Although they never strayed from their gritty R&B based sound, Dr Feelgood was a fixture of England’s Pub Rock scene since the early 70s.
While they were comparative latecomers to the scene – not playing their first London pub gig until July 1973 – they burst out of Canvey Island (Essex) like a force nine gale, and it wasn’t long before they were showing everybody else how it was done.
The secret of their success lay not so much in their music – a sharply defined beat group R&B which harked straight back to the early Stones and The Pretty Things – but in their image and attitude, both built on naked aggression.
Plus, in singer Lee Brilleaux (born Lee Collinson) and guitarist Wilko Johnson (real name John Wilkinson) – zig-zagging around the stage like a broken Dalek – they boasted two bona fide gold-plated stars (the NME would later dub them ‘the new Jagger and Richards’.) They also had a brutally effective rhythm section called Sparko (John Sparks) and The Big Figure (John Martin), who looked like debt collectors . . .
The Feelgoods signed to United Artists late in the summer of 1974 and recorded their first album, Down By The Jetty, with the late Vic Maile producing. Its black and white sleeve and apparently mono sound mix captured the band’s musical character perfectly. It was ultimately their live album, Stupidity, which was to rocket them to the top of the charts in 1976.
Dr Feelgood constantly travelled England, playing to sold-out clubs across the country – venues where rough rock & roll bands could pound out R&B, pop and simple three-chord rock.
With their devoted following, they proved that these clubs were profitable and helped pave the way for the success of punk rock in England. Punk bands played the same bars and clubs that Dr Feelgood, Brinsley Schwarz and other pub rockers played in the early 70s.
Without Dr Feelgood, Stiff Records would not have existed either. Vocalist and harmonica wizard Lee Brilleaux stumped up the original £400 that Jake Riviera used to found the label.
In 1977, amid much acrimony, Wilko Johnson – Pete Townshend to Brilleaux’s Roger Daltrey, the songwriter, the Moody One – was fired from the band. He was replaced by Hammersmith-born John ‘Gypie’ Mayo (pictured below right).
Outside songwriters like Mickey Jupp and Nick Lowe took up some of the slack and the Feelgoods started having hits like She’s A Wind-Up, Milk And Alcohol and Down At The Doctors – the latter famed for Brilleaux’s off-hand announcement: “Eight bars on the pianna”, followed immediately by an eight-bar bass and drum passage with nary a keyboard (or any other lead instrument) in earshot.
Gradually the hits slowed down. Mayo left, replaced by US expatriate and bar-band veteran Johnny Guitar, and then – virtually in mid-tour – the backroom stalwarts, Figure and Sparko, also flew the coop.
Over the years the band’s line-up changed frequently, with Lee Brilleaux (pictured below left) the only constant member. Brilleaux’s energy never diminished as he got older – his consistently vibrant live performances were the reason why Dr Feelgood was such a concert draw.
Even though he had been performing for twenty years, Brilleaux remained a force to be reckoned with when he was on stage, right until his untimely death.
I once had the absolute pleasure of meeting Lee Brilleaux at a party in Sydney, Australia.
It was the mid-80s and Dr Feelgood had just finished a series of gigs which took my breath away and were unwinding at a bash at the home of Gary Hosie (The Sets, Mustard Club) and the late Don Hosie – vocalist with Sydney R&B legends, Stupidity (themselves named after the Feelgoods classic live album).
Lee Brilleaux passed away on 7 April 1994 from throat cancer. He will be sadly missed by a great many people. Veteran Pete Gage took on the role of singer and the group was reborn and continues to gig today.
Gypie Mayo passed away on 23 October 2013.
Lee Brilleaux (Collinson)
Vocals, Harmonica
Wilko Johnson (John Wilkinson)
Guitar
John ‘Sparko’ Sparks
Bass
The Big Figure (John Martin)
Drums
John ‘Gypie’ Mayo (Cawthra)
Guitar
Johnny Guitar (Crippen)
Guitar
Gordon Russell
Guitar
Kevin Morris
Drums
Phil Mitchell
Bass
Steve Walwyn
Guitar
Dave Bronze
Bass
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