ALBUM (1976)
Stupidity Dr Feelgood (United Artists)
The English seaside resort of Southend is famed for its Victorian-era pleasure pier. But in the early 1970s it was known for something much less sedate - rhythm and blues. The Southend scene, as it was known, spawned a number of bands who injected a well-needed shot of R&B into Britain's mordant pre-punk club scene.
The most famous of these bands was Eddie and the Hot Rods, who had a big hit with the poppy Do Anything You Wanna Do. But the most respected is the hard-rocking Dr Feelgood.
Like many of the Southend bands, Dr Feelgood originated from Canvey Island, 24 kilometres west of Southend-on-Sea. The band formed in 1971, churning out a repertoire of R&B standards and raunchy self-penned numbers. Singer Lee Brilleaux had a cool charisma while guitar player Wilco Johnson developed a machine-gun style of playing which made one Fender Telecaster guitar sound like a battery of 10. Stupidity, a live album, was the band's third LP and the disc that catapulted them into the mainstream. Its stripped-down, bare-bones sound is a joy to listen to in these overproduced times.
Like most good rock'n'roll, Stupidity came about by accident. Being a touring band, Dr Feelgood didn't have time to write material for their third LP. A live album was suggested as a solution, and the band recorded two sets, one in Sheffield and the other in Southend's storied Kursaal venue. The resulting hi-energy sounds far surpassed anything that the Feelgoods had recorded in the studio, and Stupidity leapt to No1 on the British LP chart.
Stupidity is a compendium of all things Feelgood to date, comprising compositions by Johnson and covers of R&B classics. The band stomp through Johnson numbers such as All Through the City and She Does it Right, and stamp their personality on standards I'm a Man, Walking the Dog and the rocking Riot in Cell Block No9. They come off as the definitive four-piece band - it's just drums, guitar, bass, vocals and a touch of blues harp courtesy of Brilleaux.
Stupidity came out just as Britain's punk rock explosion was gaining strength. With their short songs, short hair and raw sound, the Feelgoods had been an influence on the punk scene, and they were embraced by punk rockers. The band released one more album with the classic lineup, but the relationship between Brilleaux and Johnson declined and the guitarist left to front the Solid Senders. The band had one more hit without him, the top-notch Milk and Alcohol, before becoming lost in the noise of the abysmal 1980s music scene.
Brilleaux tragically died in 1994 of lymphoma, but he exhorted the band to keep going without him. Dr Feelgood still tour today, although there are no original members left in the lineup. A Lee Brilleaux memorial gig takes place every year on Canvey Island, at which Dr Feelgood, the Solid Senders, and other musicians from the Southend scene take the stage. Rock historian Julien Temple recently completed an excellent film about the Feelgoods called Oil City Confidential.
