Wilko johnson jools holland full#

вЂњItвЂ™s weird, because going from not having cancer to having it, that whole process is just the few seconds it takes for the doctor to tell you,вЂќ he explains. In conversation, he sounds like fellow death-defier Keith Richards, in that practically every sentence tails off into languid peals of laughter, even as heвЂ™s detailing the awful nadir of his ordeal, which in physical terms came in the weeks and months after the eleven-hour operation. He certainly sounds like heвЂ™s on sparkling form when he calls from his home in Southend even before the miraculous turnaround, JohnsonвЂ™s cancer fight had won him attention around the globe for the stupefying positivity he was showing in the face of it in interviews. Last September, the boy from the Thames Estuary celebrated the seventieth birthday he was never supposed to see with a raucous show at the Royal Albert Hall. The consultant he was referred to, at AddenbrookeвЂ™s Hospital in Cambridge, thought surgery might be possible вЂ“ a radical and risky procedure that sought to cut out the three-kilogram tumour, but that would incur considerable collateral damage with it, as chunks of other internal organs would need to go, too. Accordingly, he carried on playing, in fits and starts, until eventually, he was approached by a fascinated oncologist, who strongly recommended a second opinion вЂ“ after all, by that point, Johnson had far outlived the ten-month prognosis and didnвЂ™t look any the worse for it. Improbably, though, Johnson still felt fine. The gigs sold out in half an hour and were an emotionally-charged success, and the album, which was knocked out in eight days, hit number three in the charts and went gold. He booked final tour dates in the UK and in his beloved Japan, and set to work on a collaborative record with Roger Daltrey, Going Back Home, that the pair had been putting off for some time.

He eschewed treatment and immediately adopted the work ethic of a man whoвЂ™d been told by his doctors that they couldnвЂ™t forecast how long itвЂ™d be until his symptoms became severe enough to consign him to his sickbed.

Wilko johnson jools holland full#

He was given options вЂ“ ten months to live without chemotherapy, or potentially a full year with it вЂ“ but he didnвЂ™t see it as much of a choice. The diagnosis - untreatable pancreatic cancer - came soon afterwards. Towards the end of 2011, though, he was struggling to ignore the considerable lump poking out of his abdomen, which was getting so big that his guitar was beginning to rock back and forth on it.

In a bizarre twist, Johnson also landed a role on Game of Thrones, with his maniacal glare a perfect fit for the part of the mute executioner Ilyn Payne, whoвЂ™s single stage direction was apparently to simply look as menacing as possible. The film inspired a new interest in JohnsonвЂ™s music, and you mightвЂ™ve wondered why nobody had captured all that much of him on camera before he has always been an incredibly striking performer, between his wild-eyed thousand yard stare and his intimidatingly physical playing style, which has him wielding his guitar like a cocked machine gun whilst violently stabbing at the strings with his bare fingers.Д«uoyed by the sudden rise in profile, he and his minimalist backing band вЂ“ Norman Watt-Roy and Dylan Howe, both former Blockheads, on bass and drums respectively вЂ“ found themselves on a bit of a roll, playing to bigger and bigger audiences and appearing on Later.with Jools Holland. Johnson played in The Blockheads, too, in the eighties, but had been a long time in the musical wilderness by the time the filmmaker Julien Temple chronicled the pub rock legacy of Canvey Island in the 2009 documentary Oil City Confidential. And there are a lot of people who'll say the same. Feelgood in the seventies, it was Paul Weller who said of him: вЂњWilko may not be as famous as some other guitarists, but he's right up there. Anybody facing the kind of diagnosis that he did would snap your hand off for that deal, of course, but Johnson seems especially well-prepared for it heвЂ™d spent his whole life flying under the radar anyway. Wilko Johnson knows that, for the rest of his life, heвЂ™ll be known as the man who beat terminal cancer first and a musician second. To come out on the other side of that was very strange.вЂќ вЂњItвЂ™s the first thing that hits you when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you think about before you go to bed at night.