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Books

A Feelgood fairy story

In a cancer memoir with an unusually happy ending, the guitarist Wilko Johnson confounds medical opinion to survive his apparently terminal illness

21 May 2016

9:00 AM

21 May 2016

9:00 AM

Don’t You Leave Me Here: My Life Wilko Johnson

Little Brown, pp.256, £20, ISBN: 9781408708002

When I wrote for the NME as a schoolgirl in the 1980s, it was recognised that there were musicians who deserve derision — those whose egos and clothes’ bills dwarfed their talent — and those who commanded respect. Wilko Johnson, one-time guitarist of Dr Feelgood, was of the latter. Whether pacing moodily on stage, hammering out choppy refrains on Feelgood classics such as ‘Roxette’, or touring and recording with subsequent bandmates, he was a dedicated grafter with attitude and ability in spades.

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