NMH
Banned
Okay, then you won't mind if I tell you about the experience, Norman.
After reading an NME review of this r'n b band playing a pub in London - seeing them compared to the early Yardbirds was the only prompt I needed. So I traveled up one evening to The Greyhound in Richmond, where they had a music bar and a small stage. It was already packed when I got there, and peering between the backs of heads, through the pall of smoke, I saw a sweltering harp player desperately pumping air and grinding his voice into an old grid-type mic. Dodging maniacally around him and in front of him, was this dervish lunatic with the robotic jerky movements, staring seemingly like there was a bat in the space round his head. How he was also rattling out fierce staccato chords interspersed with solos ricocheting between - was beyond me. Wilko Johnson looked mental, and played ...mental. "She Does it Right" and "Roxette" were among the tunes they did.
Soaked shirts and a late train-journey home determined to buy anything they'd released... to find out there was a debut single coming out within a week or so, and Roxette was put on order. I joined their clandestine 'fan club' right away, and got a bio, sticker and badge through a couple of weeks later.
Saw Dr. Feelgood about 7 times back then at various venues, lastly the ill-fated end-of tour gig at Hammersmith, where Lee Brilleaux called it to an early end after about 2 songs - due to exhaustion. Sad but forgivable, and it was to be the last time seeing them. Wilko left to form his own band The Solid Senders, and some time later Brilleaux passed away.
I met Gypie Mayo a few years later with The Yardbirds, in California. So for me, the Feelgood story had kind-of gone full circle, starting with blueswailin' rumours that I'd seen substantiated.
P.S. from wikipedia comes this info snippet;
"Film director, Julien Temple, is finishing a documentary feature about Dr. Feelgood called Oil City Confidential which will cover their early years and is due for a theatrical release in 2009.[9] According to BBC Radio Suffolk the disc looks set to feature archive performances and video clips, and will include the memories of founder members The Big Figure, Wilko Johnson and John B Sparks."
Here's a (relatively sedate) window into the past from youtube;
[yt]PHNZUop7OK0[/yt]
You can also find 'em on youtube doing All Through The City and Roxette
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