The Gig Cartel - Gig guide: Wilko Johnson & Band Oil City Confidential live, Gateshead

Wilko Johnson & Band Oil City Confidential live, Gateshead

(featuring Wilko Johnson )

Venue: Gateshead The Glasshouse

Julian Temples Oil City Confidential tells the story early Dr Feelgood...four men in cheap suits who crashed out of Canvey Island in the early '70's, sandpapered the face of rock'n'roll, leaving all that came before a burnt-out ruin - four estuarine John-the-Baptists to Johnny Rotten's anti-Christ. Taking London by storm, they sped through Europe and  conquered the UK with No 1 chart success, before imploding just as punk was born and America beckoned with open arms. Featuring the legendary original Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson & band Oil City Confidential live is a twin barrelled shot gun of a show dedicated not only to the high octane explosive garage blues of early Dr Feelgood but also to some of the bands, music and musicians that inspired them at the time.

Following a remarkable recovery from a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Wilko Johnson the original Dr Feelgood guitarist , actor (Game of Thrones character Ser ilyn Payne) and all round national treasure has enjoyed a rousing return to the live arena, including a number 1 album with Roger Daltrey (Going Back Home), a sold out show at The Royal Albert Hall to mark his 70th birthday and, most recently, the release of Blow Your Mind, his first album of new material in decades.Wilko is famed for his blistering chop-chord strumming action (the ‘stab’, as he describes it), a technique inspired by his admiration of the late Pirates guitarist Mick Green. With this electrifying sound, his trademark black-suited, scowling look and his characteristic strut, Wilko became one of the guitar heroes of the 1970s and beyond, not to mention on of rock ’n’ roll’s most extraordinary characters. He, alongside his original Feelgood bandmates, is also widely acknowledged as a forefather of punk on both sides of the Atlantic, fans ranging from Joe Strummer to Blondie.Following a stint with Ian Dury & The Blockheads in the 1980s, he formed the Wilko Johnson Band, with Blockheads bassist Norman Watt-Roy. Featuring former Blockhead Dylan Howe on drums, the trio is known as one of the most exciting r’n’b bands in the world today. Special guest 'Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure John Otway.