Eric Goulden (born 18 May 1954), known as Wreckless Eric, is an English rock/ new wave singer-songwriter, best known for his 1977 single " Whole Wide World" on

Stiff Records Stiff Records is a British independent record label formed in London, England, by Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera. Originally active from 1976 to 1986, the label was reactivated in 2007. Established at the outset of the punk rock boom, Stiff ...

. More than two decades after its release, the song was included in ''

Mojo Mojo may refer to: *Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * '' ...

'' 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".

Early life

Wreckless Eric was born in Newhaven, East Sussex. He is a cousin of actress Gemma Arterton through her mother. In 1973, he began attending Art School in

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

, where he joined bands such as Dirty Henry that played local clubs. On a break after his first year at school he saw

Kilburn and the High Roads Kilburn and the High Roads were a British pub rock band formed in London by Ian Dury in 1970. The band released one studio album in 1975, disbanding the same year. AllMusic credits the band with being "an undeniable influence on punk and new w ...

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, w ...

. Struck by their honest approach to music, Eric decided to employ the same to his composing and performing. His next band, Addis and the Flip Tops, were the first incarnation of what would later be known as the DIY style. He first became known as one of the original members of the late 1970s Stiff Records artist roster, along with

Ian Dury Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 27 March 2000) was a British singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Ian Dury and the Blockheads ...

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in 2020, and has twice been nom ...

and

Nick Lowe Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in power pop and new wave,record was "Whole Wide World" on the Stiff label sampler ''

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. It is subtitled ''Undertakers to the Industry – If They're Dead - We'll Sign 'Em''. ...

'' in April 1977. The single version of that song was finally released in August. The song was produced by, and featured bass and guitar by Nick Lowe, with Steve Goulding 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 Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance ...

. The song went on to make number 47 in John Peel's '

Festive Fifty The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's 50 (though the exact figure varied above and below this number) best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. It was usually do ...

', the so-called 'lost list' of 1977; it was number 8 in the '' Sounds'' critics' singles of the year; and it received an 'honourable mention' in the '' NME'' critics' chart. The song's reputation has grown over the years and numerous bands have covered "Whole Wide World", such as the

Lightning Seeds The Lightning Seeds (also known as Lightning Seeds) are an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1989 by Ian Broudie (vocals, guitar, producer), formerly of the bands Big in Japan, Care, and Original Mirrors. Originally a studio-based s ...

Mental As Anything Mental As Anything are an Australian new wave and pop rock band that formed in Sydney in 1976. Its most popular line-up (which lasted from 1977 to 1999, and recorded all of their charting singles and albums) was Martin Plaza (birth name Mar ...

The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was con ...

(on their '' Pool It!'' album in 1987),

The Proclaimers ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

(on their 2007 album '' Life with You''),

Paul Westerberg Paul Harold Westerberg (born December 31, 1959) is an American musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the Replacements. Following the breakup of the Replacements, Westerberg launched a solo career that saw him re ...

, and

Cage The Elephant Cage the Elephant is an American rock band formed in 2006 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. They moved to England, U.K. and settled in London in 2008, shortly before their self-titled first album was released. The band currently consists of Matt S ...

(on their 2017 album '' Unpeeled''). His debut album ''Wreckless Eric'' was a Top 50 hit in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. His second album with Stiff Records was '' The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric''.

End of Stiff days

Eric became increasingly unhappy with Stiff Records' business ideas and promotion. The label forced Eric to work with songwriting teams, hired backing bands and assigned his music to unsympathetic producers. By 1980, shortly after the release of ''Big Smash!'', he decided to leave Stiff and record music at his home studio. Despite leaving the mainstream music business, he has continued writing songs and performing consistently throughout Europe and the United States. Since the 1980s Eric has released albums on numerous independent record labels.

Post-Stiff bands

Eric's post-Stiff bands/projects include: The

Captains of Industry Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, The Len Bright Combo, The Hitsville House Band, with one album ''Karaoke'' (1997) recorded under his real name, Eric Goulden.

Post-Stiff albums

In 1985, he released ''A Roomful of Monkeys'' with the 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

and the Blockheads – two Blockheads, Norman Watt-Roy 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", that he referred to in his autobiography. Eric toured Eastern Europe in a 1960s

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

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, 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. Eric contributed his version of "Clevor Trever" ''( sic)'' to the Ian Dury

tribute album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

''Brand New Boots and Panties'' released in 2001. A new album ''Bungalow Hi'' was home-recorded, produced and released in 2004.

Later career

The soundtrack to the 2002 film '' Heartlands'' contained "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World". "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World" appears in the 1996 film '' Different for Girls''. In late 2005, Eric toured the UK (also playing

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

) supporting fellow ex-Stiff artists The Damned. In the 2006 film '' Stranger Than Fiction'', starring

Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show '' Saturday Night Live'', where he performed from 1995 to 2 ...

, 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 was 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 toured to support the album. Eric joined

onstage at

Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age, although the nature of the 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''. Eric and Amy Rigby joined

John Wesley Harding ''John Wesley Harding'' is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on December 27, 1967, by Columbia Records. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan's return to semi-acoustic instrumentation and fol ...

onstage at Wiggins Park in Camden,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

, United States, on 25 July 2009, to perform "(I'd Go the) Whole Wide World". In September 2010, Eric and Rigby offered a track for a compilation album, '' Daddy Rockin Strong: A Tribute to Nolan Strong & The Diablos''. They recorded a cover of the 1950s

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

song "I Want To Be Your Happiness." The Wind Records, along with

Norton Records Norton Records, is an independent record label founded by musicians Miriam Linna and Billy Miller in 1986. The label concentrates on rock, rockabilly, primitive music, punk, garage rock and early rhythm and blues.Amy Rigby Amy Rigby (born Amelia McMahon, January 27, 1959) 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 ...

, Goulden moved with her to the United States in 2011. As of November 2011, they lived in upstate New York, and continued to tour together. In 2012, Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby recorded a version of the Bread song " The Guitar Man", for the fund raising CD ''Super Hits of the Seventies'', for the radio station

WFMU WFMU is a listener-supported, independent community radio station, licensed to East Orange, New Jersey. Since 1998 its studios and operating facilities have been headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey. It broadcasts locally at 91.1 Mhz FM, i ...

. In December 2013,

Fire Records Fire Records was an American independent record label, set up in 1959 by Bobby Robinson. Amongst others, it released records by Lightnin' Hopkins, Elmore James, Buster Brown and Arthur Crudup. At one point it was thought Fire had issued the la ...

re-released both Len Bright Combo records and the band reunited for a one off show at The Lexington in London. In 2014, Fire Records re-released ''Le Beat Group Electrique'', ''The Donovan of Trash'' and ''12 O'Clock Stereo''. In December 2016, Wreckless Eric appeared in

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (informally referred to as The Bosstones and often stylized as The Mighty Mighty BossToneS) were an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. From the band's inception, lead vocalist Dick ...

Hometown Throwdown at the House of Blues in Boston. He sang "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World". In April 2018, Wreckless Eric released an album of new songs, ''Construction Time & Demolition'', supported with shows in the UK, the US, and Canada. "(I'd Go The) Whole Wide World" appears in the eighth episode of the 2019 Amazon TV series '' The Widow''.

Discography

Albums

''As Wreckless Eric * '' Wreckless Eric'' (March 1978: Stiff Records, SEEZ 6) No. 46

* '' The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric'' (October 1978: Stiff, SEEZ 9) * ''

Big Smash! ''Big Smash!'' was British musician Wreckless Eric's third studio album. It was released as a double LP (SEEZ 21) and as a cassette (ZSEES 21) on 29 February 1980. While the first LP comprised new material, the extra LP was the U.S.-only com ...

'' (February 1980: Stiff, SEEZ 21) ouble, inc. compilation albumNo. 30 UK * ''The Donovan of Trash'' (1991) * ''Bungalow Hi'' (2004) * ''AmERICa'' (2015) * '' Construction Time & Demolition'' (2018) * ''

Transience Transience or transient may refer to: Music * ''Transient'' (album), a 2004 album by Gaelle * ''Transience'' (Steven Wilson album), 2015 * Transience (Wreckless Eric album) Science and engineering * Transient state, when a process variable or ...

'' (2019)

Compilations

* ''

The Whole Wide World ''The Whole Wide World'' is a 1996 American independent biographical film produced and directed by Dan Ireland in his directorial debut. It depicts the relationship between pulp fiction writer Robert E. Howard (Vincent D'Onofrio) and schoolteac ...

'' (December 1979) ompilation albumUS release * ''Almost a Jubilee: 25 Years at the BBC (with Gaps)'' (2003) * ''Hits, Misses, Rags and Tatters'' (2010) ''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 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) ''With'' Amy Rigby * '' Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby'' (2008) * ''Two-Way Family Favourites'' (2010) * ''A Working Museum'' (2012)

Various artists compilation album appearances

* ''

'' (1977) *''

Stiffs Live ''Live Stiffs Live'' is a live album released in 1978 by Stiff Records. It compiles concert performances by several of the record label's artists recorded during the " Live Stiffs Tour", which ran from 3 October to 5 November 1977. Songs Among ...

'' (1978: Stiff Records, GET 1) No. 28

* ''Heroes & Cowards'' (1978) * ''Can't Start Dancing'' (1978) *"Whole Wide World" featured on the ''That Summer!'' compilation album (June 1979) UK No. 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) *"Sick Organism" featured on
The Good Lyre - Songs of John Wesley Harding
' (2021)

Singles

Bibliography

* "Wreckless Eric" Goulden: ''A Dysfunctional Success – The Wreckless Eric Manual'', Do Not Press (2004),

References

External links

Official website
*
Review of Len Bright Combo reunion show – Rockerzine.com 2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wreckless Eric 1954 births Living people English male singers English songwriters English new wave musicians People from Newhaven, East Sussex The Minus 5 members Stiff Records artists People educated at Priory School, Lewes British male songwriters