Interview with

KEVIN MORRIS

from

DR. FEELGOOD

Interviewer: Robert Farnan

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Dr. Feelgood is known for their edgy, loud sound steeped in rock and blues.

Having amassed a large international following over 40+ years, original classics Hey Mama Keep Your Big Mouth Shut, Roxette, and She Does it Right complimented by covers of Hoochie Coochie Man, Watch Your Step and many more still manage to pack out theatres.

Formed in 1971, the current line-up of Kevin Morris (drums), Steve Walwyn (guitar), Phil Mitchell (bass) and Robert Kane (vocals) are coming to Australia in May for their Milk and Alcohol tour.

We caught up with Dr. Feelgood’s leader, Kevin Morris, to discuss what Australian fans could expect, what the band’s plans are and their storied past.

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You are coming out to Australia for the Milk and Alcohol tour. Milk and Alcohol being one of your largest songs, does that indicate this is going to be a tour of the hits? Is there any new material you will be performing?

Jim, the promoter decided to call it the Milk and Alcohol tour. Obviously, it’s a song we play every night. But, the material that we play is a sort of cross-section of the 40 years of Dr. Feelgood. By the way, it is 30 years since we were last in Australia.

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1987 was the last time you were here?

May ’87. It’s extraordinary. I can’t believe it’s 30 years since we’ve been. Quite amazing.

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So why now? Why Australia?

We were invited. Jim Barker from MGM (Metropolitan Groove Merchants) contacted us and it seemed like a great idea. We really like Australia. We haven’t been down for such a long time and we’re very keen.

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What can we expect from the upcoming shows? Is there a strict setlist or are there variations that you do on stage, maybe where someone just goes off on a tangent and everyone has to keep up?

No, we tend to stick to a setlist. We have a sort of skeleton set of the songs we know we’re definitely going to play because people come to see us and they expect to hear them. We then shuffle the pack around the skeleton. Once we’ve decided on a set we tend to stick to it for a while, and then after a while, we have a change around.

I have this thing where I don’t like to go back to somewhere and open with the same song. Whatever the first song of a set is, say of the UK, when we go around again the following year we don’t open with the same song. It’s one of my mottos.

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Before you get to Australia, you tour Germany. Do you have a big following there?

Yeah, we do. We always go to Germany every year. It’s always been a stronghold for rock music. We enjoy our German tours, but I could have done with a couple of days break really before we come out [to Australia]. We finish in Hamburg, travel home, change our clothes and then fly to Australia.

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Why do you think Germany is a stronghold for rock music?

I don’t know. We’re very lucky; we go anywhere and everywhere. Our music is very straightforward, and it’s accepted. All the UK bands have made their way through Germany; it’s been a stronghold for live work. They just love their music.

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I think of Dr. Feelgood’s style as being direct and aggressive. How would you classify it?

Our music is rooted in blues and many of the songs that we played that we haven’t written are old blues songs that we tend to play them a bit faster, as you say it’s quite aggressive, but it’s really a rockier rhythm and blues. We do vary the set, we do a slow blues in there, we do a couple of shuffles, and we play some slide guitar.

Morris is referring to the excellent covers of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and The Coasters, to name a few, Dr. Feelgood perform.

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Do you have a favourite song that you like to perform live?

Oh no, I’m quite happy to play any of it. I particularly like the songs that Wilko Johnson wrote for the group. That’s going back to the early days of the group. I think he nailed what was great for Lee Brilleaux to sing and there’s a very straightforward approach to the songs.

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How is the band’s relationship with Wilko now?

We get bits of mail come to our office, which I pop round to him, and I have a cup of tea and a chat. I haven’t seen him for a while but he was very ill (pancreatic cancer) but he is fine now. He is doing a bit of work himself, in fact when we’re in Australia he’s doing half a dozen shows in the UK. I think he’s tailed back on the amount of live work that he does.

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Speaking of founding members of Dr. Feelgood, Lee Brilleaux, I read that the band took a year off when Lee died. What factors did you weigh up when you decided to carry on?

Chris, the manager, came to me and said that if I wanted to do something I should do it. He had been approached by a couple of ex-members of the group just inquiring what was happening, plus we had a lot of inquiries from agents and promoters and fans. This is pre-Internet, so a lot of it was on the phone or by letter, asking if we were going to look for a new singer, and at first, I couldn’t get my head around the idea. I thought it would be too weird doing it without Lee but we tried a few people and once we found the right line-up it made sense and we’ve been going ever since.

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About yourself Kevin, you started off supporting Sam and Dave.

I was actually in the backing band of Sam and Dave.

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What did you learn from that experience?

So I was 17, and I’d just joined the soul band and one of our main jobs was touring the UK backing American soul acts. The first one that I did was Sam and Dave, and I learnt an awful lot. I learnt about dynamics and also how to put a show together. Sam Moore was a fantastic singer and they were a great act. They were really something else and I learnt a lot. It was a baptism of fire.

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The current line-up of the band has been together for about 20 years.

It’s an all-time record for us.

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What’s led to that stability? What keeps you touring?

We carry on touring because we all love it. I think it’s a huge privilege to be paid to travel the world and play music and I think it’s absolutely brilliant. I think in the stability thing, we’re all a bit older now so people aren’t quite so tetchy and hot-headed (a reference to Wilko and Lee’s fallout). We all accept each other for who we are and we accept that we are not perfect and we get on with it.

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Has the idea that you’re more stable because you’re older and wiser stalled creative output?

We haven’t done any albums for a while, we’re overdue to do something but I don’t want to go in the studio unless we have some strong material. What’s happened recently, I had some songs written that I felt weren’t really suitable for Dr. Feelgood so I went and recorded them myself, and Steve [Walwyn] and Phil [Mitchell] did a similar thing. When we have songs that we don’t think are suitable for the band there’s been an outlet. Nevertheless, at some point in the near future, we’re going to have to go and do something as a band. Obviously, when the time is right we’ll get in the studio.

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When you’re writing do you take into consideration the fact that you will be performing the songs? Does that change the manner that you write the songs and record them?

Not for me. If I get an idea for a song then I just see it through and I don’t worry about whether it’s going to be played live or whether it’s suitable for the group. I just want to finish the song, and then I’ll worry what I’m going to do with it.

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When there is such a commercial focus on churning out the next hit, especially in the electronic genres that appear to have a strong grip on the market, how do you stay relevant today or, at least do you attract young audiences?

We attract quite a mixed crowd. There are people who have followed the group forever and they’re very easy to spot because they have grey hair but we still get the youngsters as well. Sometimes we get people that were first introduced to the group by an older brother or sister or even their parents. Therefore, it’s quite interesting to look out the cross-section of the audience and I know that when we go to Japan I’m always surprised how young the audience is. It’s very much a room full of young people and they sing all the songs. They sing them phonetically.

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Do you have any thoughts on bands you like? Do you think there may be an eventual successor to Dr. Feelgood?

There have been a couple of bands; one from Ireland and one from Carlisle, Cumbria called The 45’s. They were quite taken by the early Feelgood sound and did their own version of it. Unfortunately, they have split up now. Every now and again, you do find a group comes through with a similar a group that comes through with a similar sound. It’s all about attitude that’s really what’s it’s about. It’s about the attitude of going out there with a couple of amplifiers and a drum kit and giving it some stick.

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What are some of your most memorable moments as a band?

I think the first couple of tours of Australia were memorable. The first time we came out there I think was January so we left freezing cold Britain and found ourselves on the beach. That was quite nice. The early trip to Japan because they were so different and I think everywhere we go we like to tune in to the local food and wine and soak up as much of the local vibe as possible.

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Has there been any crazy experience on stage or with a fan recently that you could tell me, just for a laugh?

Ooow, I don’t know. It’s been such a long time and I have many stories that I wouldn’t know where to begin.

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What are you looking forward to the most coming to Australia?

I think it will be interesting it’s been 30 years since we been over so I think there will be a lot of change and I should be interested, for example, to go down to Bondi and have a look because we stayed there a lot, and I’m sure there’s a lot of new buildings. The funky little vegetarian café we used to have breakfast in is probably now a tower block, well I hope not. Steve hasn’t been to Australia before, everybody else has and I think he’d be looking forward to it and getting his camera out.

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Kevin, I’ve run out of questions so thank you for talking with me today. It is greatly appreciated and I hope your Australian Tour goes well. I’ll be in the crowd at some stage along the way.

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