I was about 18 at the time and these boys were about 14, and they were very interested in what we were doing. It was like a skiffle group – we used to play on the seafront at Canvey Island, busking. I used to do this thing with my brother, what we called a jug band. “I first met Lee Brilleaux when I was about 18. Wilko meets Dr Feelgood frontman Lee Brilleaux I told Van Morrison this little story once: ‘Yes Van, you were encouraging me to get my first date with Irene.’” I'd been walking along singing ‘Here Comes The Night’. I went and asked her out, and it was ages later that somebody pointed out that her name was, in fact, Irene Knight. To keep up my courage I was singing ‘Here Comes The Night’, which was a hit song for Van Morrison and Them at the time. I was going round her house to ask her to come out with me. “The first time I wanted to ask Irene out, I was walking down the road on Canvey Island. Wilko’s first date – Them, ‘Here Comes The Night’ It’s brass and keyboards, but all sorts of things influence me.” And there’s not even a guitar audible on that record. It was a bit later on I started getting to grips with playing myself. “The actual music going on in that song was obviously way above my head. So if you wanted to hear it with any power you had to kind of lay on the floor and stick your ear next to it. You had to put one record on at a time and it probably had a sort of two-inch square speaker somewhere in the side. “Our record player at home was a very primitive affair. A wise investment actually, because it's a great record. I heard it one Saturday morning on the radio and immediately rushed out and spent my pocket money on it.
“The first record I ever bought was ‘Hit The Road Jack’ by Ray Charles. Wilko’s first record – Ray Charles, ‘Hit The Road Jack’ So Clash goes with it and, instead of focusing on the end, we take it back to the early days, delving into a few of Wilko’s firsts. Talking to Wilko, it’s hard to evade his matter-of-fact optimism he’s genuinely inspiring. “We’re just going to carry on until we can’t.” “I didn’t feel very good about being retired, even though I’d only got a short retirement to look forward to,” he tells Clash.