![]() ![]() Dr Feelgood had four successful albums in Wilko's time, followed a busy creative period playing in an early incarnation of the Wilko Johnson Band, the Solid Senders, before he joined Ian Dury's band The Blockheads, in 1980.Īll through the '80s, '90s and into the new millennium he continued to gig in the UK, Europe and Japan. His influence was felt in bands up and down the country, and later in the emergent punk revolution ( Joe Strummer of the Clash bought a Tele after seeing Wilko play). Throughout the mid-70s, Wilko duck-walked his way across countless stages and venues in the UK with Dr Feelgood in the vanguard of the pub rock movement, performing the gutsy down-to-earth rock and roll that was a welcome antidote to prog-rock. ![]() Wilko was lured into music by his first Fender Telecaster, bought from a music store in Southend, Essex and soon became the strutting, grimacing, six-string rhythmic powerhouse behind Lee Brilleaux in Dr Feelgood. Producer Dave Eringa puts it succinctly, " I never expected to be making another Wilko Johnson album after 'Going Back Home' but what a pleasure & a privilege it was to be able to capture Wilko's first new songs for 30 years! He is one of music's true gentleman - literate, intelligent, and articulate but still rock'n'roll as f***!"īorn on Canvey Island in 1947, Wilko studied English at Newcastle University before doing a bit of travelling and had aspirations to be a teacher before rock and roll came calling. It's actually quite a cheerful one, too!" One of those songs, that's a reflection of that time, about sitting around the house at night knowing that death's coming we've recorded it, and it'll be on the album. On going back into the studio after everything that he'd been through, Wilko has this to say about the 12 tracks that make up 'Blow Your Mind,' " I didn't really intend to ever use them and, obviously, I didn't know if I'd ever get back into the studio. The introspection of some of the tracks on the album is more than balanced out by the good time upbeat party feel of the title track, Beauty and I Love The Way You Do that have the urgency of Wilko's earliest work with Dr Feelgood. But I never thought that I'd be the sort of person to write songs about different sorts of real-life experiences until I got sick."Īnyone expecting that Wilko's particular brand of R&B to be softened by such heartfelt lyrics is in for a surprise, if anything his guitar style of 'the chop' as he calls it, is even more aggressive. Speaking about the first sets of lyrics that he'd written in three decades Wilko says, " It's tricky when you get to seventy years old, because what am I supposed to be singing? 'I love you, baby, but you done me wrong?' Come on! That's kind of a problem. ![]() Describing the record as 'The album I never thought I'd get to write' it deals with the trials and tribulations that he faced in the last five years, songs such as Marijuana and Take It Easy deal very directly with the terminal diagnosis he was given. Joining Wilko on the album are his long-standing band Norman Watt Roy on bass and Dylan Howe on drums along with producer Dave Eringa who worked with them on the gold-selling album 'Going Back Home' with Roger Daltrey. 'Blow Your Mind' is Wilko's first album of new material in 30 years, and is the sound of a man feeling very much alive. ![]()
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