WILKO JOHNSON
Live At Koko
Cadiz 2013
You can’t win with a DVD like this, seeing as how Wilko Johnson is supposed to be dead by now. If you slate it, then you’re being mean and churlish. If you praise it then you’re doing that strange thing we do of sanctifying the dead and dying.
Which leaves me in an awkward place as I’m one of those people who thought that the best Dr Feelgood records were the first two albums with Gypie Mayo, who did actually pass away this year and whose death was greeted with a wave of “who he”? With Johnson getting the props via Julien Temple’s documentary “Oil City Confidential” and his cameo on “Game Of Thrones”, it just goes to show how much luck plays it part.
This was billed as a farewell show, but thankfully Mr Johnson was able to play on for a wee while longer as people who had forgotten about him for 30 years came to pay their respect and money far too late. Naturally enough, the music is slanted towards the Feelgood years, and it is nice to hear tunes like ‘Sneakin’ Suspicion’ and ‘Back In The Night’, even though the voice of Lee Brilleaux is also long gone and definitely missed.
His band of Norman Watt-Roy and Dylan Howe do a good job of holding down the backbeat. Johnson still can’t sing, of course, but his patented guitar slinging is always worth hearing and if points some people towards the classic Dr Feelgood albums from the seventies, then it will have served a purpose. This DVD comes with an interview recorded in April 2013, which include some rare and unseen footage, as well as out takes from “Oil City Confidential”.
The Rocker - The Artist Formerly Known As Zeitgeist. TAFKAZ 
Leave a comment