They both loved Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, who had covered Piano Red’s single Dr Feelgood.Īfter two years and 200 gigs, The Southside Jug Band became electric merging with local band The Fix in 1969 when they added guitar player Dave Higgs, later of Eddie & The Hot Rods. This four-piece featured a striking guitar player by the name of John Wilkinson (aka Wilko Johnson) who, in 1964, had been in the five-piece schoolboy band The Roamers, featuring drummer John Martin (aka The Big Figure). The less said about my jug playing the better.”įormed in 1967, The Southside Jugband had been inspired by a talent contest-winning act called The North Avenue Jug Band. So I quickly slid into the management position. I would often play the shears! The band eventually decided the best thing I could do was take the tray around, collecting the money. We had all manner of improvised homemade instruments. I remember we had a kazoo attached to a piece of hose pipe with a trumpet on the end of it. One venue we first played was The Canvey Club. “We had handcarts and prams to carry our equipment around because we were too young to drive. “We were all aged between 14 and 15 and knocked out about six shows a week in local Canvey venues,” says Chris. It consisted of six young teenagers, including Lee Collinson (known as ‘Brilleaux’) John B Sparks (aka ‘Sparko’), jug blower Chris White (known as ‘White’, later to become actor Chris Fenwick) and harp player Lew Lewis. One particular group was The Southside Jugband (aka The Frisco Jugband). Nicknamed ‘Oil City’, it remains at the grittier end of the Essex delta, situated amid England’s largest refinery of the greasy liquid.Ī coterie of unknown bands thrived in this unique Essex outpost. The town had the longest pleasure pier in the world, the biggest wooden roller-coaster in the land, and the best ballroom in the south-east, namely The Kursaal.įurther along the Thames Delta – some three stops along the railway line and south of the rather more considered Benfleet – lies Canvey Island, with its lack of street planning, ramshackle houses, and long sea wall. Snapshots of the early 60s conjure up images of mods and rockers partying in the Essex coastal resort of Southend. Piano player John Potter describes his time in the Dr Feelgood line-up that backed Heinz at the1972 London Rock’n’Roll Revival Show – a one-off Wembley event that featured the American godfathers of rock’n’roll, as well as Detroit’s legendary MC5, with their machine-gun-toting guitarist Wayne Kramer, cited as an early influence on Wilko… Meanwhile, a touring version of Dr Feelgood, which features musicians who’ve been members for more than 20 years, continues to be guided by the band’s original manager, Chris Fenwick.Ĭhris sheds some light here on his lifelong friendship with Lee, while Dr Feelgood’s early stand-in drummer Will Birch (later to be The Kursaal Flyers’ songwriter/drummer) and John B Sparks, the Feelgood’s original bass man, look back at the Feelgoods’ formative years. 2014 witnessed Dr Feelgood’s original guitarist Wilko Johnson fighting back from a supposedly terminal cancer diagnosis, and winning the hearts of thousands with Going Back Home, alongside Roger Daltrey. More than two decades mark the passing of the band’s frontman, singer/harp/slide player Lee Brilleaux, who died on 7 April 1994, while 23 October 2013 saw the passing of Feelgood’s second guitarist John ‘Gypie’ Mayo. It’s 40 years since Dr Feelgood recorded their debut album Down By The Jetty.
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