Wilko Johnson @ Glasgow O2 Academy, 09 March 2013

Cards on the table, OK? Probably, like me, you know that Wilko Johnson used to play guitar in Dr Feelgood back in the 70's. Maybe some of you know that after he left the band he spent some time in the Blockheads, of Ian Dury fame before forming the Wilko Johnson Band. Well that was the sum total of my knowledge until the gig!

In preparation for the concert, to which a good friend of mine had invited me, I dug out my old Dr Feelgood albums, Sneakin' Suspicion and Malpractice to be precise and then checked out several of his more recent albums so that I would be 'au fait' with what I was likely to hear. 

The concert began with Red Hot Rocking Blues, the opener on his 2005 album  and I was hooked! I was totally unprepared for how animated Mr Johnson was, strutting around the stage a la Chuck Berry with his signature black and red Fender Telecaster which he not only played fantastically but used to great comical effect, at times pretending it was a machine gun and at others, the love of his life. I have never seen anyone caress and massage a guitar quite so erotically as Wilko did! 

The songs came thick and fast, with no introduction, delivered as if he was a man on a mission to play as many songs as he could, which given his terminal pancreatic cancer, is probably just the point.

The band consisted of three guys. Wilko (65) on lead guitar, Norman Watt-Roy (62), former Blockheads bass player and Dylan Howe (43), eldest son of Steve Howe of Yes and also a former Blockheads member, on drums. 

Apart from Wilko's wonderful guitar playing, which I really didn't expect to be so good having heard him on record, but he came alive and played magnificently, also, we were treated to some of the best bass playing I am ever likely to hear. Yes, Norman Watt-Roy was dripping sweat within three songs and playing his bass as if it were a lead guitar. Added to the mix was the real solid, punchy sound of young Dylan on drums. He kept a tight rhythm through out and pumped the songs along with metronomic effect! Between the drum and bass I don't think we could have asked for more 'punch' and they laid down a great foundation on which Wilko built the songs, layer by layer, rift by rift and solo by solo.

The gig started at 20:30 and the band finally left the stage after two encores at 22:00 by which time we had been treated to some wonderful Wilko compositions, one or two Dr Feelgood songs and several covers, most notably Johnny Be Goode during which Wilko rather touchingly waved goodbye to the audience during the line "bye bye Johnny". I will recall this concert for years to come and was glad I got to see Mr John Peter Wilkinson in such fine form and rude health.