Wilko Johnson

One of the standout six-string players from the 1970s, Wilko Johnson connected the forceful drive of blues-rock with the taut urgency of post-punk. Through the albums cut alongside Dr. Feelgood—the pub-rock outfit he helped establish with vocalist Lee Brilleaux and bassist John B. Sparks—he displayed a raw fingerstyle approach that struck with the force of a blow yet retained the coiled agility of a prizefighter. That ceaselessly energetic delivery largely explains why the Feelgoods’ return to British blues avoided any sense of retro nostalgia; his fusion of rhythm and lead parts supplied the group its heartbeat and cleared pathways for guitarists outside the blues tradition to carry those ideas into fresh terrain. Even after departing the Feelgoods in 1977, Johnson remained rooted in the blues across his subsequent projects. Following the brief run of Solid Senders and a stint with Ian Dury & the Blockheads, he launched the Wilko Johnson Band in the early 1980s, a unit that continued issuing recordings and playing shows well into the 2010s, embodying the archetype of a perpetually active ensemble. An unforeseen resurgence arrived after director Julien Temple’s 2009 Dr. Feelgood documentary Oil City Confidential, which in turn led to Johnson’s casting as an executioner in the fantasy saga Game of Thrones. Shortly thereafter he learned of a terminal-cancer diagnosis, which he met with a farewell tour and the duet album Going Back Home alongside Roger Daltrey. Amid that intense send-off, doctors determined the cancer could be treated; successful surgery allowed him to resume performing, culminating in the 2018 release Blow Your Mind.

Born John Wilkinson—the name he reversed to form his stage moniker—in 1947, he was raised on Canvey Island and participated in the area’s music community throughout the 1960s, frequently appearing in jug bands. He enrolled at Newcastle University in 1967 yet continued his musical pursuits during holidays back home.

Upon returning from India in 1971, he entered the group that evolved into Dr. Feelgood and swiftly emerged as a central figure through his ferociously charged live demeanor. The band performed regionally for several years before debuting in London during summer 1973; their unkempt appearance and intense delivery quickly turned them into pub-rock favorites. Down by the Jetty, their first album, appeared in 1975; Johnson remained for the follow-up studio efforts Malpractice and Sneakin’ Suspicion plus the number-one live set Stupidity, supplying several strong original compositions. Friction with his bandmates nevertheless prompted his exit near the close of 1977.

He promptly assembled the Solid Senders, featuring keyboardist John Potter, bassist Steve Lewins, and drummer Alan Platt. The unit signed with Virgin in 1978 and issued the album Solid Senders that year. In 1979 Johnson joined Ian Dury’s Blockheads, staying until 1980 and there encountering bassist Norman Watt-Roy, who would become a frequent partner. Early 1981 brought his second album, Ice on the Motorway, followed two years later by the EP Bottle Up and Go! with Lew Lewis; a series of modest LPs, largely on European imprints, appeared across the decade—Pull the Cover (1984), Watch Out! (1985), Call It What You Want (1987), and Barbed Wire Blues (1988). The last marked the debut of his ongoing ensemble the Wilko Johnson Band, then including Watt-Roy and drummer Salvatore Ramundo. Ramundo was succeeded in 1988 by Steve Monti, formerly of Curve, for the Barbed Wire Blues tour and remained until he grew weary of constant travel and yielded the drum chair to ex-Blockhead Dylan Howe. Johnson at last issued another full-length, Going Back Home, on Mystic.

Fresh attention to his work surfaced in the twenty-first century, chiefly through Julien Temple’s Oil City Confidential, the documentary on Dr. Feelgood and Johnson. The film screened at festivals to widespread acclaim, as did its soundtrack. Johnson also achieved recognition as an actor, portraying the formidable executioner Ser Ilyn Payne in the widely followed fantasy series Game of Thrones. Consequently, two volumes of The Best of Wilko Johnson appeared in 2010, together with a remastered edition of Barbed Wire Blues. After supporting the Stranglers on a 2011 tour, he published the memoir Looking Back on Me in 2012.

Early 2013 brought a pancreatic-cancer diagnosis and the announcement that his televised performance on Madness Live: Goodbye Television Centre would be final. Nevertheless, impromptu shows with Watt-Roy and Howe occurred in Essex that summer, and by November he had tracked an album of reinterpreted catalog material with the Who’s Roger Daltrey. Ahead of Going Back Home—not to be confused with the earlier Mystic release of identical title—he and Daltrey performed the record in full at a sold-out Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London in late February 2014. Later that year, following surgery that excised a three-kilogram tumor, Johnson announced he was cancer-free and resumed regular performances, issuing Blow Your Mind in 2018. He also became the focus of a second Temple documentary, The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson. Wilko Johnson died at his residence on November 21, 2022, two months after his last concert; he was 75.