The B-side, Semaphore Signals, was of the same class. It told of a forbidden love, a love that was not approved by the girl’s parents who lived “down there in the green belt,” and who didn’t like Eric at all. It was something I could well relate to as nearly all the parents of the girlfriends I had had all hated me too and did what they could to stop their daughters seeing me.
I read an interview somewhere about the new Stiff label and how Eric had got signed to it. It was something like him giving a tape of some of his songs he’d thrown together to Stiff and saying please give us a deal, and somehow he’d been lucky and they had. It was an inspiring story of success.
Wreckless Eric’s label-mates at the time were Elvis Costello, Ian Dury and Nick Lowe and they were all touring the UK as a “Bunch of Stiffs.” I remember seeing them all at Cardiff’s Top Rank “Implosion New Wave night.” All the top Punk and New Wave acts played there on Tuesdays and I also remember seeing, The Stranglers, the Boomtown Rats, The Jam, The Clash, The Flaming Groovies, Patti Smith, Generation X and many more at the venue.
I had got really into the music that was happening then because the hippy Progressive Rock scene had become far too much “us and them” for me – it was all too much the “rock gods” like Emerson Lake and Palmer with loads of stage gear and expensive instruments showing off complicated pieces on a big stage and a high price on admission to their concerts. Punk was the backlash to all this and I loved it but although I went to all the gigs I never got rid of my long hair and full beard, although I did stick some safety pins, paper clips and badges on my clothes as a token gesture.
Stiff Tour
On the subject of badges, I remember the Stiff tour was dishing out promotional ones with slogans on like “I’m drinking with Wreckless Eric” and “I’m here with Nick Lowe.”
The years moved onward and I had become a singer-songwriter and recording artist myself and have had to list my influences and musical heroes and Wreckless Eric is always included. He is to my mind a great songwriter and although you may not have heard of him until now, I can inform you that Whole Wide World has become a classic of the era it was recorded in and covered by many other acts such as The Proclaimers and The Monkees. According to Wikipedia it was “included in Mojo magazine’s list of the best punk rock singles of all time,” and I am really not at all surprised.
Tenerife
At the end of 2004, I moved to Tenerife and the year after I met a musician at a local bar who was calling himself Alan the Harp. Alan plays blues harmonica, guitar and is an excellent singer-songwriter and we became good friends. We got chatting about all sorts of stuff and it turned out that Alan actually knows Wreckless Eric. Things like this mean a lot to me – I can see life as being about establishing connections and like a massive cosmic jigsaw. Joining the pieces together is what it’s all about perhaps? But I digress.
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