Outside of the United Kingdom, only the most obsessive music fans were aware of what was known as "Pub Rock" during its brief heyday in the early to mid-1970s. But in England, Pub Rock was a important precursor to the punk and new wave scene; the Pub bands rejected the growing pretension of glam and progressive rock, and instead embraced a back-to-basics sound rooted in stripped down R&B and country rock. The toughest of the Pub Rock bands was Dr. Feelgood, a quartet whose revved-up, no-frills music was more tuneful and ...
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Outside of the United Kingdom, only the most obsessive music fans were aware of what was known as "Pub Rock" during its brief heyday in the early to mid-1970s. But in England, Pub Rock was a important precursor to the punk and new wave scene; the Pub bands rejected the growing pretension of glam and progressive rock, and instead embraced a back-to-basics sound rooted in stripped down R&B and country rock. The toughest of the Pub Rock bands was Dr. Feelgood, a quartet whose revved-up, no-frills music was more tuneful and celebratory than punk but communicated much of the same swagger and sense of menace. Dr. Feelgood -- Lee Brilleaux on vocals and harmonica, Wilko Johnson on guitar, Sparko (aka John B. Sparkes) on bass and The Big Figure (aka John Martin) on drums -- never earned more than a tiny cult following in the United States, but for a spell they were a major draw in the UK, and their wild rags to riches to rags again story is brought to the screen in Oil City Confidential, a documentary by Julian Temple that features extensive interviews with the surviving members of the band (Brilleaux died in 1994) and live footage of the group in their prime. Oil City Confidential received its world premiere at the 2009 BFI London Film Festival. Mark Deming, Rovi
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