This is a very welcome reissue of a DVD, directed by Julien Temple, which has been unavailable for several years. Narrated by Wilko Johnson (John Wilkinson to his mother), it tells the story of an iconic 1970s R&B band, Dr Feelgood, who emerged from Canvey Island (Oil City), Essex, and helped spearhead a change of direction and emphasis in the music scene. It also explores the post-war social environment as to how Canvey Island became what it now is, and the conditions which helped produce the good Doctor. In short, it’s also a fascinating social history of the post-war period as well as a documentary about an iconic band.
The Feelgoods were extraordinarily fortunate in their timing. Arriving on the scene almost at the exact moment when the backlash against the excesses of prog rock was gathering momentum … when oceans were now Topographic and four sides of an album long, when gigs were becoming bigger and bands were now too far away from their audience, playing cavernous venues like Earls Court, and when major bands like Led Zep and The Floyd were branded as ‘dinosaurs’ … the music the Feelgoods played was a very basic form of Rhythm & Blues, played in pubs in front of a few dozen punters. Alongside the Brinsleys and bands like Bees Make Honey, Doctor Feelgood … four guys wearing cheap suits who looked like nightclub bouncers on an evening off … helped usher in the mid-seventies ‘pub rock’ boom, when pubs like the Hope & Anchor, The Nashville Rooms, The Red Cow and the Kensington became, temporarily, significant venues for bands to perform in, being the counterpoint to seeing a band from 150 yards away.
What gave the Feelgoods their edge, however, what they had which made them stand apart from all the others, was their stage presence and the charisma of the musicians … guitarist Wilko Johnson‘s jerky guitar style, stage movements and glassy-eyed stare gave the impression he was being electrocuted as he played, while vocalist Lee Brilleaux projected an onstage menace that, when he stared directly at you, face snarling, from the stage, always made you glad there were at least four or five people between you and him. If you saw Dr Feelgood at their mid-seventies peak, as this reviewer was lucky enough to do, you’ll get my meaning.
Oil City Confidential is a moving tribute to the good Doctor. As well as some great ‘live’ clips of the Doctor playing classics like ‘She Does It Right‘ and ‘I Can Tell‘, it’s often very funny, being interspersed with clips from 1950s B&W gangster noir films, and is occasionally poignant, especially when Lee Brilleaux‘s mother and wife talk about what he meant to them. The three surviving members, Wilko, Sparko on bass and Big Figure on drums (Lee died in 1994), were able to talk about how their momentum stalled after Wilko left without recriminations, and it’s even sadder as, since this film was recorded, Wilko Johnson has also left us. There’s a version of Dr Feelgood currently doing the circuit but, with respect to them, no Lee Brilleaux and no Wilko Johnson? No Dr Feelgood.
Incidentally, did Lady Diana Spencer, as was claimed in the film, really go to the Kensington to see the good Doctor onstage, as she only lived around the corner? Somehow I doubt it.
