I was sitting at home, the day was drawing to a close, and it’s about trying to ease a troubled mind. “There’s a single off the new album, Marijuana, which I wrote during the time I was expecting to die. Wilko Johnson's new album, Blow Your Mind (Image: Wilko Johnson) Mr Chan has realised that had Wilko truly had the cancer he’d been diagnosed with, he would not have been able to keep working as he did, so read up, examined him and persuaded him to see another specialist. Then, later on in the year, he knocked on my door in Southend and advised me to go and speak to the people at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where they found they could cure it. Wilko said: “I’d met Charlie at a festival in the summer, and we spoke about the cancer and that was it.
READ MORE: People condemn ‘sick and twisted’ woman for leaving note on carīut Mr Chan, a specialist cancer surgeon, and huge music fan, realised that Wilko had a different form of cancer - pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour - which was treatable, and went to visit the musician in Southend to tell him. He continued working but expected to have about 10 to 12 months to live. Wilko, who shot to fame as the amazingly kinetic (and slightly manic-looking) guitar player for Dr Feelgood in the 1970s had been diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in late 2012. Were it not for the intervention of Cheltenham cancer specialist Charlie Chan, Wilko would probably not be alive today to play at the Town Hall later this month. And it’s a place that can say played its part in keeping him alive. If it had been anybody else, he’d have been sued for infringement of Wilko’s Intellectual Property Rights.One of British rock and roll’s greatest guitarists and characters Wilko Johnson is coming to Cheltenham. Fortunately, the guitarist is Simon Johnson, Wilko’s son. He skitters left and right, he plays with his fingers, not with a pick, he sort of plays rhythm and lead at the same time and he even has a coiled red lead that expands and contracts as he moves. Meanwhile, stage right there’s a guitarist with a Fender Telecaster and some very recognisable mannerisms. It’s hard to tell if this is cool nonchalance or if he is in fact terrified.
However, unlike Brilleaux, he also blankly stares into the middle distance and there’s precious little interaction with the audience. He holds his microphone with two hands – kind of like Lee Brilleaux. Singer David Alexander wears a suit and looks like he could start a fight with his own reflection – kind of like Lee Brilleaux. There’s something vaguely familiar about them. First up, we get a support set from Southend band Eight Rounds Rapid – something of a fixture, as they were also present during the farewell tour that ultimately wasn’t.
WILKO JOHNSON GUITAR TECHNIQUE FULL
There is a very full house and expectant crowd to welcome him back. The success of the album led to a performance by Daltrey and Johnson at the Shepherds Bush Empire in February 2014 that sold out in minutes and had tickets changing hands on eBay for hundreds of pounds.Īnd so we come to April 2015 and Wilko Johnson makes a triumphant return to the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire as part of his aptly named Still Kicking tour. The record entered the UK album chart at no 3 – the highest position for Daltrey since 1981 and the first chart position for Johnson since 1976. He continued to play for as long as he felt well and in the space of a week in the autumn of 2013 recorded Going Back Home with Roger Daltrey. Exchanging waves of goodbye with him during his encore of Bye Bye Johnny (Johnson’s birth name is John Wilkinson – he transposed it to give him a stage name people could chant) was a viscerally emotive experience. I attended his farewell shows at a packed KOKO, Camden Town in March 2013. Johnson eschewed the chemotherapy he was told would only give him a couple of extra months and instead embarked on a ‘farewell’ tour that ironically saw him playing in bigger venues that he had seen in nearly 40 years. The story from here is now well documented. And then, in January 2013, Johnson’s management advised he had terminal pancreatic cancer and around 10 months to live. So, after three decades of comparative obscurity, Wilko Johnson’s star was definitely on the rise. Wilko Johnson performing at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire London on 26 April 2015 (Simon Reed)
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