And on vocals? Well, that would be another old-schooler: Roger Daltrey, whom you may know from his years with another band of ruffians, The Who.ġ0 of the 11 songs on Going Back Home are fresh takes on Wilko-penned classics. Going Back Home finds the guitarist joined by longtime wingmen Norman Watt-Roy (bass) and Dylan Howe (drums), along with veteran keyboardist Mick Talbot and blues harpman Steve Weston. Johnson says the decision was an easy one: he declined any treatments, strapped on his Telecaster, and started playing as much rock ‘n’ roll as he had time for.īesides live shows (“We did our ‘farewell tour’,” says Wilko with a laugh “Now we just do tours.”), Johnson made the time to record a studio album. You could attempt to look his style up, but there’s no point – Wilko wrote the book.įast-forward to January of 2013: diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer, Johnson was told he would be dead by October – with the possibility of extending things a bit if he wanted to undergo chemotherapy. Bare-handed and wielding his picking arm like a crazed lumberjack, Johnson proved that one man and a black Telecaster could construct a wall of roaring chords, somehow firing off wailing leads in the midst of it like a sniper atop his perch. Mad-eyed and unblinking, lurching/darting/back-and-forthing about the stage, Johnson introduced the world to his own brand of rhythm/lead guitar. Feelgood, his image has been as unique as his guitar playing. album charts.īut the 66-year-old Johnson has never done things quite like anyone else.įrom the first moment Johnson caught the public’s eye back in the early 70s with the British pub rockers Dr. Two songs on the album, the epic “Ball & Chain” and string-laden “Hero Ground Zero,” recently got their world premiere when the band played with a 40 piece orchestra to a packed Wembley Stadium.The simple fact of the matter is Wilko Johnson isn’t supposed to be with us at this point – let alone playing slam-banging, foot-stomping rock ‘n’ roll with a new album that debuted at the number three spot on the U.K. We started recording as The Who in March 2019, and have finished now in late August just in time to make some vinyl………maybe even some cassettes……ready for release in November”. I made new home studio demos of all these songs in the summer of 2018 using a wide collection of instruments old and new. Memories are ok, and some of the songs refer to the explosive state of things today. I didn’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Roger and I are both old men now, by any measure, so I’ve tried to stay away from romance, but also from nostalgia if I can. “There is no theme, no concept, no story, just a set of songs that I (and my brother Simon) wrote to give Roger Daltrey some inspiration, challenges and scope for his newly revived singing voice. “This album is almost all new songs written last year, with just two exceptions,” says Townshend. Singer Roger Daltrey rates it amongst their strongest, “I think we’ve made our best album since Quadrophenia in 1973, Pete hasn’t lost it, he’s still a fabulous songwriter, and he’s still got that cutting edge.” The songs on WHO cover a myriad of subjects including the Grenfell Tower fire, musical theft, spirituality, reincarnation, the power of memory and ‘an old rock star that has lost his marbles’. Sir Peter designed and contributed a painting to the sleeve of The Who’s album Face Dances in 1981. The album cover has been created by famed pop artist, Sir Peter Blake who first met the band in 1964 at a taping of the legendary TV show Ready Steady Go. The artwork for WHO was unveiled last night (Thurs, Sept 12th) in New York at the opening of the brand new eight-story Pace contemporary art gallery where the band also performed a short acoustic set. Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap. with vocal production by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Roger Daltrey, Wilko Johnson). Sardy, who has worked with Noel Gallagher, Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, Gorillaz. The 11 track album was mostly recorded in London and Los Angeles during spring and summer 2019 and was co-produced by Pete Townshend & D.
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