Live

DR FEELGOOD: 100 CLUB, LONDON: 17/01/20

BRITAIN’S FINEST OLD-STYLE R&B OUTFIT ROCKS LONDON’S 100 CLUB AS PART OF LONDON’S JANUARY BLUES FESTIVAL

London’s 100 Club was packed before kick-off and Jim Riley’s Blues Foundation laid a solid foundation for the evening with a vibrant support set including the track “Love’s Got A Hold On Me”. A perfect choice as support and they could have headlined on their own.
Dr Feelgood took to the stage “Are you ready?” shouted frontman Robert Kane. The audience certainly was, and the band’s trademark solid R&B riffs soon took them into “You Don’t Love Me”, “Been Down So Long” and “Roxette”.

The bouncy Wilko Johnson number “All Through The City” stepped it up a gear. “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” kept the pace. Guitarist Walwyn played crunching slide blues on a metal guitar with no soundbox, front and back held together by long bolts.

There was a marvellous section of Feelgood classics midset with “Milk and Alcohol”, “She’s A Windup”, “She Did It Right”, “Goin’ Back Home” and “Down At The Doctors”.

The band is driven by the rhythm section of Kevin Morris and solid as a rock bassist Phil Mitchell. The guitar mantle of Wilko has fallen to Steve Walwyn for the last thirty years. Frontman and “new boy” Robert Kane - who joined a mere twenty years ago – energetically struts the stage, exuberating blues grit. Loyal fans sung along, revelling in the “Back In The Night” refrain led by the dynamic Kane, and the encore of “Mad Man Blues”and “Bonnie Moronie” sent the crowd home happy.

A Dr Feelgood gig is just what you would expect, good old R&B, energetically and expertly played, with a fair sprinkling of the Feelgood classics. There’s no slipping quietly back into the night for this lot.

PHOTOS EMRYS BAIRD
Words CHAZ BROOKS