{"title":"Wreckless Eric","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWreckless Eric is an English rock and new wave singer-songwriter, born on May 18, 1954 in Newhaven, East Sussex. With a career spanning several decades, Wreckless Eric has established himself as a prominent figure in the music industry. Known for his distinctive sound and captivating performances, he has gained a loyal fan base around the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInfluenced by artists such as Eddie \u0026amp; The Hot Rods, The Only Ones, and The Undertones, Wreckless Eric's music combines elements of rock and punk with catchy melodies and thought-provoking lyrics. His unique style sets him apart from other musicians of his time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith numerous writing credits to his name, Wreckless Eric's talent extends beyond performing. He has contributed to the success of many songs under the name \"Eric,\" which should be credited to Eric Goulden. His contributions have made a lasting impact on the music industry.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"construction-time-and-demolition","title":"Construction Time and Demolition","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWreckless Eric\u003c\/strong\u003e is Eric Goulden. He was given the name to hide behind. After a while, he realized he was stuck with it. His recording career began in 1977 when he was little more than an ex-teenage art student with the enduring \u003cem\u003eWhole Wide World\u003c\/em\u003e (recently a Billboard chart hit all over again for the US band Cage The Elephant).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHe sidestepped the mechanics of fame and became Britain's premier underground household name, much loved and often underestimated. His new album \u003cem\u003eConstruction Time and Demolition\u003c\/em\u003e is the culmination of over forty years of touring and recording - a life of hardship, creativity, and getting away with it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLoud, dissonant, lyrical, sometimes gently melodic, \u003cem\u003eConstruction Time and Demolition\u003c\/em\u003e is cogent music for desperate times.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Southern Domestic","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50471494222155,"sku":"1030241","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50471494451531,"sku":"1030242","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/161140d7-5917-4e97-bc44-782d0e9bdb31_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727404437"},{"product_id":"transience","title":"Transience","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEric Goulden\u003c\/strong\u003e, the man everyone knows as \u003cstrong\u003eWreckless Eric\u003c\/strong\u003e, is a rare example of an older and established artist who hasn't lapsed into comfortable formulas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eExactly a year after his last album, the well-received \u003cem\u003eConstruction Time and Demolition\u003c\/em\u003e, he's back with a new album, \u003cem\u003eTransience\u003c\/em\u003e. For every song of \u003cstrong\u003eWreckless Eric's\u003c\/strong\u003e you remember from his early days on Stiff Records, he's recorded 10 more that you've probably never heard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe early DIY British indie label may have been his entry-level position into the music business, but \u003cstrong\u003eEric Goulden\u003c\/strong\u003e didn't stop making music after the novelty of Stiff Records - and his being known as \u003cstrong\u003eWreckless Eric\u003c\/strong\u003e - wore off. Forty years on, Goulden is still making insightful music while the original label is but a footnote in music history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn \u003cem\u003eTransience\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eEric\u003c\/strong\u003e is joined by friends including acoustic 12-string guitar player Alexander Turnquist, Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson, Amy Rigby on piano and backing vocals, jazz horn player Artie Barbato, and on drums Steve Goulding, late of Graham Parker and the Rumour - the first time he and \u003cstrong\u003eEric\u003c\/strong\u003e have recorded together since \u003cstrong\u003eEric's\u003c\/strong\u003e enduring hit \"Whole Wide World\" back in 1976.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHe wrote the songs on the move, alone in grubby rooms, in dilapidated motels, and 'poolside' at rundown, out-of-season resort hotels, during gaps between tour dates. And in roadside cafes, parking lots and launderettes.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Southern Domestic","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50472218263883,"sku":"1061984","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50472219377995,"sku":"1061986","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/4d1575c0-bf64-4ee5-b1b0-7e4d9044f98a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727420296"},{"product_id":"leisureland","title":"Leisureland","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs \u003cstrong\u003eWreckless Eric\u003c\/strong\u003e, he needs little introduction – he wrote and recorded the classic \u003cem\u003eWhole Wide World\u003c\/em\u003e and had a hit with it back in 1977. Since then, it's been a hit for countless other artists including The Monkees, Cage The Elephant, and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. Eric’s version featured in the 2022 Expedia \/ Superbowl \/ Ewan MacGregor travel ad, and the Cage The Elephant version is the new theme tune for the podcast Smartless.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs Eric Goulden, it's a little more complicated – a musician, artist, writer, recording engineer, and producer, he didn’t like either the music business, the mechanics of fame, or the name he’d been given to hide behind, so he crawled out of the spotlight and disappeared into the underground. He went on to release twenty-something albums in forty-something years under various names – The Len Bright Combo, Le Beat Group Electrique, The Donovan Of Trash, The Hitsville House Band, and with his wife as one half of Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby, finally realizing he was stuck with the name Wreckless Eric.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEric’s three most recent albums \u003cem\u003eamERICa\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eConstruction Time and Demolition\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eTransience\u003c\/em\u003e are widely praised as his best work. His albums encapsulate pop, bubblegum, garage trash, and psychedelia – lyrical and sonic journeys, pop explosions, epic voyages, Polaroid snapshots.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis new album, \u003cem\u003eLeisureland\u003c\/em\u003e, marks a return to his more ramshackle world of recording – guitars and temperamentally unpredictable analogue keyboards, beat-boxes, and loops in conjunction with a real drummer, Sam Shepherd, who he met in a local coffee shop in Catskill, New York. He was delighted to find that Sam lived around the corner and could easily drop by to put drums on newly recorded tracks. The recording methodology may have been Contemporary American but the subject matter is almost entirely British. It also contains more instrumentals than any of his previous albums.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tapete","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50484060520779,"sku":"2027103","price":30.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Blue LP","offer_id":50484060750155,"sku":"2027104","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50484060193099,"sku":"2027102","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Leisureland_0c8df66a_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727580152"},{"product_id":"wreckless-eric-presents-the-hitsville-houseband-s-12-o-clock-stereo","title":"Wreckless Eric Presents - The Hitsville Houseband's 12 O'Clock Stereo","description":"\u003cp\u003e12 track Vinyl LP with download card incl bonus tracks. '12 O'Clock Stereo is Wreckless Eric's' town and country album, a strange and at times uneasy mix of garage, pop, country and old time rhythm 'n' blues. Urban songs set in a grim, concrete world where the beer is flowing like piss, and abandoned lovers cry themselves to sleep between nylon bed sheets, Kilburn Lane, Camden Girl, Murder In My Mind, Palace Of Tears. The album was recorded at Eric's home, a dilapidated village dance hall seventy miles west of Paris, in the heart of rural France. Since his last album the 'Donovan Of Trash', Eric had upgraded his studio with the addition of a 1\" Studer eight track tape machine. The stereo possibilities were limited by the further addition of an all-valve Telfunken one track 1\/4\" mono mastering machine which had apparently previously been used in a jungle expedition, as borne out by the carcasses of large and weird looking insects reclining in the machinery. On its release in 1996, '12 o'clock Stereo' was championed by the few, including John Peel and Mark Radcliffe who both played tracks. In spite of constant touring throughout Europe and the UK, 12 o'clock Stereo soon found its place in the pantheon of obscure and uncompromising post-Stiff Records Wreckless Eric releases. The title fooled some of Eric's detractors into thinking he'd finally caught up with the modern world and made a stereo record. The clues were all there - the word STEREO flanked by inward facing arrows...a lino cut illustration of a mixing desk with all the pan controls in the centre position... that's right: MONO - the title, 12 o'clock Stereo, means mono.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fire Records","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50492213133643,"sku":"382554","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/6aa98b9c-600c-471a-b986-538f8d712791_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727691299"},{"product_id":"america-7","title":"amERICa","description":"\u003cp\u003eLimited copies come with a 5 track CDEP 'Upside Down and Arse About Face'. Following on from a Fire Records reissue campaign which casts new light on a decades-long career, Wreckless Eric releases his first solo album in over a decade.  It's about Eric, it's about America - a country he has toured since the late 70's, and where he has lived since 2011. Eric recorded the album in his ramshackle house in upstate New York: amplifiers in the kitchen, in the hallway, bass amp in the guest bedroom, microphones up the staircase, speaker cabinets in doorways, frenetic bursts of guitar feedback exploding out of the kitchen...  A way of life transported from England to France, to England, back again to France, and finally to America. Eric played electric guitars and bass throughout, strummed a scratchy 3\/4 size Framus Teenager acoustic (bought from an old blues singer down in Georgia) against simplistic drum loops of his own creation. Here and there he called on friends and neighbours - Brian Dewan - Wurlitzer organ and other dodgy keyboards, bringing in cheap but magnificent synthetic choirs. Jane Scarpantoni - cello,  Alexander Turnquist - e-bow guitar. Eric's wife Amy Rigby assisted on piano, banjo and vocal harmonies. Eric treated and manipulated the sounds the American musicians made as they were being recorded. And so through random scrawls of guitars and loops and drones, meditations emerged on desperation (Property Shows), regret (Days Of My Life); fast food (Sysco Trucks), self-advancement (Up The Fuselage), pop fame lost and resurrected (Boy Band), firearms and civil liberties (White Bread): white bread built this land of milk and money... Other songs are autobiographical and personal - Several Shades Of Green, Transitory Thing: I carried a case full of dirty clothes halfway around the world, when luggage was smaller and the chances were plenty I drank beer and sang songs for girls. The album ends with Have A Great Day, an immigrant's open-eyed appreciation of his new home. \"I've been touring the U.S. since 1978 so moving here wasn't a complete culture shock. I've driven from Rhode Island to San Francisco, Minnesota to the Gulf Of Mexico. I keep rolling along and sometimes the sunrises and sunsets are glorious and I get to thinking about things like where have I been, and how the hell did I wind up here? I've been through some tough shit at various times in my life.  I survived. I'm lucky, I have a great life.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fire Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50493648077131,"sku":"395027","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50493650993483,"sku":"395026","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/c7e658ca-e4b8-4cb0-9eb3-2fabc51ca3d5_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727699565"},{"product_id":"england-screaming","title":"England Screaming","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"That album has always been a regret to me because I think these songs mark my coming of age as a songwriter, but not, alas, as a recording artist.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn 1985 Eric Goulden released an album entitled \u003cem\u003eA Roomful Of Monkeys \u003c\/em\u003eon the Go! Discs label under the name Captains Of Industry. It was a disaster - most people didn’t like it - where it wasn’t roundly ignored it was critically slated. Forty years later he decided to use these songs, written in the Medway Towns between 1982 and 84, as the basis for a new album: England Screaming\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“I felt liberated: my songwriting took on an entirely different tone. There was no one telling me what I should be writing any more, so I wrote about what was around me, stuff I knew about - drugs, home-ownership, bankruptcy and bridal wear; being from somewhere, keeping up appearances, delusion, failure…”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eOn the new recordings Eric played most of the instruments himself. Sam Shepherd played the drums, Amy Rigby and Marc Valentine sang backing vocals, and contributed piano along with Eric’s art school friend, performance artist Graham (Graham) Beck. \u003cem\u003eEngland Screaming\u003c\/em\u003e is a sonically savage world apart from\u003cbr\u003ethe insipid, half-arsed (Eric’s words) original album. He has succeeded in marrying a young and unrealised vision to the wisdom and experience of his older years, incidentally posing the question: how far have we\u003cbr\u003eactually come as a society?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAs Wreckless Eric he needs little introduction - he wrote and recorded the classic Whole Wide World and had a hit with it back in 1977. Since then it's been a hit for countless other artists including The Monkees, Cage The Elephant and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. Eric’s version featured in the 2022 Expedia \/\u003cbr\u003eSuperbowl \/ Ewan MacGregor travel ad, and the Cage The Elephant version is the new theme tune for the podcast Smartless. As Eric Goulden it's a little more complicated - a musician, artist, writer, recording engineer and producer, he didn’t like either the music business, the mechanics of fame, or the name he’d been given to hide behind, so he crawled out of the spotlight and disappeared into the underground. He\u003cbr\u003ewent on to release twenty something albums in forty something years under various names - The Len Bright Combo, Le Beat Group Electrique, The Donovan Of Trash, The Hitsville House Band, and with his wife as one half of Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby, finally realising he was stuck with the name Wreckless Eric.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eEric’s most recent album - 2023’s \u003cem\u003eLeisureland\u003c\/em\u003e has all been widely praised as his best work. His albums encapsulate pop, bubblegum, garage trash and psychedelia - lyrical and sonic journeys, pop explosions, epic voyages, Polaroid snapshots…\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tapete","offers":[{"title":"LP - Clear","offer_id":53299734937931,"sku":"R8974-2871","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":53299734970699,"sku":"R8974-2729","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":53299735003467,"sku":"R8974-8283","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/image007_810ff336-b30f-4859-9d63-94a1729f6932.jpg?v=1756824965"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/fr\/collections\/wreckless-eric.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}