Gig 073 Wilko Johnson’s Solid Senders Oxford Polytechnic 12 October 1978 Wilko Johnson left Dr Feelgood at the height of their fame, which at the time seemed like a perverse decision. It later – actually much later, in the form of personal testimony – emerged that he didn’t get on with the rest of the group, was difficult, cantankerous, and worse than that, university-educated and teetotal. Hindsight would suggest that Dr Feelgood in their original form had already peaked. Their last album with Wilko, Sneakin’ Suspicion, was patchy, and by far the strongest song, Paradise, turned out to be the one that caused the split since Lee Brilleaux – a much more authoritative singer than Wilko – refused to sing it due to what he felt were overly personal lyrics detailing the guitarist’s complicated vie affective . Given that Wilko was the only songwriter and himself not particularly prolific, that was that; irreconcilable differences, your honour. So Dr Feelgood recruited a ne...