Wilko Johnson announces April 2012 UK tour

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ABS AGENCY & www.thegigcartel.com presents
WILKO JOHNSON
APRIL 2012 UK TOUR
With very special guests 'Virgil and the Accelerators'

24 HOUR BOX OFFICE: 0844 478 0898
BOOK ONLINE: www.thegigcartel.com

TICKETS ON SALE FROM FRIDAY 28th OCTOBER

Following his recent TV appearance on BBC 2 Television's Later With Jools Holland, "Wilko Johnson", the legendary former guitarist of Dr. Feelgood, who has influenced everyone from Joe Strummer, Mick Jones to Steve Albini, is pleased to announce and extensive April 2012 15-date UK tour with very special guests Virgil and the Accelerators.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday October 28th at 10am via the 24 hour box office: 0844 478 0898 or can be booked online: www.thegigcartel.com.

Fans that can't wait until Friday can take advantage of a special 48 Hour Pre-sale on Wednesday October 26th from 10am via www.eventim.co.uk and www.ents24.com.

The tour gets underway at the Buxton Pavilion Theatre on Thursday April 5th 2012.

Described by Wilko as a "fractured autobiography", Looking Back At Me, written in association with Zoe Howe, will be published to coincide with his April 2012 UK tour.

Fender will issue a Wilko Johnson signature Fender Telecaster based on his customised 1962 model.

Next year, Wilko will reprise his role as The Executioner in the second series of HBO's Game of Thrones, broadcast on Sky Atlantic.

In April 2012, EMI will release a boxed set of three CDs and DVD. The CDs will include a mix of the first four Dr. Feelgood albums, and previously unreleased material.

There's even talk of a new Wilko Johnson studio album in the pipeline.

In addition to pioneering Dr. Feelgood's distinctive mid-seventies, pre-punk British R&B sound, in 1980 Wilko played guitar for Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Wilko's current live band features Blockheads' Norman Watt-Roy (bass guitar), and Dylan Howe (drums).

In 2009 Johnson featured in Julien Temple's Oil City Confidential; a fascinating full-length feature film documentary about Dr. Feelgood. The film received many accolades including the MOJO Vision Award at the MOJO Honours List 2010.

Dr. Feelgood originally formed in 1971 as a British pub rock band who hailed from Canvey Island, Essex. Their name derived from a slang term for heroin or for a doctor who was willing to overprescribe drugs. It is also a reference to a 1962 record by the American blues pianist and singer Willie Perryman (also known as "Piano Red") called "Dr Feel-Good", which Perryman originally recorded under the name of Dr Feelgood & The Interns.
Dr. Feelgood's distinctive British R&B sound was centered on Wilko Johnson's choppy guitar style. The original band line-up also included singer Lee Brilleaux, and the rhythm section of John B. Sparks (aka "Sparko") on bass guitar and John Martin (aka "The Big Figure") on drums.

Dr. Feelgood was known primarily for their high energy live performances, although studio albums like Down by the Jetty (1974) and Malpractice (1975) were also incredibly popular. Their 1976 breakthrough live album, Stupidity reached No.1 in the Official UK Album Chart. When the band released their fourth album, Sneakin' Suspicion (1977), Johnson departed to pursue a solo career.

ABS AGENCY & www.thegigcartel.com presents
WILKO JOHNSON
APRIL 2012 UK TOUR
With very special guests 'Virgil and the Accelerators'

24 HOUR BOX OFFICE: 0844 478 0898
BOOK ONLINE: www.thegigcartel.com

Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre
Thursday 5th April
Doors 7pm / Tickets £16.00 & £18.00
Box Office: 0845 127 2190
www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk
St John's Road, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6BE

Sale Waterside Arts Centre
Friday 6th April
Doors 7.30pm / Tickets £17.50
Box Office: 0161 912 5616
www.watersideartscentre.co.uk
Waterside Plaza, Sale, Manchester, M33 7ZF

Clitheroe Grand
Saturday 7th April
Doors 7pm / Tickets £17.50
Box Office: 01200 421 599
www.thegrandvenue.co.uk
18 York Street, Clitheroe, Lancashire, BB7 2DL

Newbury Arlington Arts Centre
Thursday 12th April
Doors: 7.45pm / Tickets: £17.50
Box Office: 01635 244 246
www.arlingtonarts.co.uk
Mary Hare, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 3BQ

Tavistock Wharf
Friday 13th April
Doors 8pm / Tickets £17.50
Box Office: 01822 611 166
www.tavistockwharf.com
Canal Road, Tavistock, Devon, PL19 8AT

Penzance Acorn Arts Centre
Saturday 14th April
Doors 8pm / Tickets £17.50
Box Office: 0871 230 1101, 0845 094 0428
www.seetickets.com
Parade Street, Penzance, West Cornwall, TR18 4BU

Bristol Tunnels
Sunday 15th April
Doors 7pm / Tickets £17.50
Box Office: 0845 605 0255
www.thetunnelsbristol.co.uk
32 Bristol and Exeter Mews, Lower Approach Road,
Temple Meads, Bristol, BS1 6QS

Huddersfield Lawrence Batley Theatre
Thursday 19th April
Doors: 7.30pm / Tickets: £17.50
Box Office: 01484 430 528
www.thelbt.org
Queen's Square, Queen Street, Huddersfield,
West Yorkshire, HD1 2SP

Stockton ARC
Friday 20th April
Doors: 7.30pm / Tickets: £17.50
Box Office: 01642 525 199
www.arconline.co.uk
Dovecot Street, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland, TS18 1LL

Lincoln Drill Hall
Saturday 21st April
Doors: 7.30pm / Tickets: £17.50
Box Office: 01522 873 894
www.lincolndrillhall.com
Freeschool, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, LN2 1EY

Bury St Edmunds Apex
Sunday 22nd April
Doors: 7.30pm / Tickets: £17.50
Box Office: 01284 758 000
www.theapex.co.uk
Charter Square, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, IP33 3FD

Leeds Wardrobe
Thursday 26th April
Doors: 7pm / Tickets: £17.50
Box Office: 0844 478 0898
www.thewardrobe.co.uk
6 St Peter's Square, Leeds, Yorkshire, LS9 8AH

Dunfermline Carnegie Theatre
Friday 27th April
Doors: 7pm / Ticket: £17.50
Box Office: 01383 602302
www.onfife.com
East Port, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, KY12 7JA

Stafford Gatehouse Theatre
Saturday 28th April
Doors 7.30pm / Tickets: £17.50
Box Office: 01785 254653
www.staffordgatehousetheatre.co.uk
Eastgate Street, Stafford, Staffordshire, ST16 2LT

Bridport Electric Palace
Sunday 29th April
Doors 7pm / Tickets £17.50
Box Office: 01308 426 336
www.electricpalace.org.uk
35 South Street, Bridport, Dorset, DT6 3NY

WILKO JOHNSON - BIOGRAPHY

When rock'n'roll was shaken from its pre-punk complacency by the emergence of Dr. Feelgood, it was their guitarist Wilko Johnson who excited most attention – not only for the startling violence of his stage performance (which was to inspire countless imitators and become one of the classic images of rock'n'roll) but also for his guitar style which combined the roles of lead and rhythm guitar in driving riffs and a stuttering machine gun frenzy which altered conceptions of 'guitar heroics'.

As a songwriter, from early Feelgood favourites like 'Back in the Night' to the power and poetry of 'Dr. Dupree' and 'Sneaking Suspicion' he has proved himself one of the best and most original exponents of R&B styles this side of the Atlantic.

The list of '70s New Wave bands who acknowledge the influence of Wilko and the Feelgoods is extensive and includes The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Jam, The Boomtown Rats, and across the Atlantic The Ramones and Blondie (who spent a whole night at a New York party wearing out their specially imported copy of the Feelgood's first album, 'Down by the Jetty').

After his departure from Dr. Feelgood in 1977 Wilko formed his own band, and over the next few years worked with several personnel of varying degrees of musical accomplishment and mixed moral character. In 1980, while continuing to work with his own 3-piece, Wilko entered the ranks of Ian Dury's brilliant Blockheads, co-writing writing several songs with Ian and featuring on the 'Laughter' album. Then in 1985 the Blockhead's sensational and much loved bassist Norman Watt-Roy joined Wilko and for the last twenty-five years they have startled and blasted audiences from Helsinki to Madrid, Aberdeen to Istanbul, Toulouse to Tokyo.

Now with the revered Dylan Howe (another former Blockhead) on drums the band has reached an even greater level of musical mastery and manic brilliance, generally recognised as Wilko's best band of all time. Rock'n'roll never got more savage than this! In 2008 the highly acclaimed film director Julien Temple set out to make a documentary film about the birth and all too brief phenomenon of Dr. Feelgood. 'Oil City Confidential' was premièred in October 2009 to very great critical acclaim and a series of awards. As the eccentric and enigmatic star of the film Wilko has attracted attention in some unexpected places; he has recently been filming alongside Sean Bean as Royal Executioner Ser Illyn Payne in HBO's fantasy series Game of Thrones, due for release in spring 2011.