Wilko Johnson 1947-2022. A working class break from music from men with long hair & beards
I was sorry to read of the death of Wilko Johnson at 75. An r’n’b guitarist he came to public focus with Dr Feelgood in the mid-1970s.
I saw Dr Feelgood at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park on 15th February 1975. It was part of the Naughty Rhythms tour and Kokomo and Chilli Willi were also on the bill. I have no memory of their performances but I do have Dr Feelgood’s performance firmly in my memory 47 years on.
It was of course Wilko Johnson’s stage presence and guitar playing style. Dressed in dark clothing with shortish hair, Johnson wielded the guitar like a machine and moved across the stage like a robot. It was mesmerising.
Johnson had of course adapted the style from earlier musicians but I doubt many in the crowd at the Rainbow that night new that. It was rather that something new was being witnessed. Short sharp blues songs played by a band from Canvey Island not ponderous tootling from men with long hair and beards (and that was just me).
It represented a break and Finsbury Park was of course where a young J.Rotten was developing the Sex Pistols. Sharp, in your face, confrontational music and culture for our crisis ridden times
Wilko Johnson was a precursor of punk. 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
Billy Bragg on Twitter
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