Malpractice (1975) were also incredibly popular. Their 1976 breakthrough live album, Stupidity reached No.1 in the Official UK Album Chart. When the band released their fourth album, Sneakin' Suspicion (1977), Johnson left the group to pursue a solo career. When rock'n'roll was shaken from its pre-punk complacency by the emergence of Dr. Feelgood, it was their guitarist Wilko Johnson who excited most attention – not only for the startling violence of his stage performance (which was to inspire countless imitators and become one of the classic images of rock'n'roll) but also for his guitar style which combined the roles of lead and rhythm guitar in driving riffs and a stuttering machine gun frenzy which altered conceptions of 'guitar heroics'. As a songwriter, from early Feelgood favourites like 'Back in the Night' to the power and poetry of 'Dr. Dupree' and 'Sneaking Suspicion' he has proved himself one of the best and most original exponents of R&B styles this side of the Atlantic. The list of '70s New Wave bands who acknowledge the influence of Wilko and the Feelgoods is extensive and includes The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Jam, The Boomtown Rats, and across the Atlantic The Ramones and Blondie (who spent a whole night at a New York party wearing out their specially imported copy of the Feelgood's first album, 'Down by the Jetty'). After his departure from Dr. Feelgood in 1977 Wilko formed his own band, and over the next few years worked with several personnel of varying degrees of musical accomplishment and mixed moral character. In 1980, while continuing to work with his own 3-piece, Wilko entered the ranks of Ian Dury's brilliant Blockheads, co-writing writing several songs with Ian and featuring on the 'Laughter' album. Then in 1985 the Blockhead's sensational and much loved bassist Norman Watt-Roy joined Wilko and for the last twenty-five years they have startled and blasted audiences from Helsinki to Madrid, Aberdeen to Istanbul, Toulouse to Tokyo. Now with the revered Dylan Howe (another former Blockhead) on drums the band has reached an even greater level of musical mastery and manic brilliance, generally recognised as Wilko's best band of all time. Rock'n'roll never got more savage than this! In 2008 the highly acclaimed film director Julien Temple set out to make a documentary film about the birth and all too brief phenomenon of Dr. Feelgood. 'Oil City Confidential' was premièred in October 2009 to very great critical acclaim and a series of awards. As the eccentric and enigmatic star of the film Wilko has attracted attention in some unexpected places; he has recently been filming alongside Sean Bean as Royal Executioner Ser Illyn Payne in HBO's fantasy series Game of Thrones, due for release in spring 2011. Charismatic and massively talented, Mojo magazine rated Siegal as “the cleverest writer and most magnetic performer of Blues in the UK.” In 2009, Mojo commended Siegal for recording the blues album of the year. Last year Siegal won Band of the Year at the 2010 British Blues Awards. If Siegal had been around in the sixties he would today be accorded the same reverence as artists such as Van Morrison and Joe Cocker. A child of the seventies, Siegal dropped out of Art College in the late eighties to go busking in Germany. From the streets of Berlin, Siegal progressed to clubs around Nottingham, and then London, and ultimately to major stages around Europe. He has a catalogue of highly regarded recordings to his credit. Siegal’s true forte is playing to an audience. He takes command of the stage in a way very few artists alive today can match. Sweat, passion, humour, balls-to-the-wind slide guitar and a soul-infused voice big enough to fell trees! It has won him an ever-growing following of fans and a horde of female admirers. write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Jazz News :: home page |