Looking Back At Me

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After being rushed to hospital in Southend for an unknown condition, Johnson was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in January 2013. He reacted with remarkable stoicism. Given 10 months to live, but having declined chemotherapy which might have given him a few more weeks, he talked frankly about his condition on Radio 4’s Front Row and arranged a string of farewell gigs that March. His philosophical attitude was perhaps shaped by the fact that Irene had died of cancer in 2004, and Johnson had never reconciled himself to her loss (“the only time I don’t feel heartbroken is when I’m playing,” he admitted).

I saw Wilko at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and, despite seeing over 30 events, he stole the show without a doubt. So full of life, funny and frank, it was just an absolute delight to delve into his musical history, life and miraculous story in the last few years in particular. When I heard ‘Down By The Jetty’ by Dr Feelgood I thought, those cunts! That’s what I’d been trying to arrive at. A brilliant re-interpretation of primal music coupled with words that were pertinent to me.” Wilko Johnson in 2012 on Canvey Island, in the Thames estuary in Essex, where he grew up. Photograph: Martin Argles/The Guardian Wilko Johnson started from scratch and invented a new way to play guitar. Manifesting in his rhythm hand the amphetamine intensity of an era, he inspired a generation of twitchy dorks like me. Without him, I probably play clarinet. Requiescat. https://t.co/2VwlLt05u3 He confessed that he thought it would be “the last thing I ever did”, but then later that year his story took a dramatic twist. Further tests revealed that he was suffering from a less virulent form of cancer than previously believed, and doctors were confident it could be operated on successfully. He underwent a complex nine-hour procedure that included the removal of a tumour weighing 3kg, and after a long convalescence was declared cancer-free.What emerges from this book is a passionate, private, intelligent, funny, eloquent and warm human being.

In his post-Feelgood career, Johnson formed a new band, the Solid Senders, which played at the Front Row festival at the Hope & Anchor pub in Islington, London, alongside many of the new punk acts. Johnson was surprised and gratified to discover that many punk luminaries, including Joe Strummer and John Lydon, were Feelgood fans who had seen them as an influence.Shortly afterwards, he began to focus on the Wilko Johnson Band, his longest-running musical project, with whom he would go on to release seven albums over the next three decades, including the 1981 debut Ice on the Motorway, 1988’s Barbed Wire Blues and, most recently, 2018’s Blow Your Mind.

Johnson was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in 2013, saying via a statement from his manager at the time that he did not want to receive treatment or chemotherapy. The tribute read: “This is the announcement we never wanted to make, & we do so with a very heavy heart: Wilko Johnson has died. Johnson was born John Peter Wilkinson in Canvey Island, Essex, in 1947. He began playing guitar as a teenager, but his career began in earnest in 1971, when he formed Dr Feelgood with singer Lee Brilleaux, bass player John B Sparks, and drummer John Martin. Wilko Johnson as the executioner Ser Ilyn Payne in the HBO TV series Game of Thrones, 2011. Photograph: HBO He developed a tight stage rapport with the Feelgoods’ vocalist Lee Brilleaux, who was helpfully signposted by his contrasting white – or once white, at least – suit. Johnson said he “felt like a lot of the power I had in whatever I was doing was radiating from him”. It was their partnership that drove the band to huge success in Britain just before the arrival of punk.There’s a woman at the heart of this tale too: Johnson’s wife, Irene, who died in 2004. She’s the glue that holds this story together – the title an obvious nod to his grief – and she sounds a remarkable person, tolerating as she did her husband’s myriad indiscretions. Johnson and Lemmy had “trouble over a woman” in the mid-1970s, he says, in a fine section full of punk’s great and good, including John Lydon, but there’s no sign of any marital guilt. The section where Irene dies, however, is full of raw, affecting sentiment, especially when Johnson watches his sons “sat together under the trees… I wondered what they were feeling”. Here, he throws his hands up, showing all of his flaws. He is a little bemused about the film he’s supposed to be promoting, too: another Temple documentary called The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson, which was intended to document his final months, but turned into a rather different film midway through. In fact, when I meet him, he hasn’t actually seen it, due to a longstanding aversion to “looking at films of myself”. “I don’t know why I agreed to it,” he shrugs. “Julien said he wanted to do it, so I said yeah, you know? He usually comes up with something pretty good, so I just let him get on with it.” It’s very good, I say. Johnson laughs. “No spoilers, but does he get better in the end?” In 2015, a new documentary titled The Ecstasy Of Wilko Johnson was released, focusing on Johnson’s cancer scare and featuring only two voices – Johnson’s and that of The Who’s Roger Daltrey. As a huge fan of Dr Feelgood, it was great to read about their inception and eventual dissolution - obviously this is from Johnson’s perspective and there’s always two sides to every story. I’m not sure where or whether the other Feelgoods have given their thoughts publicly or in print in the past?