Celebrating 50 years since the release of their debut album! Dr Feelgood’s first four albums remastered and reissued on vinyl and CD. WHERE has the time gone?
Release Date: 25th July 2025
Label: Rhino Records
Formats: CD / Vinyl
THEY DOES IT RIGHT!
Can it REALLY be 50 years since Dr Feelgood released their debut album, Down By The Jetty? 50 years since they unleashed a whirlwind that would, within a few short months, effectively sweep aside a complacent, bloated musical establishment and clear the decks for the march of the punks? Apparently so and, to celebrate that world-changing event, Rhino Records are reissuing the first four groundbreaking albums that, for a short while, put Dr Feelgood at the very crest of the UK’s musical heap.
Yes – you read that correctly. Down By The Jetty, Malpractice (both 1975), Stupidity (1976) and Sneakin’ Suspicion (1977) have all been remastered and they’re all making a welcome reappearance in both CD and vinyl formats. Rhino Records? – They Does It Right!
INTRODUCING… DR FEELGOOD
I doubt that Dr Feelgood require any introduction whatsoever as far as At The Barrier followers are concerned, but – anyway – here goes…
Dr Feelgood first convened in their home locality of Canvey Island, Essex in 1971. Guitarist Wilko Johnson and vocalist/harmonicist Lee Brilleaux had been school friends, when they were still known, respectively, as John Wilkinson and Lee Green. They were joined by bassist John B Sparks and, slightly later, by drummer John Martin, aka The Big Figure. All four members of the nascent band were already veterans of the thriving local R&B scene. And, for their group name, they delved back into those R&B roots and filched the title of a 1962 Willie ‘Piano Red’ Perryman hit. Dr Feelgood it was…
PUB ROCK LUMINARIES
It’s no overstatement to suggest that, right from their very beginnings, Dr Feelgood swam against the tide. The musical shots during the early seventies were being called by the respective houses of Prog and Glam – genres that were shunned by Dr Feelgood and a few other like-mined operators, all of whom preferred gritty R&B to posturing or noodling. Happily, there was a welcoming home for the no-frills offerings of Dr Feelgood and their ilk in venues such as The Hope & Anchor, The Nashville, The Dublin Castle and The Half Moon on the London Pub Rock circuit that, by early 1973, was beginning to gather momentum.
Dr Feelgood were soon established as leading light on the Pub Rock scene, alongside friends and competitors like Ducks Deluxe and Brinsley Schwarz and right from the outset, their raw power as live attraction was indisputable. There were, however, many who expressed doubt that the band’s electrifying live presence – dominated by the perma-perspiring Brilleaux in his once-white suit and by Johnson’s manic, robotic movement and novel ‘fingernail’ guitar style – was capable of making the transformation from stage to vinyl. After all, they were so VISUAL, weren’t they?
DOWN BY THE JETTY
Dr Feelgood signed their contract with United Artists Records in 1974 and made a slow start to their recording career. The first music they committed to tape was a live recording of a medley of rock standards – Bony Moronie/Tequila, recorded at Dingwall’s, a London club. The live vs studio doubters had their opportunity to test their judgement in January 1975 when the band’s debut album, Down By The Jetty, made its appearance.
Public reaction to the release was, it’s fair to say, mixed. To a public accustomed to increasingly glossy production standards, the album’s mono-only mix – chosen by the band as a way of preserving their gritty R&B sound – seemed, at first, to be a mistake. But, as always, time was to show the wiser and Down By The Jetty quickly established itself as a must-have album and it soon became one of the go-to reference points for a generation of emerging bands that included The Boomtown Rats and The Jam.
A FINE ALBUM
And that’s not at all surprising. Down By The Jetty is a fine album with a track listing that mixes cleverly selected covers like John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom and Mickey Jupp’s Cheque Book with a raft of Wilko Johnson compositions that were soon to become – and which remain to this day – rock standards. The album opens with She Does It Right – arguably the definitive Dr Feelgood rocker and goes on to feature gems like Roxette, I Don’t Mind and, perhaps Wilko’s finest moment – and the song that gave the debut album its title – the mighty All Through the City.
I do recall thinking at the time the album was released that the songs sounded a tad sterile in comparison to the band’s incendiary live versions, but that’s an impression that soon died away. And, anyway, the ‘live is best’ crowd would have its moment in due course – as we shall see. But, to keep them quiet in the meantime, Down By The Jetty was concluded by that early Dingwall’s recording and we were left in the sure knowledge that there was much more to come from Dr Feelgood.
MALPRACTICE
Second album, Malpractice, received an altogether more welcoming reception when it appeared in November 1975. The response was certainly aided by the band’s relentless touring and an increasing groundswell of support in the UK’s music press, all of sufficient magnitude to give the band their first chart appearance when it climbed to #17 in the UK Album Chart. Once again, the album’s songs are a blend of R&B standards and Wilko Johnson compositions and, once again, several of the tracks would quickly become enduring crowd-pleasers.
Amongst the standards, a scorching version of Hambone Willie Newbern’s Rollin’ and Tumblin’, Bobby Parker’s inspirational and much-covered Watch Your Step and a storming version of Riot in Cell Block No.9 are all standout tracks but it’s perhaps when they get round to the Johnson originals that Dr Feelgood really make their presence felt on Malpractice. Another Man, Because You’re Mine (a co-composition with Nick Lowe) and You Shouldn’t Call the Doctor (If You Can’t Afford the Bills) are all excellent, enduring songs. But the jewels in this particular crown are surely Going Back Home and Back in the Night – two more 24-carat Wilko classics.
THE BEST LIVE ALBUM EVER?
But, of course, what we all really, really wanted was a live album and, in October 1976, Dr Feelgood gave us what many consider to be the cream of that particular crop. Recorded at Sheffield City Hall on 23rd May 1975 and at Southend’s Kursaal Ballroom on 8th November 1975, Stupidy is, quite simply, the live album to end all live albums. If Feelgood-watchers had, hitherto, felt that the band’s live presence hadn’t been captured on any of the band’s previous recordings, then those feelings were put firmly to bed by Stupidity. And the record-buying public agreed. Stupidity surged to the top of the Album Chart and, in the process, established Dr Feelgood as Britain’s top attraction. For a while, at least.
Stupidity is one of those rare albums on which every single track is a gem. The excitement that the band could generate is captured and bottled, even though there’s no dialogue whatsoever between songs, save a few grunted “thankyou”s from Brilleaux. They let the music speak for itself. And speak it does as Lee and the guys race through the hits – I’m talking About You, Stupidity, All Through The City, Walking The Dog, She Does It Right, Going Back Home, Back In The Night; they’re all here, and they’re all performed with a verve that takes the breath away.
ALL ON ONE NOTE
If pushed, I’d have to suggest that my favourite track of the lot is the magnificent I’m a Hog For You Baby, if only because it includes Wilko’s amazing one-note guitar solo that goes on-and-on and sears right into the listener’s brain. There had never been anything like this before and – so far – there hasn’t been since, either.
SNEAKIN’ SUSPICION
I guess that we knew that Dr Feelgood were walking a tightrope, once they hit paydirt. Intra-band tensions, particularly those between Brilleaux and Johnson, the band’s two big personalities, had always been fragile and, in early 1977 that fragility shattered when Wilko Johnson left the band, ostensibly following a disagreement over the choice of material for the next album. He did stick around long enough for the recording, however, and Sneakin’ Suspicion is certainly an album with its high points.
Once again, the track listing is a mix of standards and Johnson compositions, although, this time around, it’s probably the standards that leave the longest-lasting impression. Although, having said, it was a Wilko song, the album’s title track, that heralded the album’s arrival and gave Dr Feelgood their first appearance in the UK singles chart, when it reached the heady heights of #47. It seems that goodwill was still in plentiful supply, despite the very public ructions that the band was going through.
THE BEST OF TIMES
It was the best of times. For a brief few months in the mid-1970s, Dr Feelgood showed the world that spangly capes and keyboard gymnastics weren’t necessary ingredients of good music and an electrifying live performance. They re-emphasised the value of a solid 12-bar formula and they showed us all what can be achieved by a voice, a guitar, a bass, a set of drums, a harmonica and a lot of sweat. They converted a lot of believers and, for better or worse (you decide…) they opened the door to what was to come next.
And that heady period is captured here – over the space of four albums that, arguably, changed the way we listen to music. Thankyou, Dr Feelgood. Thankyou Rhino Records.
Re-live the Dr Feelgood live experience – watch the band perform I’m A Hog For You Baby, complete with the dirty Brilleaux suit and the Johnson histrionics, below:
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