Ī zippered black leather boot rests on the edge of the sofa. You can even link your subscription to your local vendor with our new online map. Please buy this week’s magazine from the online shop or take out a subscription to make sure we can continue to support our vendors over this difficult period. The Big Issue is helping our vendors with supermarket vouchers and gift payments but we need your help to do that. They can’t sell the magazine and they can’t rely on the income they need. More than 1,000 vendors are out of work because of the second lockdown in England. But Big Issue vendors need your help now more than ever. What do you say to Wilko? Can you show me the riff from Roxette? I can’t quite work out that thing on the back-stroke… Or do you ask how he feels? Meeting someone who has been an inspiration is intimidating, but to meet them in such circumstances? Well, it makes you a little apprehensive. Our mortality is something we rarely address. The 65-year-old has spoken about his illness with a frankness that is typically in character, but shocking because it is so rare. Recently diagnosed with cancer, he decided to forgo chemotherapy so he can perform: a farewell tour in the most genuine and unquestionable sense. I’m sure I can hear him in the way Alex Turner or Kele Okereke play, and if you look at how I hold a guitar… aye, it all adds up. His influence stretches further than the ’70s. Joe Strummer got himself a guitar like Wilko’s after seeing him. If you do know who he is, you won’t need me to tell you that he inspired a generation to do something different with their guitars, to swap the excess of rock for the violent energy of punk. It captures the mythology of the band, their Canvey Island roots, success, excess and self-destruction. If you’re still curious, watch the 2009 Julien Temple film Oil City Confidential. He’s the guy in the buttoned-up shirt and suit with the malevolent glare, jerking terse riffs out of a black Telecaster as he speeds across the stage. If you don’t know who he is, try typing ‘Dr Feelgood Old Grey Whistle Test’ into YouTube. I am taking the train to meet Wilko Johnson. Tell me about this new film you’re promoting…
What? “Are you implying my music is simplistic, you moron?” No, I like it, I think it’s cool that you can… Never mind. I told Ray Manzarek I loved how you could play the organ line from Light My Fire almost entirely on the white keys. I’m not on the other side of a Dictaphone very often and last time I interviewed another musician I pissed him off within seconds of opening my gob. I feel apprehensive as I take the train to Southend.
0 kommentar(er)
