![]() But I had to choose between painting and rock'n'roll. Some of his paintings appear in his autobiography. , and he once considered being a painter. You’re not dying.’ So what is there to say? There’s nothing to say.” I mean, there’s no help anyone can bring to me. What oft is thought but ne’er so well express’d. “I’ve got a lot of Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton in my head that I can recite to myself at any time.” Does he find any comfort in it? “Not comfort, no. Wilko studied medieval literature at university and briefly taught English. So it’s still there – but you can’t walk around with a soppy grin on your face all the time.” “On the way here today I was in a kind of rapture looking out at this beautiful winter’s day, thinking I’m alive, I’m alive when I’m supposed to have been dead. Wilko says a euphoria overcame him when he got his diagnosis, and it’s a feeling that has stayed with him. I just don’t know how long I’m going to live.” And in fact the first thing that I’ve done with my extra time is I’ve made the album with Roger Daltrey. I was supposed to have been dead in October. “I did think this year would be a tapering-down, but the plan is to just keep going until it hits me. ![]() Man in black: Wilko Johnson with Dr Feelgood in 1975. ![]() Because it's BC, he is working on an updated version. Now, at the age of 66, Wilko defines the entire period before his diagnosis as BC – before cancer – when he lived his life on different terms. , that is already a bestseller on Amazon, even though it has been available only to preorder. In November Wilko recorded an album with Roger Daltrey, Going Back Home His drummer and manager sit on a sofa, discussing tour dates that reach as far into the future as August. In the small dressing room backstage, Wilko is sitting on a stool with his back to the mirror, dressed in his customary black suit, black shirt and black boots. I meet him just before he plays a concert in England. The months passed, and he found he had no reason to slow down. Told he had less than a year to live, the renowned guitarist, a founding member of Dr Feelgood, immediately embarked on a farewell tour. ![]() “Going Back Home” is not going to win awards for innovation, but it’s feisty fun and a rousing testament to a distinctive figure in British rock history.Wilko Johnson was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in January last year. The album’s rough-hewn quality is less of an asset on a ballad like “Turned 21” or a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window.” “Some Kind of Hero” is a meaty slice of the blues on the evergreen topic of a cheatin’ woman, but the lyrical bravado is laced with British self-deprecation: “I wish I was some kind of hero.” Songs like “Keep it Out of Sight” and “All Through the City” have a swaggering energy and raw yearning. Daltrey growls lustily over Johnson’s choppy riffs and it’s spiced with lashings of dirty harmonica from Steve Weston and galumphing piano from ex-Style Council keyboardist Mick Talbot. The title track sets the tone of robust, rocking R&B. Recorded in a week with producer Dave Eringa and Johnson’s touring band, its 11 tracks include 10 Johnson compositions, from the Feelgood days through his solo career. Inspired by a shared love of early British rockers like Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, “Going Back Home” is deliberately rough-edged and retro - even the label, Chess Records, is a heritage brand resurrected for the release. There have been sold-out shows, a slot at this summer’s Glastonbury Festival and now an album with Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who. ![]()
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