Sometimes in life and indeed in the world of punk and new wave, there are underdogs and underachievers that simply won’t lie down and give up. There’s tons of them when you think about it. These John Otway’s of our musical world move on and reinvent themselves and refuse to go away. One such character is 63 year old Eric Goulden – that’s Wreckless Eric to us!
Eric was born in the Sussex ferry port of Newhaven on 18th May 1954. This singer/songwriter is fondly remembered for his brilliant debut single ‘Whole Wide World’, which came out at the height of the punk scene in August 1977 on the famous maverick indie label Stiff Records. The catalogue numbers always amused me as they were listed as BUY 1, BUY 2 etc, with ‘Whole Wide World’ being BUY 16.
The Stiff Records label was very collectible due to its roster of really decent acts as well as the catalogue numbers. I knew people that used to collect them, but it was virtually impossible to get the lot, just like Factory Records were (The Haçienda FAC51 put pay to that as well as FAC8 the egg timer).
Stiff Records had an eye for quality and the knack of picking up on bands on their way up. Artists included Motorhead, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, Devo, The Members, Lene Lovich, Kirsty MacColl, Department S, Madness, Tenpole Tudor, The Belle Stars, Tracey Ullman, Yello, and The Pogues.
The funniest record I’ve ever ‘heard’ was on Stiff Records and was released just before Christmas 1980 and was titled ‘The Wit And Wisdom Of Ronald Reagan’. According to the grooves on the vinyl album the ‘listener’ would be anticipating 8 songs on side A and nine songs on side B. What they actually got was 17 tunes of………………silence!
Arguably their most famous Stiff Records single being BUY 6, which was released to an unsuspecting world on 22nd October 1976. Yes we are indeed referring to what is considered the first true punk single ‘New Rose’ by The Damned. Which had followed six months on from arguably the first actual punk album released on 23rd April 1976, the the immortal debut album from The Ramones. Over 40 years on and all 29 minutes of the Ramones album, plus ‘New Rose’ plus ‘Whole Wide World’ sound fresh. In fact I even heard ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ being blasted out of the speakers at Cineworld at Brighton Marina today on the way out after our film – timeless classic!
So here we are back in 2018 and Wreckless Eric is back (from his new home in the USA) with a brand new eleven track album titled ‘Construction Time & Demolition’, out Friday 6th April and with a 47-date tour to boot, including a Brighton date on Wednesday 23rd May at The Prince Albert.
After all this time, it would be rude not to go and see him wouldn’t it.
Tickets for the Wreckless Eric Prince Albert Wednesday 23rd May concert here:
https://www.ents24.com/brighton-events/the-prince-albert/wreckless-eric/5253709
Wreckless Eric has a new album out Friday 6th April, listen to it here:
https://wrecklesseric.bandcamp.com/album/construction-time-demolition
More info on Eric here: http://wrecklesseric.com/
Newhavens famous son! Great story Nick!