Following disagreements during 1977 sessions for SNEAKIN'
SUSPICION, their fourth album, the band acrimoniously parted company
with Wilko. In lesser bands, the sacking of your only hit-maker and
main visual attraction would be seen as suicidal. Not so with Dr. Feelgood.
Recruiting guitarist Gypie Mayo as Johnson's replacement, Brilleaux
grasped the opportunity to change the band's sound, giving it a more
polished, commercial edge. The public's reaction went quiet and any fears
Brilleaux might have had their next single, "Milk And Alcohol" (1979),
produced by Nick Lowe, hit the UK Top 10, and remains possibly the best
known Feelgood track. Although Dr. Feelgood
were never to better this singles chart success, they were able to command
huge live audiences through the 70s and 80s, regardless of fickle fashions.
One of the UK's hardest-working bands, they would clock up around 250
gigs a year as well as chum out albums. In 1979, they excelled themselves
and released both As IT HAPPENS and LET IT ROLL. The constant touring
wore the band down. In 1980, Gypie Mayo retired from the band, an event
followed by the wittily entitled A CASE Or THE SHAKES (again produced
by Nick Lowe). Fellow founder members The Big Figure and Sparko were
not far behind him, citing road fatigue as their decision to quit in
1982.
Brilleaux soldiered
on under the Feelgood banner, recruiting Johnny Guitar. Gordon Russell
and finally Steve Walwyn into the guitarist's position. The replacement
rhythm section of Phil Mitchell (bass) and Kevin Morris (drums) was
the one Brilleaux would use right up until the end of his life. Showcasing
the new line-up with DOCTOR'S ORDERS in 1984, Brilleaux went on to cement
his leadership with Brilleaux (1986), released on the Stiff label, which
he had helped found a decade earlier. Bucking the prevailing singer-songwriter
trend, this triumphant return to form relied heavily on material by
other artists such as John Hiatt and, more curiously, Johnny Cash. Carrying
on the Feelgood tradition of extensive playing into the 90s, the band
released one of their greatest live albums, LIVE IM LONDON, in 1990.
With Brilleaux's gutsy vocals to the fore, the band ably demonstrated
that they had lost none of their fire with their mix of Johnson
compositions and tasteful choice of covers, ranging from material by
B. B. King to Bill Haley. Brilleaux, the heart and soul of Dr. Feelgood
for over two decades, died of cancer in April 1994, aged 41. Shortly
before his death. Lee recorded his swan song - an emotive live set recorded
at the Dr. Feelgood Music Bar in Southend, proving that, even to the
end, he had lost none of his star quality. While Brilleaux's death would have seemed an appropriate
point to close the Dr. Feelgood story, the band decided to recruit
new singer Pete Gage and continue the name. To add to the confusion,former
Feelgood's Gypie Mayo, Sparko and the Big Figure have also been performing
the band's back catalogue as The Practice, sometimes being billed
as 'Dr. Feelgood's Practice'. Let's hope that neither band sinks to
the kind of mediocre pub rock which Brilleaux's star qualities had held them well above.
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