Director Julien Temple completes his trio of films about the musicians who helped define cultural Britain in the ’70s by showcasing Canvey Island’s pub rock pioneers, Dr Feelgood. The four-piece from the reclaimed mudflats of the Thames Estuary set in the shadows of the Shell oil refinery recorded two landmark R&B albums and made their name as an incendiary live act before creative malaise and infighting took over and did for them.
The guitarist quit and the singer died too soon and, as much as Temple makes the burnished façade of the refinery glimmer in the Essex dusk, it’s still a sadly familiar tale of a band bent out of shape as the wishes they made came true.