Viv Hardwick explores the Wearside roots of Dr Feelgood frontman Robert Kane, who is looking forward to headlining at Durham next month

TAKING over the role of Dr Feelgood’s vocalist from the late, and iconic, Lee Brilleaux, turned out to be baptism of fire for Wearsider Robert Kane... mainly because he was from Sunderland.

Approaching 18 years as the Canvey Island band’s frontman, and preparing to headline Durham Blues, Rhythm and Rock Festival on Saturday, June 17, Kane once faced a North-South divide.

“I’ve been with the band long enough now not to face any banter and for fans to realise, ‘This is it. I’m not going anywhere’. When I first joined there was quite a lot of opposition and I’m sure quite a few people fell by the wayside and never came back. I remember doing a gig in Halifax during my first few months and I was talking to a couple afterwards. The guy said, ‘It’s wrong’. I said, ‘What do you mean it’s wrong?’ and he said, ‘You can’t have a Northerner in Dr Feelgood’. I replied, ‘What the hell has that go to do with it. It’s not where you’re from that matters, it’s where you’re at’. Anyway, he came around eventually,” says Kane.

He recalls being told by journalists that he had a big job to fill Lee Brilleaux’s boots. “I told them that my previous job was filling Eric Burdon’s boots. I said I’d already done it once. I don’t try and copy these singers I get on with being a band’s frontman.

“I don’t feel any pressure because I always feel totally at home on stage. It’s a natural environment for me, that’s why I’m at the front of the stage, rather than behind the drumkit. That’s where I want to be. I think it’s a craft you can’t learn. You can either do it or you can’t. You can learn to play the guitar and you can learn to sing, but you have to have the performance gene.”

Discussing North-East links, Kane jokes that the Dr Feelgood’s guitar player has a grandmother from the area. “That’s slightly tenuous, but I’ve lived here all my life.”

That life includes a spell with Animals 2 and tackling the well-known songs once performed by Geordie hero Eric Burdon. “House of the Rising Sun is a tough one to sing. It was a song I’d never tried until I was asked to sing it. It’s one of those that you realise you can’t go too far too fast or you’ll end up with nowhere to go. It builds very gradually and I discoverd a lot of admiration for Eric’s original vocal when I had to do it myself,” he says.

“It must be something in the water around here, although I’d never realised that my voice sounded like Eric’s until the band’s guitar play Hilton Valentine pointed it out,” adds Kane, who confesses to struggling with the Newcastle-Sunderland rivalry.

“It is a football thing mainly. In the 1970s I’d never heard the word Mackem before and thought that everyone from the North-East was a Geordie. The word was around, but wasn’t used apart from the football supporters. The rivalry between the two cities goes a long, long way. They were even on different sides during the English Civil War. Luckily someone realised that a Wearsider could sing like a Tynesider,” says Kane.

Dr Feelgood tend to tour on a basis that allows the singer and harmonica player to get back to the North-East after many shows. “We don’t do six months of dates at a time, but gig constantly where we have two or three over a weekend. Being in Dr Feelgood hasn’t allowed me to move anywhere posher in Sunderland. People get the wrong idea. We do make a living at it, but we don’t have to go out and do other work,” he says.

Kane jokes that the band did some rehearsals when he first joined and there is a Dr Foolgood weekend every year on Canvey Island. “When we’re there somebody will come up with a suggestion for songs that we don’t normally do. Basically, we have a runthrough in the dressing room before a show and then go on stage and play them. Kevin (Morris), our drummer, says we have to have the spine of our set. The songs you can’t not do, like Milk and Alcohol, Down at the Doctors and Roxette, are there but you change things around that... for our own sanity as much as anything else,” he says.

Kane agrees that part of the longevity of the band is down to its choice of name. “When you’re putting a band together, selecting a good name is the biggest thing unless you’ve had that moment of inspiration. People go through lists and lists, crossing them off. You’re lucky to hit on a good one. Original member Wilko Johnson came up with Dr Feelgood because he was a big fan of Mick Green, the guitar player in Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. He heard a B side by the band which was called Dr Feelgood (originally released by US bluesman Willie Perryman).”

Kane is delighted that the band’s appearance at Durham’s Gala Theatre is almost on home turf, although Dr Feelgood also play a Newcastle date every December. “It’s nice every now and then to play a gig and end up in your own bed,” he says.

“I can tell you exactly how many gigs I’ve done with Dr Feelgood... it’s 2030. We do keep pretty busy and there are other bands on the circuit who don’t work as much as we do. When Lee was alive the band used to do a lot more. But I don’t think we’d be getting so much work now if we weren’t getting it right.

“I’m 62 now and always thought when I was younger, if I made it I’d like to be like The Rolling Stones or U2. But 99.9 per cent people don’t make it. So, it you can keep going and make a living I think that’s the most you can ask.”

  • Durham Blues, Rhythm and Rock Festival, Gala Theatre,1 Millennium Place, Durham DH1 1WA Box Office: 01472-349-222 or http://durhambluesfestival.co.uk/tickets.html

Don’t be late, doors open at 1.30pm and the music starts at 2pm and ends at 10pm.