the who

GIG REVIEW: Wilko Johnson @ Koko Camden

In 1965, when Roger Daltrey sang ‘I hope I die before I get old’, he defined a generation. Music belonged to the young, and this meant that getting old wasn’t just uncool, it was to be avoided at all costs.

The irony is that Daltrey and co – a generation who actively used rock ‘n’ roll to distance themselves from their parents – have now reached the stage in life they once demonised and decided that maybe it ain’t so bad after all. What the 21 year-old Daltrey didn’t know, you see, was that like wine, cheese and Stephen Fry, he was going to keep on getting better with age. Much like another legendary rockstar, similarly advanced in years, whom I had the pleasure of seeing recently at Koko in Camden – one Wilko Johnson, formerly of Dr Feelgood.

Who is Wilko Johnson, I hear (some of) you cry? Well, don’t worry if you haven’t heard of him. I didn’t know a great deal about Wilko myself until a good friend offered me a last-minute ticket to his gig, but I soon discovered I was being inducted into a very special circle. Wilko’s career has spanned five decades and been notable for chart hits, relentless touring and a legendary live act. In early 2013 he was diagnosed with untreatable pancreatic cancer and, refusing chemotherapy, has been given just months to live. This gig was due, in all likelihood, to be one of his last.

Stepping into Koko that night, if you forgot for a moment the rock venue setting you could quite easily have been at B&Q’s Summer Sale. The place was a sea, an actual sea, of bald heads belonging to beer-bellied men in their fifties and sixties, and I suddenly felt very young and self-consciously skinny. This was rather refreshing because these days I’m generally aware of being slightly above the average age at most gigs I go to. Prior to Wilko’s show, the most recent gig I had attended was at East London’s Queen Of Hoxton and was hosted by an edgy electro band of the sort that features more laptops than humans. Technically, I could have been approaching twice the age of some of the kids in that place, mere children who know almost nothing of Blur Vs Oasis and consider living with anything less than fibre-optic broadband to be an abuse of their human rights.

And so, standing there among a crowd of men twice my age, I was concerned about feeling like an outsider – but instead I was welcomed into the fold with open arms. Wilko fans are a wonderfully inclusive club, bursting with joie de vivre and hopelessly devoted to their idol. One guy had seen Wilko two-hundred times and received personal thank-you letters from the man himself; another was so overwhelmed at this being the last gig that he was dewy-eyed before the show even began.

The set itself was astonishing. Wilko was mesmerising, an extraordinarily accomplished musician and a guitarist unlike any I’ve seen before. He hardly said a world all night; he just played, and played gloriously, for near-on two unforgettable hours, not flagging for a single second. It was a masterclass in rock ‘n’ roll, made all the more extraordinary by his age and experience.

His style of guitar-playing is instantly recognisable. Having taught himself to play, Johnson was unrestrained by rules and so made them up as he went along, combining lead and rhythm in one bumper package. He’s basically the Buy One Get One Free of blues guitarists, easily doing the job of two players. Special mention should also go to the rest of the band – Dylan Howe on drums and Norman Watt-Roy on bass, an absolute machine of a rhythm section. Watt-Roy (in his seventies, and also of The Blockheads) plays the bass like a 21 year-old on speed, and together they were quite easily one of the tightest and shit-hottest three-pieces I have ever seen, or can ever imagine seeing. Seething, primal, unpretentious, it was a spectacle no amount of laptops and gadgets and chaos pads will ever come close to (in my humble, and probably outdated, opinion).

At the end of the evening, I left Camden with one prevailing thought in mind. Wilko, Roger and the rest of you golden oldies, thank god you failed in your quest and actually did manage to get old. Because the world will be a far, far poorer place when you’re gone.

Chris Lightyear

Our Favourite Moments Of 2012

That’s right, people… it’s 2013. Not quite sure how that happened – we appear to be edging ever closer to the date in Back To The Future II, which doesn’t seem at all right, but there you go.

The Lightyears are looking forward to an exciting couple of months. We’re returning to the London stage on Saturday 9 February to headline at Westminster Reference Library, and before then we’ll be hitting the recording studio to lay down preview versions of some of the tracks we’ve been working on for the new album.

We’ll keep you posted on all that but, until then, feel free to avail yourself heartily of The Lightyears Favourite Moments Of 2012…

Chilling backstage with multiple Rogers
In October we larked off to Sweden to perform with Roger Daltrey from The Who and Queen drummer Roger Taylor. We spent most of the time buggering about on bikes and learned that people named Roger are always spiffing. Click here to read my Gothenburg Tour Diary.

Surprising some Cumbrian ramblers
As part of a new band initiative to get back to nature, 2012 saw us popping up in a number of al fresco gig destinations and shooting funny little acoustic videos. Here’s one of us on the banks of Lake Grasmere, shortly after we confused the absolute heck out of some local hiking types:

Nearly starting a fight with The Buzzcocks
In September, while we were on tour in France, one of my legendarily BRILLIANT jokes predictably backfired and I narrowly escaped fisticuffs with a punk legend. Read the story here.

Making acoustic music really quite sexy
Our first move in 2012 was to film and release a series of acoustic videos shot at the awesome Powder Keg Diplomacy in Clapham. These proved almost suspiciously popular in Turkey. Have a gander…

Releasing The Ultimate Lightyears Photo Album
Tired of having to recreate our precious band memories by scribing them into slates like Victorian schoolchildren, this year we decided to compile an archive of our craaaaaaziest international tour photos. Click here to take a look.

Coming perilously close to outshining Bolt at the Games
Back in the heady sporting summer of 2012, we wrote and performed an Olympic Anthem for the city of Peterborough. Here we are performing it with quite literally lots of humans.

Creating lasting world peace with our new app
A couple of months ago we made ourselves tiny enough to fit inside your phone. Apparently professional people call these apps; I call them Mini-Moving-Picture-Boxes. Click here to download your copy.

Queening it up at The Goring Jubilee
Roger Taylor’s all very well, but the shocking truth is that his band nicked their entire identity from this old rocker ALSO CALLED QUEEN. On 3 June we celebrated how many hats she has by playing a big, wet gig in Goring. It was epic.

Eclipsing the internet with Project LYs
In the summer we launched our multimedia micro-site Project Lightyears. The site proved so popular that it immediately broke Google. Don’t worry, there’s a bloke coming round to fix it.

Finishing the book that is fast becoming known as The New New Testament
I’ve been writing a book inspired by the international shenanigans of The Lightyears for some years now, and in 2012 I finished it. The spelling in it is excellent. And if you come to our gig on Saturday 9 February, you can hear me read from it. Here’s an excerpt:

Mercilessly rocking Cape Town
Cape Town welcomed us yet again with open arms at the beginning of the year, and we responded by first eating loads and loads of their delicious meat (not Tony) and then rocking their cocking socks off. Here’s a teeny tiny clip.

Happy New Year folks! And thanks to everyone who supported us in 2012 – it means a lot.

Chris, George, Tony & John
THE LIGHTYEARS

Sweden tour photos now online

Last week we jetted off to Gothenburg, Sweden, to perform with Roger Daltrey from The Who and Queen drummer Roger Taylor.

Aside from the catastrophic impact on our wallets of Gothenburg’s ‘nine quid for a pint of beer’ culture, the trip was a grand success. I’m in the process of documenting our adventures in a tour diary, but in the meantime, head to The Lightyears’ Facebook page where our Sweden tour photo album is now online.