Wilko Johnson

John Andrew Wilkinson (12 July 1947 – 21 November 2022), better known by the stage name Wilko Johnson, was an English guitarist, singer, songwriter and occasional actor.

Born on 12 July 1947 in Canvey Island, Essex, Johnson went to Westcliff High School for Boys and played in several local groups, before attending Newcastle University to study for a BA in English Language and Literature.

His undergraduate courses included Anglo-Saxon and ancient Icelandic sagas.

After graduating, he travelled overland to India before returning to Essex to play with the Pigboy Charlie Band.

He later played a vintage 1962 Fender Telecaster with rosewood fingerboard which he bought in 1974, shortly after Dr. Feelgood signed their first record deal.

Johnson developed his own image, coupling jerky movements on stage, his so-called "duck walk", with a choppy guitar style, occasionally raising his guitar to his shoulder like a gun, and a novel dress sense: he favoured a black suit and a pudding bowl haircut.

He achieved his playing style by not using a pick but instead relying on fingerstyle.

This enabled him to play rhythm guitar and riffs or solos at the same time creating a highly percussive guitar sound.

It evolved from a failed attempt to copy Mick Green of Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, a guitarist whom Johnson greatly admired.

In 1965 Johnson bought his first Fender Telecaster guitar from a shop in Southend, Essex, for £90 (equivalent to £0 in ).

He was a member of the pub rock/rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood in the 1970s.

Johnson was known for his distinctive guitar playing style which he achieved by not using a plectrum but playing fingerstyle.

This enabled him to play rhythm guitar and riffs or solos at the same time creating a highly percussive guitar sound.

Johnson and Dr. Feelgood were an influence on the English punk movement.

Paul Weller said of Johnson: "Wilko may not be as famous as some other guitarists, but he's right up there. And there are a lot of people who'll say the same. I can hear Wilko in lots of places. It's some legacy."

The band evolved into Dr. Feelgood – a mainstay of the 1970s pub rock movement.

After returning from Goa, he worked in 1972 as an English teacher.

It was then that he adopted the stage name Wilko Johnson, a close anagram of John Wilkinson.

His Bo Diddley-influenced style formed the essential driving force behind Dr. Feelgood during their initial years, including the band's first four albums, Down by the Jetty, Malpractice, Stupidity, and Sneakin' Suspicion, all released between 1975 and 1977.

The live album, Stupidity, reached number one in the UK Albums Chart, but although Johnson played on Dr. Feelgood's first five single releases, including "Roxette" and "Back in the Night", the only single to chart during his membership of the band was "Sneakin' Suspicion".

He left the band in April 1977, following disagreements over the tracks to be included in the Sneakin' Suspicion album.

The remaining band members claimed that Johnson had left voluntarily.

But Johnson subsequently insisted: "I didn't leave, they threw me out and then told the newspapers that I'd left."

In 1977, he was a founding member of Solid Senders, with keyboardist John Potter, bassist Steve Lewins, and drummer Alan Platt.

The Wilko Johnson Band played at the 'Front Row Festival', a three-week event at the Hope and Anchor, Islington in late November and early December 1977, featuring many early punk rock acts.

This resulted in the inclusion of two tracks by The Wilko Johnson Band ("Dr. Feelgood" and "Twenty Yards Behind"), on a hit double album of recordings from the festival.

They signed to Virgin in 1978 and released the album, Solid Senders that year.

The Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival compilation album (March 1978) which reached number 28 in the UK Albums Chart.

In 1980, Johnson joined Ian Dury's band, the Blockheads.

Johnson's second album, Ice on the Motorway, was released in 1981, and his EP "Bottle Up and Go!"

with Lew Lewis followed in 1983.

Several albums were released on European labels over the next decade.

Around 1984 he then re-formed The Wilko Johnson Band, joined by Blockhead bassist Norman Watt-Roy and Italian born drummer Salvatore Ramundo.

In 1992, Johnson appeared at the Eurockéennes music festival, and the following year at GuilFest.

The album Going Back Home appeared on the Chess label in 1998.

'Sav' Ramundo left the band in June 1999 and was replaced by Steve Monti (future Curve and the Jesus and Mary Chain drummer).

He began to cut back on his concert appearances in 1999, and released the album Don't Let Your Daddy Know (Live in Japan 2000) the following year.

The studio album Red Hot Rocking Blues was released in 2005; this contained covers of classics by the likes of Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Lead Belly.

Throughout 2005 and 2006 the band teamed up with the Hamsters and John Otway to take part in 'The Mad, the Bad & the Dangerous' tour.

In 2011 and 2012 he appeared in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, as the mute executioner Ser Ilyn Payne.