WILKO Johnson did not expect to be mounting a tour in April 2017. Not when he was told he had terminal pancreatic cancer, with ten months to live, in late-2012 and took to the road to play his farewell gigs in 2013.

However, he then defied his initial diagnosis after a second opinion and subsequent life-saving surgery and was declared cancer free in 2014. "Man, there’s nothing like being told you’re dying to make you feel alive,” he said.

His experience prompted Johnson to write the memoir Don't You Leave Me Here, the story of his life in music, his life with cancer, and his life now, published last May by Little Brown.

Now 69, the Canvey Island singer, guitarist, songwriter and Game Of Thrones actor, will play York Barbican on April 22, with tickets for the 7.30pm gig available at £28 on 0844 854 2757, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.

Johnson, whose real name is John Peter Wilkinson, joined the pub rock/rhythm and blues band Dr Feelgood in 1971, making his mark with his chop-chord strumming guitar style, known as "the stab", and his duck-walking, wild-eyed scowling stage demeanour. On leaving the Canvey Island combo in 1977 after four albums, he formed Wilko Johnson's Solid Senders, releasing one self-titled album in 1978, and he also took up temporary tenure in Ian Dury & the Blockheads in 1980.

He has since made six albums with The Wilko Johnson Band, the last being 2005's Red Hot Rocking Blues; in 2009 he emerged as the star of Julien Temple's Dr Feelgood documentary, Oil City Confidential; in 2011 and 2012, he appeared in four episodes of Game Of Thrones in the role of mute executioner Ilyn Payne. In 2012 too, Cadiz published Wilko Johnson: Looking Back At Me, Johnson and biographer Zoë Howe's coffee-table book of Wilko’s favourite memories and images.

Having announced in January 2013 that his cancer was terminal, he played the DV8Fest at a sold-out Fibbers in July. Even then his long goodbye had stretched beyond his own expectations, beyond even his Farewell Tour earlier that year.

"It seems that I am still being spared the final onslaught of my terminal cancer, " said Wilko in an official statement to fans at the time. "As the memory of my Farewell Tour recedes, I am feeling again the desire to get up on stage and do my thing while health allows – so it is that I have decided to make some festival appearances during the summer."

The Press reviewer, Alex Calnan, wrote: "And so it is goodbye. Wilko, we salute you, and if by chance you read this, thank you for all the pleasure you have given us all around the globe through your music and extraordinary talent. You are a true English legend and the world will be a far poorer place when you're gone."

Thankfully, Wilko Johnson never left the building after all, but the urgency brought on by uncertainty saw him collaborate with The Who's Roger Daltrey on the album Going Back Home. The pair decided to work together not only because they were both fans of Johnny Kidd And The Pirates, but also because Johnson was still believed to be dying from cancer, so they thought "we better get on with it".

Johnson and Daltrey were joined at the recording sessions by Norman Watt-Roy and Dylan Howe, from The Wilko Johnson Band, blues harmonica player and one-time Style Council keyboards player Mick Talbot.

In 2015, Johnson Wilko and Julien Temple teamed up again for The Ecstasy Of Wilko Johnson, a documentary that explored Wilko’s cancer diagnosis and the unexpected reprieve that ensued.

Now, Johnson returns to York this spring on his dual celebration tour, marking his 70th birthday and The Wilko Johnson Band's 30th anniversary.