Wilko is Going Back Home

So Wilko Johnson has finally gone to the great Oil City above. As a teenager I loved reading about Dr Feelgood in Sounds, with the band described as dressing like "out-of-work accountants" and listening to the live album Stupidity in the era of Yes and Pink Floyd. And I  saw Wilko Johnson's Solid Senders play a great set while at Lancaster University in 1980. 

Then there was his revival with the film Oil City Confidential in which he showed us his telescope and described looking from Canvey at the flares from the refinery, which were like, "something out of Dante's Inferno." I saw Wilko play at Canvey Island and wrote about it in my book The Joy of Essex in 2012. Plus there was his memorable role as a mute executioner in Game of Thrones and his wonderfully philosophic attitude to having cancer. A great guitarist and true Essex eccentric, let's hope Wilko is now standing down by the jetty.

Billericay Dickie

Enjoyed appearing on the Ben Fryer show on Radio Essex last week to add my opinion on supermodel and entrepreneur David Gandy telling the Daily Telegraph that he wanted to take his birthplace of Billericay off his passport. The show played segments of Ian Dury's Billericay Dickie and Gavin and Stacey of course to emphasise the town's place in modern culture. 

Does David not realise that Billericay now has a Waitrose? I mentioned the bluebells of Norsey Woods, the Peasants' Revolt, Billericay Brewing, Lake Meadows and the Chequers pub among other Billericay contributions to the world. And also that Adrian Chiles' thought having a regional Brummie accent was an advantage as people underestimated him and were surprised by anything vaguely clever he said — the same surely applies to Essex. Gandy is not a bleeding thickie and he's doing very well, for which he should be thankful.