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

Seeing Oil City Confidential made me wish I'd been young enough to see them: the live clips are just amazing (Lee Brilleaux doing press-ups during a guitar solo because he didn't want all the attention going to Wilko Johnson). So I went home and listened to a singles comp, which was dull as you like. The head of A&R from one of the majors told me not signing them was a terrible mistake he made: "They were an awful band, but they had something, and no one else had anything in 1975."

punk was kinda already happening in the u.s. in 1975

great band go buy Down By The Jetty

Interesting that Doctor Feelgood were twice as fast and aggressive as any of the US punk bands of 75 (and a huge inspiration to them, as interviews in the film make clear), but no one would ever call them a punk band (and Down by the Jetty was Jan 75).

I'll see yr '75 and raise it by 5 years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World_War_%28band%29

great live, maybe not so good on record is kind of conventional opinion of Dr Feelgood? I think for a reason, it's true.

yeah i mean third world war, edgar broughton, lil band called the stooges, radio birdman, etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jmIYyskDM8

Definitely something compelling about the pungent reek of ill will that these fellows gave off.

As tight and steely as knuckle-dusters.

nice clip!

wilko seems like he sussed out a rad guitar style that bridged the gap between andy gill and steve cropper

Saw them live in early '76 at the National Stadium in Dublin - they weren't Punk and a year later they sounded out of date, but in '76, they suddenly put short hair, short songs and no guitar solos on the agenda...... (it also became clear where the Boomtown Rats had stolen their whole schtick). Wilko is an amazing player and presence, and i bet the Cropper/ Andy Gill line extends to Albini too.

Not trying to get into a pissing match over anyone's claim to be the first punk band - God knows I'm not trying to make a case it's for them. I think Birdman's an interesting comparison, though: I don't find them any great shakes on record - the ratio of heavy to punk in their rock is too steep for me - but the clips I've seen of them suggest they were terrific live. And in both cases it's based on the same thing: the sense that either of them might contain at least one genuine psycho - not something that comes over on record, in either case. Lee Brilleaux just looks feral in some of the 75 clips - wiping his nose and mouth on the sleeve of that filthy white suit, always staring furiously at the crowd, pumping his fist randomly ... he looks like he wants to kill everyone within 50 yards.

This is from the Kursaal in 1975: the kind of thing I simply couldn't listen to on CD, but I can watch this with tinny computer speakers all day - and with a cinema sound system it all sounds amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFcgVJjzwao&feature=PlayList&p=ADBFF0043F7AB52E&index=4

I seem to remember a run of pretty handy singles, though I haven't revisited them for years. Will have to see the documentary.

xpost:Blaming the Boomtown Rats on the Feelgoods seems beyond harsh. And, yes, can we not do the 'who invented punk' thread derail AGAIN?

This thread inspired me to check these guys out - I don't know about pre-punk, but I'll say this: I bet Bill Carter (of the much-missed Screaming Blue Messiahs) owns all their albums.

another sweet clip! i might have to finally get an album by these guys

Malpractice was their ticket to nowhere in the US. I very much liked the album, still do. The famous Rolling Stone Record Guide -- the red version -- I seem to recall famously saying of the
album that it sounded like band setting the stage for a singer who never appears. Which was cruel but funny, even though it totally misses what Lee Brilleaux was doing. xhuxk still has a copy of the red book so he could check.

Anyway, "I Can Tell," "Don't Let Your Daddy Know," "Going Back Home," "Back In the Night" -- all great songs. After Johnson left I never liked them as much but with Gypie Mayo as guitarist they made a couple good ones. And you can still find good songs on albums up into at least the mid-Eighties.

"Milk & Alcohol," "Down at the Doctors," "Crazy 'Bout Girls" still summon a rise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ySdocMeBW8

X-post.
Re the Feelgoods/ Rats thing - until the Rats signed they were a fairly unreconstructed pub-rock outifit and stole much of their material pretty directly from the likes of the Feelgoods and the Hotrods. In those days - height of the troubles - not many British bands came over here, so there was an appreciable time-lag then. They wen't through a pretty intensive re- imagining before their first single, when, after dissing punk for ages, suddenly they were 'Ireland's top punk band'. (I know this happened to lot of bands in those few frantic months - I don't even blame them for that. Just for everything else)

As a weekly-inkie music press junkie at the time, I can confirm that the standard pre-punk critical line re. the Feelgoods ran: a great live band who could never recapture their greatness in the studio. But there was a lot of goodwill attached to that, and a general hope and faith that one day they would indeed make a great studio album. In that context, releasing Stupidity was a smart move, and its vastly increased sales compared to anything else they did was no surprise.

As someone who was impatient for UK punk rock to start delivering on record, the likes of the Feelgoods/Hot Rods/Count Bishops/Gorillas/Graham Parker/101'ers/Tyla Gang/Lew Lewis/Little Bob Story were my John The Baptist figures, rather than the likes of Television/Patti Smith/Richard Hell/Jonathan Richman etc. They were as close as I could find to what I wanted punk rock to be, so I made do with them for a while.

(Ack, that sounds meaner than it should have done. I enjoyed them all hugely, but UK punk rock eventually resonated far, far deeper.)

A bit of the opposite for me. I don't listen to Television, Patti Smith or Jonathan Richman
anymore.

But I can still find myself reaching for something by the Feelgoods or the Count Bishops, even the Tyla Gang. Surprisingly, I even have a Little Bob Story recording.

Oil City Confidential is definitely something I'll want to see. There's really no American counterpart to the beaten down lower working class thing going on in the trailer for it.

Springsteen? Who is also surely a big influence on the Boomtown Rats.

Watch the trailer. Having spent a lot of time in coastal NJ, there's no real comparison between it
and the Feelgood neck of the woods. Not much, if any, romanticism or myth-making in the early Feelgoods stuff. The Feelgoods defined taut.

Wilko was a huge influence on a lot of post-punk guitarists. Erase the vocal tracks from just about any Gang of Four song and it sound uncannily like the Feelgoods.

Also, didn't Lee Brilleuex lend Dave Robinson and Jake Rivera several hundred pounds to start Stiff Records?

Springsteen/ Rats

Only came out when they started making records: before that, definite Feelgoods/ Hotrods copyists.

Feelgoods/Hot Rods/Count Bishops/Gorillas/Graham Parker/101'ers/Tyla Gang/Lew Lewis/Little Bob Story

Still have records by nearly all of those. There was movie about Jesse Hector (Gorillas) wasn't there?

"Television/Patti Smith/Richard Hell/Jonathan Richman etc."

i'd take the count bishops over ANY of these people. but i'm in the minority. hell, i'd take ducks deluxe over any of them too.

Re this thread, you're not in a minority. Stupidity attained a chart high water mark not equalled by any other pub rock band in the UK. I think.

Unsurprisingly, the album was not released in the US. They were written off even faster than Slade and Status Quo in terms of being too English.

Andy Gill is interviewed in the doco, and gives full regard to Wilko as an inspiration.

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CZMLs8Ke40

That does look good. Quite the pub rock revival kicking off at the moment what with this and the Ian Dury film.

I'm gonna have to come out of semi-lurking for this thread! Totally great band and Wilko is absolute favourite guitarist, along with Verlaine/Lloyd. Dunno about them not being great in the studio - Jetty and Malpractice rock pretty hard IMHO - certainly they pack more of a punch than similar just-pre-punk stuff from the likes of The Count Bishops/Hot Rods etc. Part of the problem might be the FLOW of the studio albums, the Wilko-sung tracks break it up a bit, and there's always one where the mix is just plain wrong - e.g Vic Maile mixing the guitar too low in Going Back Home on Malpractice.

I think Mick Green is the biggest influence on Wilko along with Steve Cropper - have a listen to the Pirates or The Dakotas for that 'rhythm and lead together' style. Not easy to play - getting something like 'I Don't Mind' to flow is pretty difficult without using Wilko's fingers and thumbs method.

Like Mike T-Diva the more hard-edged pub-rock bands got me through in 1975 (as a 13 year old!) and I remember seeing this clip on the telly and being totally blown away. In Yorkshire, we used to get the Geordie Scene on a Saturday morning - compulsory viewing in my house. It was usually a mixture of glam, hard rock and the odd bit of proggy stuff, but done live in front of a TOTP-type audience. I can remember SAHB, Procol Harem, The Sweet, Mott on there. Oh and Nazareth were on every bloody week just about...

here's the clip...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eVyofFm0Rw

Fuck - I just saw elsewhere that Mick Green died YESTERDAY :( RIP.

Saw that, was gonna say.

I guess that Vic Maile is a central figure here if we're plotting a course from the Pirates and the Animals through Dr Feelgood to the Screaming Blue Messiahs and the Godfathers.

The Godfathers - now there's a band who never captured their live energy on recd!

The Godfathers - now there's a band who never captured their live energy on recd!

except the live album of course. but yes, i totally agree.

Great clip there.
One way in which the Feelgoods, maybe more than others, preseaged punk was that they had a thought out look. It may seem unstudied now, but most of their contemporaries were still stranded in a no mans land of post hippie threads and beards, and pub rock authenticity. The Feelgoods, with the suits and short hair and Wilko and Sparks little walk forward, walk back, move, were, in that context, riveting. (obviously there were bands at the opposite extreme as well - SAHBs, Roxy etc - but glam and pub-rock were pretty discrete cultures, they those bands didn't impinge much on the audience the Feelgoods were getting)

Godfathers a good comparison - though the Coyne brothers did get the live sound down on record once at least:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLOp8cE5zEw

fu*ck. thats a good track, ta for that ithappens.
i was a big godfathers fan, but to this day i dont have any SPE material.
clearly i have been missing out.

that 'geordie scene' clip is fantastic. i think "stupidity' surprised both the band and their label by going to no. 1 in the album charts and very briefly the feelgoods were the biggest band in the uk. my entry point was through hearing "milk and alcohol" (their only top ten single) on the radio relentlessly throughout the summer of '79 though it is to my eternal regret that i never saw them live. i cannot wait to see the film.

due to this thread, i have just dug down by the jetty (2 cd collectors edition) out of its unloved place in the archive and given it a blast.
wow.
after a few days of not getting any real buzz from music, this was a very much needed boost.

I voted for down by the jetty in the 70s poll.

http://www.godfathershq.com/images/svdm2010.jpg

another year, another chance to see them again dissipates (boring grown up shit).
the various times i saw them in 86-94 they never once disappointed, and in fact on a couple of occasions, scared the living shit out of me (was violence and audience antagonism part of all their shows ?)

i never saw them live but this is still one of my fave albums from the 80's:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_t6Gs_TbZqnY/RenQjmFWo0I/AAAAAAAAAGM/jtwFudsOVhU/s320/hit+by+hit+cover.jpg

All their chorusses were the title repeated 4 times.

Except for "Birth School Work Death" which was only twice.

scott, that was actually reissued by the band recently with an extra disc of session versions which are excellent, and live tracks, including a live rendition of that sid Presley experience track above that i didn't realise until 47 minutes ago.

and yes, mark g, i know of their limitations lyrically, but there was something about the venomous vocal attack and riffs that just hit this young impressionable 18 year old in 1986 hard.

I never saw them live, but they were on one of those late night live TV gig shows, and I had to really prove it to myself I wasn't actually there.

Or was I?

That's the Godfathers I mean.

I did see Dr Feelgood, way after the 'glory' days, Lee Brilleaux plus various lads half his age. Bit disappointing. Was with a mate who used to 'roadie' for them occasionally, which may have clouded things.

Saw the Godfathers a couple of times, and they were fun, but I never really got the point of them on record. At that time I was listening to a lot of 60s punk, so they seemd kind of superfluous. Saw SPE once, at Brixton Ritzy supporting Billy Bragg at a GLC Jobs for Change gig. I was 15 and they were great - the Godfathers were a definite disappointment after that. However, it's not like there's much to weigh them on - just two singles, I think, and a Peel session or two. The difference, in my memory, relates to what's exciting about Dr Feelgood in the live clips: the Godfathers looked like a rock band because of that guitarist with the shagpile hair, while SPE looked like a gang. Gangs look more exciting on a stage.

the Godfathers looked like a rock band because of that guitarist with the shagpile hair,

good point, and very true. he certainly did not look part of the gang.
still, each time i saw them the experience was very intense.

Now I want to go dig out my Godfathers cd

Couldn't resist knocking this up on Spotify:
Going Back Home: a UK pub rock sampler.

36 tracks, broadly chronological, mostly from 1975-77, with a little bit before and a little bit after. Strictly one track per artist - except for Dr. Feelgood, to whom the playlist is dedicated!

Track listing:
1. She Does It Right - Dr Feelgood
2. I Fought The Law - Ducks Deluxe (mis-labelled on Spotify, tsk)
3. Louisa On A Horse - John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett
4. How Long - Ace
5. Why Did You Do It - Stretch
6. Motor Bikin' - Chris Spedding
7. Home In My Hand (live at the Hope & Anchor) - Brinsley Schwarz
8. Going Back Home - Dr Feelgood
9. Teenage Letter - Count Bishops
10. Keys To Your Heart - The 101ers
11. She's My Gal - The Gorillas
12. So It Goes - Nick Lowe
13. Get Out Of Denver (live at the Marquee) - Eddie & the Hot Rods
14. Roxette (live) - Dr Feelgood
15. Between The Lines - Pink Fairies
16. Cincinatti Fatback - Roogalator
17. Hotel Chambermaid - Graham Parker & the Rumour
18. Styrofoam - Tyla Gang
19. Boogie On The Street - Lew Lewis
20. Hightime (live) - Little Bob Story
21. Showbiz - Downliners Sect
22. Police Car - Larry Wallis
23. Sneakin' Suspicion - Dr Feelgood
24. Mystery Dance - Elvis Costello
25. Razzle In My Pocket - Ian Dury (alas, no Kilburns on Spotify)
26. Whole Wide World - Wreckless Eric
27. Cat On A Wall - Squeeze
28. I Knew The Bride - Dave Edmunds
29. Mony Mony - Celia & the Mutations (aka Stranglers)
30. She's A Wind Up - Dr Feelgood
31. Dancing The Night Away - The Motors
32. Be Good To Yourself - Frankie Miller
33. The Walk - The Inmates
34. Driver's Seat - Sniff & the Tears
35. Sultans Of Swing - Dire Straits
36. Back In The Night - Dr Feelgood

i used to have this on tape:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b8/Hope_%26_Anchor.jpg/584px-Hope_%26_Anchor.jpg

A1 Wilko Johnson Band - Dr. Feelgood
A2 The Stranglers - Straighten Out
A3 Tyla Gang - Styrofoam
A4 The Pirates - Don't Munchen It
A5 The Steve Gibbons Band - Speed Kills
A6 XTC - I'm Bugged
A7 Suburban Studs - I Hate School
B1 The Pleasers - Billy
B2 XTC - Science Friction
B3 Dire Straits - Eastbound Train
B4 Burlesque - Bizz Fizz
B5 X-Ray Spex - Let's Submerge
B6 999 - Crazy
C1 The Saints - Demolition Girl
C2 999 - Quite Disappointing
C3 The Only Ones - Creatures Of Doom
C4 The Pirates - Gibson Martin Fender
C5 Steel Pulse - Sound Check
C6 Roogalator - Zero Hero
D1 Philip Rambow - Underground Romance
D2 The Pleasers - Rock & Roll Radio
D3 Tyla Gang - On The Street
D4 The Steve Gibbons Band - Johnny Cool
D5 Wilko Johnson Band - Twenty Yards Behind
D6 The Stranglers - Hanging Around

when i was a kid. i appreciate the mix of styles much more now than i did then!

Probably irrelevant, but I must protest the maligning of Status Quo in the thread title.

Fair point. Incidentally, if you're in a pub rock mood, the Ian Dury movie currently doing the rounds is good value.

Roogalator.... another great live band, lost in year zero puritanism.

I remember that Godfathers late night live show, I taped it and watched it a lot, iirc it ended with a cover of Anarchy. Gloriously couldn't-give-a-fuck uncool. One thing that also sticks in my mind is a Sounds piece on them that described one of the band (Kris maybe) of dressing like a 'blind mod with cruel mates'

is there anybody else who finds the term pub rock totally inappropriate for what dr. feelgood weres doing? they made rhythm and blues, pub rock is an insult.

maybe paul weller made pub rock.

Nothing wrong with pubs.

i never said the contrary.

Pub- rock in that context meant rock music played in pubs- venues like the Hope and Anchor, the Nashville, the Half Moon and so on, as opposed to concert venues and universites which were the staple of Brit rock in the 70s. And pubs in Britain are -or were then - very different from clubs.

Imagine a time when pubs actually had live bands!

Ha, my dad actually went to see Dr Feelgood a couple of months ago, playing in the backroom at one of his locals! Fuck knows who is in the band now though.

Ddin't they pop up on the thread about bands with no original members?

Sounds about right!

As Brilleaux had insisted prior to his demise, Dr. Feelgood reunited initially with vocalist Pete Gage, and then Robert Kane, and recommenced touring in 1996. Every year since Brilleaux's death, a special concert, known as the Lee Brilleaux Birthday Memorial, is held on Canvey Island, where ex and current Feelgoods celebrate the music of Dr. Feelgood, and raise money for the Fairhaven hospice. Fans attend from all over the globe, and the sixteenth event was held on 8 May 2009.

they made rhythm and blues, pub rock is an insult.

It's all dialectical, innit? "Pub rock" was handy code for a smaller scale, back-to-basics, more egalitarian performance-based style, which stood in opposition to the increasingly large-scale, distanced, studio-based superstar pomp of the day - and as such, the term was readily embraced by its proponents. The network of London venues which evolved around it, or whose lifespan was sustained by it - Hope & Anchor, Nashville, Dingwalls, Marquee, 100 Club etc - then provided a ready-made test bed/launching pad for the early punk scene, and much as the punk bands might have openly scorned their surroundings, they would have struggled much harder to build a scene without them. But then the dialectic shifted, turning "pub rock" from a term of affection and modest pride into a term of abuse: by 1979 or so, it had begun to be used as code for lack of artistic ambition / insular complacency / conservative, reverential jam-band plodding etc...

i can't stop listening to "She Does it Right"

This was my Rough Guide to Pub-Rock on one of those Rough Guides threads:

Win Or Lose - Lew Lewis Reformer
Water - Roogalator
Another Useless Day - Black Claw
Back In The Night - Dr. Feelgood
What Have We Got To Lose - Bees Make Honey
Fireball - Tyla Gang
Coast To Coast - Ducks De Luxe
You Really Got Me - Hammersmith Gorillas
So It Goes - Nick Lowe
Between The Lines - The Pink Fairies
Girls Are Always Right - Any Trouble
Train Train - Count Bishops
Alright With Me - Jook
Romeo and The Lonely Girl - Ernie Graham
Reconnez Cherie - Wreckless Eric
Day Job - Meal Ticket

For me there were two strands to pub-rock.

1) The west-coast/country rock type of thing (Eggs Over Easy, Bees Make Honey, Brinsley etc). This was around from about 70-71.

2) Harder edged R&B based stuff that came through in 73-74 (Count Bishops, Hot Rods, Dr.Feelgood, Gorillas also maybe some of the street-rock bands like Pink Fairies could be lumped in here)

1975 was the pivotal year when the country rock thing started to sound old things really hardened up. Nick Lowe migrated from category 1 to 2, as did Brinsley and Bob Andrews with The Rumour. Early Graham Parker is still pretty Van Morrison/Springsteen-ish though - I was listening to a singles comp last night - I reckon the Jack Nitzsche productions are his best work. Discovering Japan and Local Girls are fantastic. Oh...and Protection's a great single too.

That's a good Spotify list. Downliner's Sect are an interesting bunch - first album was in 1964 then reappeared and fell in with the pub-rock circuit in the mid 70's. They're still going and quite often play in a pub/club near me (The Eel Pie Club).

Thanks, Dr.C. Good to see you're still around. Wish I could have put something from the first Ducks Deluxe album on the Spotify list; I'd probably have gone for Coast To Coast. That "I Fought The Law" cover doesn't represent them at their best, but it does show where Joe Strummer probably got his inspiration from for the Cost Of Living EP. That 1977 Downliners Sect single came out on the Raw label, which was run from my local record shop in Cambridge. It sat oddly amongst the rest of the label's punk-based roster. Count Bishops "Teenage Letter" still sounds completely fantastic; had forgotten just how good it was.

Yes, I'd forgotten that Raw single. There was a Gorillas single on Raw too IIRC.

what a great thread this has become, and ta mike t-d for clearing up the "pub rock = shit" dilemma, as i have to confess, i have fallen under this misapprehension myself, but clearly i need to fire up spotify and check that playlist out.

Raw Records put out quite a few non-punk releases IIRC, a few rockabilly reissues and the like.

xpost There was a 1977 re-release on Raw of the Gorillas 1974 cover of "You Really Got Me", then Raw put out an album and a couple more singles in 1978. The album's on Spotify, as is "You Really Got Me".

Don't remember any rockabilly reissues on Raw, but it would make sense as the shop it was run from was called Remember Those Oldies. It was a bit like the Rock On/Chiswick set-up, but on an even smaller scale. Raw also put out the debut Soft Boys EP, and Kevin Rowland's debut effort with The Killjoys.

RAW-12 Danny Wild & the Wildcats: Mean Evil Daddy / Old Billy Boogie / 200 Miles -78

I've got this one, found it in Oxfam for 15p.

Must dig out my Raw recds singles compilation. Killjoys are on it, as are Acme Sewage Company!
And Some Chicken + The Users of course.

I have been recently trying to persuade J.Hector to sing on a track, for a new project involving various guest vocalists. He maintains that he has now finally retired from the music biz!

Pub rock had that semi-revival in the early 80s, with bands from that novelty country scene, like Yip Yip Coyote, appearing on bills with Boothill Foottappers and the Blubbery Hellbellies. The latter were interviewed in one of the inkies and asked to defend themselves against the accusation of being pub rock. "What's the problem? Everyone goes to pubs. Everybody likes rock," was the reply.

xpost Yeah, just found a full Raw catalogue list and there's far more revivalist and non-punk stuff on there than I remember:

http://www.hiljaiset.sci.fi/punknet/labels/raw_e.htm

Weird, 'cos I used to visit that shop at least twice a week, for small label punk releases and its wide array of fanzines in the back room. Must have had my year-zero blinkers on!

I have a lot to thank that shop for. All the early Stiff releases, right from the start; Sniffin' Glue from the first issue (I started buying it from #3 onwards); the imported Pere Ubu Hearthan singles, etc etc.

Oh, way upthread there was a post about Mick Green surely being an influence on Wilko. Saw last night when reading inlay cards that Going Back Home (as posted upthread) was a Johnson-Green cowrite. So he was more than an influence ...

RAW-12 Danny Wild & the Wildcats: Mean Evil Daddy / Old Billy Boogie / 200 Miles -78

I've got this one, found it in Oxfam for 15p.

― Colonel Poo, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:05 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I have John Peel playing this on his show, on cassette.

x-post Oyeh from DBTJ was a Mick Green tune too.

mike t-diva and Dr. C, we could have used you on the Graham Parker thread the other day.

Which is here, in case you're interested: Graham Parker C/D

Butbutbut I posted to the Graham Parker thread in 2005 already!

Oh yeah, I saw that. I guess you're off the hook.

But you didn't comment on the hot button issue of The Up Escalator.

Ah, well, y'see, GP and I parted company after the Pink Parker EP. My interests were moving in different directions by then.

While we're on the wider subject of pub rock individuals ... is Bram Tchaikovsky worth checking out further? I really like Girl of my Dreams, which I've got on one of the Poptopia comps, and I was very impressed with the Motors on that Guitar Heroes thing on BBC4 the other day.

We have the Girl Of My Dreams EP and I was curious about the album and saw it used cheap somewhere while I was with the wife, who's a bit of a power pop afficionado, but she said not to bother buying it because it's crap.

At least a couple Bram T LPs are marginally worth $1 if you can find them for that price; Strange Man Changed Man (the one w/ "Girl Of My Dreams") a bit better than Funland from 1981. (Apparently there were at least two others, though that might just mean different titles in the US and UK.) A couple Motors LPs are better than either. (Think I discussed those somehwere on this board a year or three back.)

The famous Rolling Stone Record Guide -- the red version -- I seem to recall famously saying of the
album that it sounded like band setting the stage for a singer who never appears. Which was cruel but funny, even though it totally misses what Lee Brilleaux was doing. xhuxk still has a copy of the red book so he could check.

"Simple to an extreme, these Britons emulate but fail to match the early R&B-influenced exploits of groups like the Rolling Stones. Their LPs sound like sparse backing for a lead musician who never appears. -- C.W."

I need to catch up with the rest of this thread someday. I like both Feelgood albums I've got (Malpractice and Sneakin' Suspicion) but not necessarily more than my Bishops and Eddie & Hot Rods LPs. Don't understand the claim that the Feelgoods packed more punch.

btw, this is a really good two-disc / 49=song pub-rock compilation CD from a few years back:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Goodbye-Nashville-Hello-Camden-Town/dp/B000MTOSD4

And two related threads (which get fairly informative, I recall):

Origins of Pub Rock

Pub Rock

these Britons emulate but fail to match the early R&B-influenced exploits of groups like the Rolling Stones

Yeah, see, this is total bullshit. I'd rather listen to the first two Feelgood albums and the live album than anything the Stones did pre-1969.

I find that a whole album of Feelgood - even a greatest hits - is too much. Though that may be the result of all the Feelgood I have being 80 minute comps, rather than a taut 35-minute album, with a break halfway through to change sides. A band who were made for vinyl above all formats ...

Wow, those youtube clips and the trailer for the doc have made me completely rethink a band I guess I had completely written off unfairly. Thanks!

Those youtube clips are quite cool. I checked out the clips and am giving the UA Years Singles compilation a shot.

I also went out and checked out some Eddie & The Hot Rods and ordered their first two albums.

Thanks ILM!

I can't stop listening to "she does it right" and "roxette" - but hearing the whole first record it's pretty hard to escape the bar-band/blueshammer baggage of all the blues and r&b covers and rewrites. Maybe it's unfair to them, but even a great take on Route 66 is still Route 66 is still Route 66. Nothing wrong with that really but at this point in my life anyway, pretty hard to get all that jazzed about. The doc does look great though - the tag line "the best local band in the world" seems very apt - and again, those youtube clips are mesmerizing.

Another great clip from that Kursaal show, married to a good song ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvCRKJc8xF4

very nice, indeed. the guitar play and the singing match perfectly. they are both really raw in a primitive, tribal kind of way. one of the great half forgotten english bands of the seventies. they beat about any punk band in terms of power and rawness. except early joy division maybe. the difference to punk was that punk usually was a lot faster and less rooted in african rhythm music.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/21/pub-rock-dr-feelgood

Blimey, you're quick!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiLlKq8uUWM

there was a lovely interview on radio 2, sounds of the seventies yesterday with wilko.

http://thequietus.com/articles/03658-oil-city-confidential-dr-feelgood-wilko-johnson-and-a-spot-of-word-association-review-and-interview

Dr. Feelgood has become synonymous with pub-rock. The band became the movement’s most visible and successful act, and its slashing, choppy, pick-less guitarist Wilko Johnson has been cited as an inspiration by everyone from Joe Strummer to Paul Weller, whose first album with The Jam, In The City, bears a strong pub-rock influence. The only problem: Dr. Feelgood’s music is actually pretty damn bad. Bland, brittle, and mechanical, it sounds like blues-rock pumped out by technicians rather than musicians. The energy and chops are evident on hit albums like 1975’s Malpractice and 1977’s Sneakin’ Suspicion, but even the group’s live record, Stupidity—which hit No. 1 on the UK charts in 1976—lacks anything resembling wit, personality, or memorable songs. After a dose of Dr. Feelgood’s tuneless, monochrome R&B, it’s a surprise most listeners didn’t go running for the nearest Yes album. It’s a sad irony that the most prominent pub-rock band is the last one newcomers should check out—not that they really need to bother at all.

Which arsehole wrote that?

Terrible misjudgment by that writer on the AV Club. It's not that I particularly like Feelgood, but the writer is completely missing the point of what their purpose was, and why they endured. And hasn't bothered looking at the live footage they link to.

Who cares what their purpose was, they came out 35 years ago. I listen to music cuz it's good, not for its "purpose" or historical import or the context it was made in. Only one question: does it sound good to me? And I've never heard these guys, so I have no dog in the fight.

I think you would like them bill

Based on your recommendation, I will give them a shot!

start with Down By The Jetty

Well, if no one cared what Feelgood "meant" then they certainly wouldn't have endured, so in this case it is relevant - see MikeTD's posts upthread.

Really? Maybe they would have endured cuz the music sounded good. Which I dont know, because I havent taken Herm's recommendation yet.

I don't listen to anything in 2010 just because it may have meant something or had some cultural impact in '72 or '82 or whatever, when I was 2 and 12 respectively. I listen to it because it sounds good to my ears. And because I've never heard Dr. Feelgood, once I do, it's like it was just recorded yesterday to me and I'll judge it that way. Mind you, this is coming from a guy whose favorite decade in terms of what I listen to is overwhelmingly the 1970's.

Everyone says Down by the Jetty is the best Dr. Feelgood album, but I also like Malpractice and the live album, Stupidity, a lot. I think I like Malpractice better than DBTJ, in fact. The one thing I will say against them is that the songs Wilko Johnson sings are usually major momentum-sappers. He just doesn't have anywhere near the vocal aggression of Lee Brilleaux.

I can see that, Wilko is all about the guitar really. I don't think the albums really do him justice but if you squint you can hear him slashing the fuck out of that guitar

Oil City Confidential is available on iplayer and is fecking fantastic http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00s2y91/Oil_City_Confidential_Dr_Feelgood/ someone should give Wilko Johnson his own show, absolutely fascinating, funny, mesmerising individual.

Finally watched Oil City Confidential last night and am instantly in love with this lot. Temple's best film by far.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Through-City-With-Wilko-1974-1977/dp/B0076WFTS8/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1332076784&sr=1-1

I assume this is pretty much all the essential material by the band Dr Feelgood. With the exception of the Oil City Confidential documentary.
& whatever bootlegs from the Wilko era are around.

Think i might finally indulge in buying something by them. Not sure why i haven't already. Did enjoy the doc when I caught it on BBC4 or whatever.

300ft GOLD LEE BRILLEAUX

http://focalpoint.org.uk/e-petition/

oooh that boxset looks very tempting ..

Just been sent the boxset. Very nicely packaged. Stupidity sounds great so far, though possibly not the sort of thing I'd want to listen to again and again. It's easy to see how spare and aggressive it must have sounded at the time. Also, the DVD appears to have all the live material that was cherry picked for Oil City Confidential.

Also ... when I was 12 or 13 or something, I remember my dad asking me if I liked Dr Feelgood. This would have been 81 or 82. I think he must have heard the name because of the frequent assertion in news stories that they were Princess Diana's favourite band. But at that point, it's hard to think of a band who sounded more out of date and irrelevant than them - even allowing for guitar rock's mainstream unfashionability, they seemed this old man's abstraction of an idea about being hard and tough, compared to NWOBHM, which I was listening to at the time. A bit like a kid in 65 who liked the Stones and the Who being asked if he liked Fats Domino or something. Ageing, of course, accounts lots of my perspective change, but it does make me wonder: was the early 80s the time when blues-based rock was at its lowest ebb? Later in the decade you'd get the emergence of bands like Black Crowes, Quireboys etc whose R&B debt was explicit, but was there anyone with any cultural capital mining the blues in the early 80s?

maybe rory gallagher? or was that earlier?

Rory Gallager was out in the margins by the early 80s.

George Thorogood, certainly. Dire Straits, at a push?

The were quite a few non-mainstream bands who were fueled by the blues in the 80s, from Captain Beefheart (Doc at the Radar Station, Ice Cream For Crow) on through stuff like the Birthday Party, the Gun Club, the Scientists, the Cramps.

If you're looking at bands coming out of pub rock though, Dire Straits put out Making Movies in 1980 and then obviously went huge from there onwards like what Anagram said. Quo were still scoring plenty of hits, although their harder, blusier songs were behind them, but I sort of think ZZ Top as picking up the boogie baton in the charts from Eliminator onwards. Never exactly trendy this second bunch of bands though.

in america there were shitloads of those types of bands - mojo nixon, flat duo jets, pussy galore (if you have a wide definition of blues haha), but roots stuff really NEVER goes away in america, it's always there

los lobos....eric clapton i remember being really popular in US as a kid...john fogerty had a big album...the fabulous thunderbirds

stevie ray vaughn, robert cray

the movie Roadhouse, jeff healey band

marty mcfly and chuck berry's band

lee atwater

famous dave's BBQ restaurants

paul reed smith

Want this box really, really badly.

I remember reading in New York Rocker: My Life in the Blank Generation with Blondie, Iggy Pop, and Others, 1974-1981 by Gary Valentine that people from Blondie, Television and Talking Heads were spinning the first Feelgood record at parties a lot. It was one of the few things that had a pretty spare, clean sound. I wonder if they ever played any gigs with Motörhead? Lemmy may have been influenced by them some.

Motörhead's On Parole was what I was thinking of. I guess it was recorded in 1975 but not released until later.

Kinda like AC/DC's '74 Jailbreak too!

Need more Wilko in this thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVAVuHLH3vg

Man that Telecaster is like a +10 to kick ass. Apparently recorded in a schoolyard somewhere in France, 1976,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Q9Zc7nZjw

Best part of this is that Feelgoods drummer Big Figure himself starts replying to the YouTube comments. (and folks call him Mr. Figure)

Me on the Feelgoods' only number one (live) album: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/dr-feelgood-stupidity.html

pushing this one back up for Sunday morning readers.

rightly.

Watching the DVD from the box now. Brilleaux really is a terrifying coked-up psycho in the Kursaal footage.

Oof.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jan/09/wilko-johnson-terminal-cancer

well that fucking sucks

Shit. Apparently he used to have a residency at the Standard in Walthamstow (now closed down) but this seems to have stopped prior to me moving there, so I never got to see him.

Very sad news. I sold my Feelgoods vinyl somewhere along the line, and I really need to start recollecting some of their music.

Bad time for iconic guitarists what with Vini Reilly being in some difficulty. Hope he can keep on going and make the most of his remaining time. If you haven't seen 'Oil City Confidential' get to it, Wilko's quite an extraordinary character.

Was coming here to post that. I voted the All Through the City: With Wilko 1974-77 box my #1 reissue of last year in The Wire's critics poll. Really wish Oil City Confidential would get a US DVD release.

Damn.

no!

gutted to hear this... really sad for the guy..

Big respect to him for his decision to forego Chemo and spend his last few months playing and recording..

still the best thing ever - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rViBFgjChH0

Love how that's the clip everyone goes for, but then again, it really does say it all.

In that clip Wilko looks like a third Davies brother that the parents kept chained in the attic.

I dunno the one I always think of is Roxette on maybe the Old Grey Whistle Test? That's fucking awesome as well.

i was just thinking that too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1VwjWXefFs

sad news, what a great player

yup, roxette is thee one but i've watched it so many times i've worn out the dvd.

Big respect to him for his decision to forego Chemo and spend his last few months playing and recording..

After watching Oil City Confidential I kinda understand the decision - he's crammed several lifetimes into one. Fucking hell, absolutely one-of-a-kind Character.

Wilko & The Blockheads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS5bxk89gQg

Wilko shows you how to play The Riff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPg9P1q2icA

Level 5 guitar geek video of Wilko's black-and-red Telecaster being restored.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LWaYFPX1No

Four farewell UK dates announced in March: London Koko, Bilston (West Midlands), Holmfirth (West Yorkshire) and Glasgow.

http://www.noblepr.co.uk/Press_Releases/wilkojohnson/tour2013.htm

looked through thread for a reference to the following, didn't find none…

was watching the beginning of game of Thrones, and saw a familiar face: "shit, that looks like Wilko!" he plays a mute soldier…

thought that he must regard being on that show like walking around in the kind of Roger Dean album cover that he would have actively despised in Doc FG's heyday…

link dnw

xpost -- Nah he gets to chop off heads and the like. Good for the aggression.

he seems like a great guy:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21187740

Tonight on Radio 4 at 1915 GMT.

Sorry for the bad form of posting one's own piece. I went to meet Wilko in Southend this week.

You saw his battlements! I've often wondered about them.

They are not big and dramatic, sadly.

Great piece, thanks for sharing. Seems like a very dignified man, god bless him.

Thanks for sharing ithappens, really great article

Very! Also how did I miss that was you before.

Great piece. Thanks.

Thanks all.

i loved reading that ithappens .. fuck protocol ..
made me dig out my 3cd boxset of UA stuff ..
brilliant band ..
and a true hero of the era ...
(read the comments under the article to understand all the more as to why wilko is so loved ... )

great article and inspiring to see that it's possible for there to be a guardian article without negativity in the comments. wilko!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/544548_534190353279324_1518426891_n.jpg

good job fleece

i'm shocked that a Knight of the Loyal Arthurian Warband would do such a thing

yeah his FB page is definitely a peek into an interior life

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/487049_430881423634953_2007955215_n.jpg

Religious Views: Christianity

he's going to tout hell.

oil city on bbc4 tonight !
excited.

fuck i wanna see that
haven't been able to find it anywhere over here

http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/10312244.Wilko_Johnson___I_won_t_gig_again/?ref=mr

He's called off the 'final' gigs at Canvey Island, which must be pretty heartbreaking for all concerned.

Anyways, if you saw his "guest spot" on the Madness BBC Broadcasting house closing gig, that's his last one (and because of howbad the weather was that day, why.)

Dread this thread getting bumped now. The cancellation of the Canvey Island gigs doesn't sound too good.

hi,

apparently, there's an important announcement on his website, I got mailed it on FB but the mobile interface won't display it

Can anyone check it?

Nothing new that I can see.

http://www.wilkojohnson.org

It's a message from his manager. He's off on a trip to Japan, then when he comes back he'll complete a new CD, then a short tour of France, followed by some gigs in the UK. Also a forthcoming live DVD from the previous UK tour.

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!