Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The gunslinger of punk
Dr Feelgood guitar great Wilko Johnson dies at home aged 75
Rotten and Strummer learned from him. He does it right RIP BILLY BRAGG SINGER’S TRIBUTE TO WILKO
FORMER Dr Feelgood guitarist and forefather of punk Wilko Johnson has died aged 75.
His Facebook page announced “with a very heavy heart” that Johnson, whose music career spanned more than 50 years, died at home on Monday evening.
In 2013 Johnson, who also played mute executioner Ilyn Payne in TV’S Game of Thrones, was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer.
He was given 10 months to live and initially avoided treatment and went on a farewell tour. But when later tests showed it was not as aggressive, he had the tumour and some internal organs removed and was declared cancer-free.
Johnson, from Canvey Island, Essex, formed Dr Feelgood with singer Lee Brilleaux in 1971.
SNARLING
His choppy guitar style and menacing stares combined with Brilleaux’s snarling vocals gave the band a distinctive, hard, edgy feel. He would raise his guitar to his shoulder like a gun.
Early Feelgood singles included She Does It Right, Back in the Night and Milk and Alcohol. Their 1976 live album
Stupidity topped the charts. But in 1977 Johnson left the band after a bust-up. In 1980 he joined Ian Dury’s band The Blockheads and had a lengthy career touring with the Wilko Johnson Band.
Singer Billy Bragg called Johnson a precursor of punk. He tweeted: “His guitar playing was angry and angular, but his presence – twitchy, confrontational, out of control – was something we’d never beheld before in UK pop.
“Rotten, Strummer and Weller learned a lot from his edgy demeanour. He does it right RIP.” But behind the seemingly blank eyes was a poet’s soul as Who singer Roger Daltrey, who cut
the 2014 album Going Back Home with Johnson, discovered.
He said: “More than anything Wilko wanted to be a poet. I was lucky to have known him and have him as a friend.”
Johnson, born John Wilkinson, graduated from Newcastle University and travelled around India, then returned to Essex to work as an English teacher.
He found joy in literature but, after realising he was never going to cut it as a poet, he discovered music.
Johnson’s wife Irene died of cancer in 2004. They had two sons.