Dr Feelgood was one of the great pub rock bands on the mid-seventies. And the beating heart of the band was guitarist Wilko Johnson. He was no ordinary guitarist and he led a pretty extraordinary life. Somehow surviving a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis and going on to appear in Game of Thrones, among other things. Jonathan Maitland's latest play (he previously did this one among others) attempts to capture the Johnson magic. I'd say he captures about 40% of it.
The first half of the story is pretty biopic generic the way it is told here. John Wilkinson (played by the coincidentally named Johnson Willis with the eyebrows of Ken Campbell) is a bright, rebellious working class kid growing up on Canvey Ialand with a love of the romantic poets as well as a love of rock and roll. He marries Irene Knight (Georgina Fairbanks) young, buys a guitar and then Dr Feelgood form...
Things spring into life, however, when the band/cast pick up the instruments onstage and start playing the familiar hits She Does It Right and All Through The City. Unlike the rest of this play the music is fast and frenetic. Jon House as frontman Lee Brilleaux is effective and Georgina Field and David John are a vibrant rhythm section. Warning - the music is very loud.
The trouble is that you only have to glance at a clip of Wilko (not to be confused with the shop, as Maitland's script jokes) to see that Willis, fine when delivering lines, is a shadow of the man when playing guitar. Maybe he is concentrating too hard on getting the sound right, maybe the stage is too small, but there is not enough jerking and darting around, not enough high voltage electricity. Wilko really was unique and the songs were great. So great that they still send a jolt through you even in this diluted form.
And then in the second half we get the twist and the second act of Johnson's life. Johnson refuses cancer treatment. He jokes that he doesn't want to lose his hair through chemo (he's already lost his trademark bowlcut anyway by then). And then it turns out his cancer can be cured. But this genuinely, no pun intended, feelgood moment is strangely underplayed. A chat in the hospital and some surgery seems to sort him out. The cancer had taught him to 'live' and now he has a chance to live for real, going on to act in Game Of Thrones (no stretch playing a madman) and make great music for almost another decade.
It's hard to make a drama about a great rock star. How do you find someone with the same charisma to play them? No drama about the Sex Pistols has ever been able to capture John Lydon at his peak and the same problem is here. However good Willis is, he simply isn't Wilko. You'd be better off clicking on a clip on YouTube or watching the two films Julien Temple made with him at the centre – The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson and Oil City Confidential.
If you prefer the live experience Wilko – Love and Death and Rock ‘n’ Roll is perfectly OK, but no knockout. Though anything that keeps the spirit of Wilko alive is no entirely bad thing.
Until April 19. Tickets and info here.
Picture: Mark Sepple
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