Wreckless Eric
Encyclopedia
Wreckless Eric is an English rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

/new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 singer-songwriter, best known for his 1977 single "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World
(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World
" Whole Wide World" is a song written by English rock and roll singer-songwriter Eric Goulden, better known as Wreckless Eric. Goulden wrote the song in May 1974, and recorded it in 1977 while an original member of the Stiff Records label...

" on Stiff Records
Stiff Records
Stiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976, by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman , and active until 1985. It was reactivated in 2007....

. More than two decades after its release, the song was included in Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...

magazine’s list of the best punk rock singles of all time. It was also acclaimed as one of the "top 40 singles of the alternative era 1975–2000". After some years living in France with his wife and co-performer, singer-songwriter Amy Rigby
Amy Rigby
Amy Rigby is an American singer-songwriter. After playing with several New York bands she began a solo career, recording several albums which had only modest sales despite enthusiastic reviews. She settled into a career of touring small venues and private parties while raising a daughter, then...

, Goulden moved with her to the USA in the autumn of 2011. As of November 2011 they live in upstate New York and continue to tour together.

Early history

Wreckless Eric is best known as one of the original members of the late 1970s Stiff Records artist roster, along with Ian Dury
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...

, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...

 and Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...

. Eric’s first appearance on record was "Whole Wide World" on the Stiff label sampler A Bunch of Stiff Records
A Bunch of Stiff Records
A Bunch of Stiff Records, also known as A Bunch of Stiffs, is a various artists album to promote some of the first acts to be signed by Stiff Records....

in April 1977. The single version of that song was finally released in August. The song was produced by, and featured bass guitar (and most of the other instruments) by Nick Lowe, with Ian Dury on drums. The following month, the song was one of five tracks broadcast for the first of two sessions Eric recorded for DJ John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

 at BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...

. The song went on to make number 47 in John Peel’s ‘Festive Fifty
Festive Fifty
The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's fifty best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show...

’, the so-called ‘lost list’ of 1977; it was number 8 in the Sounds
Sounds (magazine)
Sounds was a long-term British music paper, published weekly from 10 October 1970 – 6 April 1991. It was produced by Spotlight Publications , which was set up by Jack Hutton and Peter Wilkinson, who left "Melody Maker" to start their own company...

 Critics’ singles of the year; and it received an ‘honourable mention’ in the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 critics’ chart. The song’s reputation has grown over the years and numerous bands have covered "Whole Wide World", such as the Lightning Seeds
Lightning Seeds
The Lightning Seeds are an English alternative rock and pop band from Liverpool, England formed in 1989 by Ian Broudie , formerly of the Big in Japan band....

, Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything are an Australian New Wave–rock music band formed at an art school in Sydney in 1976. Their most popular line-up was Martin Plaza on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne "Bird"...

, The Monkees
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American pop rock group. Assembled in Los Angeles in 1966 by Robert "Bob" Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968, the musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork,...

 (who covered the song on their Pool It!
Pool It!
Pool It!, issued 1987 by Rhino Records, is a pop/rock album by The Monkees. It was the first "reunion album" by the band after their 1986 rebirth, and it marked the return of Peter Tork along with Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones...

album in 1987), The Proclaimers
The Proclaimers
The Proclaimers are a Scottish band composed of identical twin brothers, Charlie and Craig Reid . They are probably best known for the songs "Letter from America", "I'm On My Way" and "I'm Gonna Be ". The band tours extensively throughout Europe and other continents...

 (who covered it on their 2007 album Life With You
Life with You
Life With You, released in 2007, is the seventh studio album by The Proclaimers. It appeared on W14, a joint venture label between Universal Records and John Williams , the man who gave The Proclaimers their first recording contract on Chrysalis Records...

), and Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg
Paul Westerberg is an American musician, best known as the former lead singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter of The Replacements, one of the seminal alternative rock bands of the 1980s. He launched a solo career after the dissolution of that band...

.

His debut album Wreckless Eric was a Top 50
Top 50
The Top 50 refers to a list of weekly hit singles, or albums. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the same but similar to the top 40, but with 10 extra places....

 hit in the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

. But, by the time his second album with Stiff Records The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric
The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric
The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric was Wreckless Eric's second album and was released October 13, 1978 as black vinyl LP , green vinyl LP and picture disc LP .-Track listing:Side 1#"Walking On The Surface Of The Moon"...

came out, he was pushed by the punk record label to openly display the effect of his alcohol intake. He attempted a more pop music style on his next album, entitled Big Smash!
Big Smash!
Wreckless Eric's third album was released as a double LP and as cassette on February 29, 1980. While the first LP comprised new material, the extra LP in fact was the compilation album The Whole Wide World....

, his last with Stiff. Ironically Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....

's cover of "Broken Doll", from Big Smash!, was the highest that one of his songs ever charted.

End of Stiff days

Eric became increasingly unhappy with Stiff Records' business ideas and promotion. The label forced Eric to work with songwriting teams and hired backing bands. By 1980, shortly after the release of Big Smash!, he decided to leave Stiff and record music at his home studio. While Eric may have left the music business and the public eye, he has continued writing songs and performing consistently at underground clubs and bars. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s Eric has released albums on numerous independent record labels.

Post-Stiff bands

Eric's post-Stiff bands include: The Captains of Industry
Captains of Industry (band)
The Captains of Industry was a British group, formed by the former Stiff Records performer Wreckless Eric. The group was managed by The Clash's former road manager, Johnny Green....

, The Len Bright Combo, Le Beat Group Electrique, The Hitsville House Band and one album called "Karaoke" (1997) under his real name, Eric Goulden.

Post-Stiff albums

In 1985 he released A Roomful of Monkeys with a new band, Captains of Industry. It was followed in 1986 by a couple of homemade garage albums with "The Len Bright Combo". He always stayed in touch with Ian Dury and the Blockheads - two Blockheads, Norman Watt-Roy
Norman Watt-Roy
Norman Watt-Roy is the bassist for The Blockheads, previously known as Ian Dury & the Blockheads.In November 1954 the Watt-Roy family, including Norman, his older brother Garth and his sister, moved to England...

 and Mick Gallagher, were in the Captains of Industry.

In 1989, he signed to New Rose Records as Eric Goulden, released the homemade Le Beat Group Electrique with bassist André Barreau and drummer Catfish Truton. This same year he moved to France, in a quiet countryside corner where he stayed for about ten years. By the time he made this move to the vineyard country, he had already ended his "career of full-time alcoholic."

Eric toured Eastern Europe in a 1960s Peugeot
Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest carmaker based in Europe.The family business that precedes the current Peugeot company was founded in 1810, and manufactured coffee mills and bicycles. On 20 November 1858, Emile Peugeot applied for the lion...

 car, both solo and with his band. In 1990, he released a second Le Beat Group Electrique album, recorded live in a New Rose record shop in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, entitled At the Shop with Eduardo Leal de la Gala and Fabrice Bertran on the drums. Together they formed the Hitsville House Band.

Eric returned to the UK in 1998, wrote his autobiography A Dysfunctional Success - The Wreckless Eric Manual about his life in England in the punk rock years and the music industry, ending at his departure for France. A second part is expected. Eric contributed his version of "Clevor Trever" (sic) to the Ian Dury tribute album
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...

 Brand New Boots and Panties released in 2001. His latest album Bungalow Hi was home recorded, produced and released in 2004.

Recent times

The soundtrack to the 2002 film, Heartlands
Heartlands (film)
Heartlands is a 2002 film directed by Damien O'Donnell and written by Paul Fraser. It is a comedy-drama-road movie, running at 90 minutes, produced in the United Kingdom. It was screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival.-Plot:...

, contained "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World".

In late 2005 Eric toured the UK (also playing Dublin) supporting fellow ex-Stiff artists The Damned.

A tribute album to Wreckless Eric is currently being recorded, featuring cover versions of his songs performed by upcoming bands like The Crimea
The Crimea (band)
The Crimea are a British indie band, based in Camden, London. The band were featured in the late John Peel's Festive Fifty, ranking higher than bands such as The White Stripes and all eleven of the initial album demos were played on his show...

, plus established acts, such as The Wedding Present
The Wedding Present
The Wedding Present are a British indie rock group based in Leeds, England, formed in 1985 from the ashes of the Lost Pandas. The band's music has evolved from fast-paced indie rock in the vein of their most obvious influences The Fall, Buzzcocks and Gang of Four to more varied forms...

, among others.

In the 2006 film, Stranger Than Fiction, starring Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell
John William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...

, Ferrell sings "Whole Wide World" while playing the guitar, until the original Wreckless Eric version takes over.

In 2008, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby was released. The album had a sound that is described as including "lots of strummed acoustic guitars, insistent and melodic bass lines and atmospherics created by vintage keyboards, synthesizers, processed electric guitars and electronic effects". They are touring to support the album.

Eric joined The Proclaimers
The Proclaimers
The Proclaimers are a Scottish band composed of identical twin brothers, Charlie and Craig Reid . They are probably best known for the songs "Letter from America", "I'm On My Way" and "I'm Gonna Be ". The band tours extensively throughout Europe and other continents...

 onstage at Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...

 in Scotland, on 19 July 2008, to perform his song, "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World" which they covered on their album, Life With You
Life with You
Life With You, released in 2007, is the seventh studio album by The Proclaimers. It appeared on W14, a joint venture label between Universal Records and John Williams , the man who gave The Proclaimers their first recording contract on Chrysalis Records...

. Eric and Amy Rigby joined John Wesley Harding
John Wesley Harding (singer)
Wesley Stace is a folk/pop singer-songwriter and author who goes by the stage name John Wesley Harding. He has called his style of music folk noir and gangsta folk...

 onstage at Wiggins Park in Camden
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...

, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 on 25 July 2009, to perform "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World".

In September 2010, Eric and Rigby offered a track for the compilation album, Daddy Rockin Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & The Diablos
Daddy Rockin Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & The Diablos
Daddy Rockin Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & The Diablos is a vinyl-only tribute album released by The Wind Records and distributed by Norton Records....

. They recorded a cover of the 1950s doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...

 song, "I Want To Be Your Happiness." The Wind Records, along with Norton Records
Norton Records
For the Canadian independent record label of the same name, see Matt Minglewood.Norton Records, a New York City based independent record label founded by musicians Miriam Linna and Billy Miller, maintains a focus on primitive, retro rock'n'roll, rockabilly, garage punk, garage rock, lounge music...

, released the album.

Albums

As Wreckless Eric
  • Wreckless Eric
    Wreckless Eric (album)
    #Wreckless Eric's debut album was released on June 1, 1978. It reached #46 on the UK Albums Chart.A 10" version of the LP was issued on both brown and purple vinyl in the UK...

    (March 1978: Stiff Records, SEEZ 6) #46 UK Albums Chart
    UK Albums Chart
    The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

  • The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric
    The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric
    The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric was Wreckless Eric's second album and was released October 13, 1978 as black vinyl LP , green vinyl LP and picture disc LP .-Track listing:Side 1#"Walking On The Surface Of The Moon"...

    (October 1978: Stiff, SEEZ 9)
  • The Whole Wide World
    The Whole Wide World (album)
    The Whole Wide World is a 1979 compilation album by British new wave musician Wreckless Eric, intended to break him in the American market. It consists of his singles up to that point, some b-sides and selected tracks from the albums Wreckless Eric and The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric.In...

    (December 1979) [compilation album] US release
  • Big Smash!
    Big Smash!
    Wreckless Eric's third album was released as a double LP and as cassette on February 29, 1980. While the first LP comprised new material, the extra LP in fact was the compilation album The Whole Wide World....

    (February 1980: Stiff, SEEZ 21) [double compilation album] #30 UK
  • The Donovan of Trash (1991)
  • Almost a Jubilee: 25 Years at the BBC (with Gaps) (2003)
  • Bungalow Hi (2004)


With Captains of Industry
  • Roomful of Monkeys (1984)


With The Len Bright Combo
  • The Len Bright Combo Presents... (1985)
  • Combo Time (1986)

(The two Len Bright Combo albums were re-released on a single CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 on Eric's Southern Domestic label in 2004).

With Le Beat Group Electrique
  • Le Beat Group Electrique (1989)
  • At the Shop (1990)


With Hitsville House Band
  • 12 o'Clock Stereo (1996)


As Eric Goulden
  • Karaoke (1997)

Various artists compilation album appearances

  • A Bunch of Stiff Records
    A Bunch of Stiff Records
    A Bunch of Stiff Records, also known as A Bunch of Stiffs, is a various artists album to promote some of the first acts to be signed by Stiff Records....

    (1977)
  • Stiffs Live
    Stiffs Live
    Live Stiffs Live is a live album released in 1978, containing performances by various Stiff Records artists from the first "Live Stiffs Tour", which ran from 3 October to 5 November 1977....

    (1978: Stiff Records, GET 1) #28 UK Albums Chart
    UK Albums Chart
    The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

  • Heroes & Cowards (1978)
  • Can't Start Dancing (1978)
  • "Whole Wide World" featured on the That Summer! compilation album (June 1979) UK #36
  • The Last Compilation Album (1980)
  • The Stiff Records Box Set (1991)
  • DiY 3: Teenage Kicks - UK Pop I (1976–79) (1993)
  • Stranger Than Fiction Soundtrack (2006)
  • The Sandinista! Project (2007)
  • Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby
    Amy Rigby
    Amy Rigby is an American singer-songwriter. After playing with several New York bands she began a solo career, recording several albums which had only modest sales despite enthusiastic reviews. She settled into a career of touring small venues and private parties while raising a daughter, then...

    (2008)

Singles

Band name / Release date 'A' side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

'B' side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

Label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

Catalogue Number
Wreckless Eric: Aug. 1977 "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World
(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World
" Whole Wide World" is a song written by English rock and roll singer-songwriter Eric Goulden, better known as Wreckless Eric. Goulden wrote the song in May 1974, and recorded it in 1977 while an original member of the Stiff Records label...

"
"Semaphore Signals" Stiff BUY 16
Wreckless Eric: February 1978 "Reconnez Cherie" "Rags And Tatters" Stiff BUY 25
Wreckless Eric: October 1978 "Take The K.A.S.H." "Girlfriend" Stiff BUY 34
Wreckless Eric: December 1978 "Crying, Waiting, Hoping" "I Wish It Would Rain" Stiff BUY 40
Wreckless Eric: October 1979 "Hit And Miss Judy" "Let’s Go To The Pictures" Stiff BUY 49
Wreckless Eric: January 1980 "A Popsong" "Reconnez Cherie" Stiff BUY 64
Wreckless Eric: March 1980 "Broken Doll" "I Need A Situation" Stiff BUYIT 75
Captains of Industry: November 1984 "Lifeline" "A Girl In A Million" Go! Discs Records
Go! Discs Records
Go! Discs was a Hammersmith, London based record label, launched in 1983 by Andy MacDonald and Lesley Symons. With artists like Billy Bragg, The Housemartins and later The Beautiful South, it became a prominent label. Go! Beat Records was launched as a subsidiary for dance artists like Beats...

GOD 6
Len Bright Combo: April 1986 "Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together" "Mona" Empire LEN 1
Wreckless Eric: October 1989 "It’s A Sick World" "Reconnez Cherie" New Rose NEW 100
Wreckless Eric: May 1990 "Haunted House" "Depression (version Francaise)" New Rose NEW 136
Wreckless Eric: December 1990 "Yuletide Forty-Five" Kelt
Wreckless Eric: February 1993 "Joe Meek" "Tell Me I’m The Only One" Hangman SFTRI 226
The Hitsville House Band: 1996 "The Girl with the Wandering Eye" "Palace Of Tears" / "Laurence Of Arabia On Ice" Humbug
Wreckless Eric: 2002 "Sweet Jane" "Continuity Girl" Vibroscope

See also


External links

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