The band’s debut album, ‘Down by the Jetty (1974)’, was recorded abruptly and live in the studio, and its follow-up, ‘Malpractice’ (also 1974), had a similar spiky, malevolent energy. Their music was similarly unique, combining Brilleaux’s rasping sneer of a vocal, Johnson’s trademark jerky guitar and the thunderous rhythm section into a huge, but primal and menacing sound. In the progressive rock era of the mid 1970s, they looked like nobody else, wearing short, brutally cut haircuts and cheap, hand-down suits. Sparks (bass) and John “The Big Figure” Martin. ‘Oil City Confidential’, which takes its name from the huge oil refinery towers that dominate the landscape of Canvey Island, through a mixture of new and old interviews, rarely seen live footage and documentary film of the era, captures Dr Feelgood’s rise and then its fall as vocalist Lee Brilleaux and Johnson fell out.Īs well as Brilleaux, who died of cancer at the age of 41 in 1994, and Johnson, Dr Feelgood also consisted of two other Canvey Island locals, John B. He was the director of both the Sex Pistols films, ‘The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’ (1979) and ‘The Filth and the Fury’ (2000), and had also made a documentary about Joe Strummer, ‘The Future is Unwritten’ (2007), as well as a comedy fantasy musical, ‘Earth Girls Are Easy’ (1988). Temple had also made several other music films. As punk took off, they found themselves relegated out of music history books.įilmmaker Julien Temple’s 2009 documentary film about Dr Feelgood, ‘Oil City Confidential’, has done much to restore the band’s reputation, and made an unlikely late star out of Johnson. Their early fans included both Joe Strummer and John Lydon, but their original line-up broke up at the height of their success in 1977 when their songwriter and guitarist Wilko Johnson was fired from the band.
The group, who formed in the faded Essex holiday resort of Canvey Island in 1971, were the missing link between rhythm and blues and punk. I had a long break from that when I was ill, I couldn't climb the stepladder onto the roof.Dr Feelgood’s influence was for thirty years largely forgotten. Even if it's raining, with the rain beating down, it's great. This was the sight that told Galileo that everything didn't revolve around the earth, and changed our understanding of the universe, and it's so beautiful.Įventually I started buying proper telescopes, and now I've got a dome on top of my flat roof at home, and a great big telescope. After a few days, I walked off stage and out of the gig, and there was the moon, upside down! I got into the habit of looking through my binoculars, and at Jupiter, you can see it's a disc, it's so exciting, and you can see the moons.
I get to NZ, and there was no moon, each night. So I started looking at the moon, and seeing the way round we see it, using binoculars. I was stood on my head trying to work it out. The thing that engaged my interest wasn't the constellations, it was: is the moon upside down in New Zealand? It's tricky. That was my first interest in it.Īnyway, a few years later I was going to go to New Zealand for a tour on my own, and I thought I'd like to repeat this experiment but I'll get a bit of knowledge first. I realised I didn't know anything about the stars at home, or there. Wow, there were more than I remembered seeing at home, and they were coloured, and moving about! Then I realised I was looking at fireflies attracted by the pool lights. It was nighttime in Melbourne, and we got to the hotel, and I went wow! The southern sky! I'm going to look at these stars! I went up to the roof and there was a swimming pool - I got one of those lilo things, lay down, and saw these stars. We had a long flight and were very jetlagged. I first got consciously in astronomy when, in 1979 or something, Ian Dury and the Blockheads went to Australia for a tour.
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