Sparks, known as “Sparko”, on bass guitar and John Martin, known as “The Big Figure”, on drums. But music was a bigger pull, and he quit to form R&B band Dr Feelgood in 1971 with his Canvey Island pals:singer and harmonica player Lee Brilleaux (who died of lymphoma in 1994), and the rhythm section of John B. He studied English at Newcastle University before doing a bit of travelling, and then teaching English. Photo copyright: Simon Redleyīefore we get into the chat with Wilko, first a bit of history….He was born John Peter Wilkinson on 12 th July 1947, at Canvey Island, Essex. This chopping thing while he struts back and forth, front and back of the stage like the ebb and flow of a raging ocean, and those bulging, manic eyes staring wildly at the horizon, always dressed from head to toe in black, has quite a mesmerising effect and is like no other guitarist. Joe Strummer of the Clash bought a Telecaster after seeing Wilko play. This allows for chords and lead to be played at the same time, giving a fluency and a distinctive sound very unlike the cleaner swat of a plectrum. Wilko employs a finger-style, chop-chord strumming action (the ‘stab’, as he describes it). He himself idolised Mick Green from Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, but Wilko has his very own style. Many cite that band as the spark that lit the punk fire, and many hold Wilko up as a big influence on their own guitar playing. From their birth in 1971 to 1977, when he was sacked amid a bitter row with singer Lee Brilleaux. But I wanted to begin by going back to his days with the fabulous Canvey Island band, Dr Feelgood. Obviously, there is lots to ask him about his health, past and present and his brush with death. Then there’s the imminent UK tour in April and the headline show at The Royal Albert Hall in London in September, to celebrate 30 years of the Wilko Johnson Band and his 70th birthday in July. 25 songs recorded by Wilko between 20, including re-workings of Wilko-penned Dr Feelgood favourites such as “She Does It Right”, “Twenty Yards Behind”, “Sneaking Suspicion” and “Roxette”. Well, first of all, the “peg to hang” our chat on is the release – on 10 th March, of a two CD “Best Of” set, “ Keep It To Myself – The Best Of Wilko Johnson”, on the Chess label. His career is on a high but the man himself is still trying to come terms with the fact he is not dead! Speaking on the ‘phone from his Southend home on the day he was supposed to be back at the Cambridgeshire hospital to have a six monthly scan, he told me he had mixed up the dates and would now go “next week.” In 2017, Wilko is still very much with us, still rocking all over the world and still cancer-free. After a long period of convalesence, he was given the all clear on the cancer diagnosis and doctors are still amazed he is cancer-free. After surgery Wilko had to be treated for two life threatening tumours on his lung and liver. Radical surgery removed his spleen, pancreas, part of his stomach and part of his small and large intestine. He underwent a nine hour life-saving operation at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridgeshire, to remove the seven pound and 11 ounce tumour from Wliko’s pancreas, in April 2014. A music photographer friend who is also a breast cancer surgeon, Charlie Chan, urged Wilko to seek a second opinion and set him up to see a friend of his, surgeon Emmanuel Huguet, who eventually told him he could save his life A man who refused treatment and resigned himself to his imminent fate, while still performing around the world to say goodbye to his loyal fans.īut a man who was still alive and kicking some 15 months after his diagnosis, astounding doctors. This is the man who was told by medics in late 2012, that he had less than a year to live, diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Looking for a “good angle” in the prep’ for an interview with Wilko Johnson really isn’t necessary. Legendary guitarist Wilko Johnson talks candidly to Music Republic Magazine editor Simon Redley, about cheating death and trying to grasp the fact he is still alive – while making plans for a 30 th anniversary concert and his 70 th birthday.
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