“I was still well and we (the band and me) thought we could book onto some festivals because I could do them at the last minute – normally, dates are booked months in advance. I didn’t want to go on stage sick or anything like that. “What happened was this, I’d done my `farewell tour’ and at that point I was just happy that my health had held up for me to finish the tour. “I never, never went in for any kind of false hope – that maybe there’s a miracle cure etc – I accepted I was going to die and just wanted to get on with it. Wilko takes up the tale: “I accepted at the beginning that I was going to die and I just wanted to make the most of the rest of my life. The subsequent diagnosis was extremely cruel – pancreatic cancer – and he was given just 10 months to live. The story started after Wilko was forced to cancel a show through illness in November 2012, shortly after I had interviewed him ahead of an appearance at the O2 Academy Newcastle. He was effusive, philosophical and candid in a long conversation peppered with his irrepressible, often self-deprecating wit as he recounted a decidedly challenging but ultimately uplifting couple of years. I spoke with Wilko recently to get the skinny on this modern-day parable. The quite remarkable and inspiring tale would have been outlandish even by soap-opera standards (or Game Of Thrones, in which he appeared) and it is no spoiler to report that his appearance at Newcastle O2 Academy on April 15 with his band reveals a positive outcome. He released another album, “Blow Your Mind,” in 2018, and played gigs with his Wilko Johnson Band until last month.A short while ago, the extraordinary story of Essex-born singer/guitarist (and Newcastle university graduate) Wilko Johnson occupied acres of newsprint and extended media coverage.

After surgery to remove a 3-kilogram tumor, Johnson announced in 2014 he was cancer-free. In another twist, a fan who was also a cancer specialist offered to help. I’d be worrying about the taxman or all the things that we worry about that get in the way of the real things. “I suddenly found myself in a position where nothing matters anymore,” he told the Associated Press in 2013.

He declined chemotherapy, decided to go on one last tour, and recorded a “final” album, “Going Back Home,” with Roger Daltrey of The Who. The prospect of death unexpectedly revived his creative energies. In 2012, Johnson was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was told it was terminal. He went on to perform with Ian Dury’s band, the Blockheads, and spent years playing to a devoted fanbase, largely in the U.K. Then in 1977 Johnson walked out amid friction with charismatic lead singer Lee Brilleaux, who died in 1994. punk explosion, and teetered on the edge of global fame, scoring a U.K. The anarchic outfit inspired bands who would soon drive the U.K. Feelgood a dangerous edge with his choppy, relentless guitar style and thousand-yard glare - a look terrifying enough to earn him a role later in life as silent executioner Ser Ilyn Payne on “Game of Thrones.” At a time of flamboyant glam and indulgent prog rock, they played a then-unfashionable brand of blues and R&B, dressed in cheap suits that made them look, Johnson said later, like “shoddy bank robbers.” 23 on Johnson’s official social media accounts on behalf of his family said the musician died on Nov 22 evening at his home in southeast England.īorn John Wilkinson in 1947, Johnson worked as a schoolteacher before forming Dr.

Wilko johnson and george daltrey going