Original version

BBC Four

BBC 4

Julien Temple

Oil City Confidential: Dr Feelgood

Documentaries

Films

Factual

Music: Classic Pop & Rock

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

23/04/2010

BBC Four - Oil City Confidential: Dr Feelgood

Director Julien Temple celebrates the early Seventies Essex rhythm and blues band.

Director Julien Temple's film celebrates Dr Feelgood, the early Seventies Essex band, examining their Canvey Island culture as a 'Thames delta' for British rhythm and blues.

Director Julien Temple's film celebrates Canvey Island's Dr Feelgood, the Essex R 'n' B band that exploded out of the UK in the prog era of the early Seventies, delivering shows and albums that helped pave the way for pub rock and punk.

Temple examines Canvey Island culture as a 'Thames delta' for British rhythm and blues, with a central performance from the Feelgood's guitarist and songwriter Wilko Johnson. A British original, his dynamic stage presence and relationship with lead singer Lee Brilleaux drove the band through their early performances, characterising their three albums between 1975 and 1976, Down by the Jetty, Malpractice and the number one live album, Stupidity.

Wilko left the band in 1977, bassist John B Sparks and drummer The Big Figure both left in 1982, and Lee Brilleaux died in 1994. This is an imaginative, filmic and moving study of the place, times and characters that created the heyday of a seminal British band, and the personal forces that pulled them apart.

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Oil City Confidential: Dr Feelgood

Contributors

Genres

Formats

BBC Four

About BBC Four