ROCK’N’ROLL
CONFIDENTIAL
Wreckless Eric
The evergreen English songsmith talks vindication, Andrew Weatherall and the Whole Wide World.
Life through a lens: Wreckless Eric in 1980, still asking the stupid questions.
Fin Costello/Getty
“THE ANGLIA SQUARE was this iconic brutalist architectural structure in Norwich,” reflects Eric Goulden of the cover image of his embattled but defiant new album England
Screaming. “And it’s about to be demolished.” Still sustaining, he’s managed to survive such a fate himself. With help from Ian Dury, Nick Lowe and the Stiff label, 1977’s blessed debut Whole Wide World remains his calling card. Dig deeper, though, and there’s much more, from Medway punking with The Len Bright Combo, LPs with his wife Amy Rigby and solo records plated with songwriting gold. “I once thought writing songs was a very useless thing,” says Eric. “But I realised that it does have a huge value, because when people are being diverted by this stuff, they’re actually using their minds.”