I own a pretty scratchy copy of this excellent record by Wreckless Eric, so apologies for that. One of my favorite Stiff Record releases, played to fuckery when I got it (hence the scratches). Have not played it for a fair while now, but I saw an excellent documentary on BBC2 all about Stiff Records history last night, so decided to put it up today. An early Ripped And Torn Fanzine was shown quickly which was nice to see.
I would love to put up the Wreckless Eric LP / 10″ at some point, but it is probably available somewhere – got to be a little careful! Lots of other gems on Stiff records, The Damned, Adverts, Ian Dury, Kirsty McColl and of course Madness and The Pogues.
Nuzz
February 10, 2008 at 7:32 pmGood program, paticularly liked the way Jake And Dave were filmed, at the races, at the marina and on a yacht, from humble beginings and all that, or they just borrowed the locations. The Sunday Times gave away 2 free Stiff compilation CD’s a while back. Funny old whole wide world.
Pavlik
February 10, 2008 at 10:31 pmI also played this record to death at the time and it’s great to hear it again.
You’re doing a good job of filling in the gaps in my lost record collection so well done.
Stewart
June 21, 2008 at 5:52 pmOne of my favourite ever records!!!! He still plays it live – not sure if that’s fab or sad, lol
Jah Pork Pie
June 23, 2008 at 1:05 pmFantastic track, and used to see me through many a lonely night as a 15-year-old! And the “… and she probably lives in Tahiti” is one of the best lyrical rhymes ever.
Wreckless is a one-off. Last time I saw him play live was the Fulham Greyhound in ’81 (I think). Had the bottle of vodka on stage and played a blinding set.
Reminds me of a story a guy I know used to tell: his brother was the Head of Ents at some college or other, and they booked Wreckless Eric sometime in the 1990s. He (the Ents guy) was an old punk and was a huge Wreckless fan. He got to meet his idol in the afternoon before the gig – and Eric had two older people with him. He introduced himself to Eric as the Ents Head, and Eric replied “allo, I’m Wreckless Eric. And this is me mum and dad, Wreckless Arthur and Wreckless Doreen”. Priceless!
Ian S
June 25, 2008 at 12:30 pmWreckless Eric was working at Mount Pleasant sorting office a few years ago. I saw him at the Spitz mingling with people, he’d just come from work and was still wearing his postie’s outfit.
Afterwards a friend told me he’d overheard some of the Shoreditch types discussing Wreckless Eric’s appearance: was the post office outfit an ironic statement, was it cool in an older man sort of way, where could they get the blue shirts from etc. :oD
Jah Pork Pie
June 25, 2008 at 5:58 pm@Ian S-> Great tale, and it makes me smile to think that a generation now has nothing of its own to create but has to appropriate its symbols from its surroundings and assign them its own meanings. And even better when they get it so wrong!
luci
December 7, 2008 at 9:26 pmerm… wreckless eric never worked as a postman.. just to get your facts straight. i know, im his daughter.
tunski_len
February 19, 2009 at 2:52 amhi!!!
really love listeningto these old rock musics. Nothing really beats the pioneers of rock!!! thanks for sharing!! 🙂
Mark
July 12, 2010 at 1:01 amI saw Wreckless Eric support The Damned in Edinburgh 4 or 5 years ago, because it was an early gig (the venue became a dance club at 10;30) time was a bit tight.
Eric at one point said he only had three minutes to do one last song and everybody started shouting for “whole wide world” which resulted in him having a five minute rant about him not having time to play it and we should all shut the fuck up before playing another song and storming off…
A very strange individual indeed