On a convenient seat by the lavatories in the sodium glare...

What a fantastic record!

I haven't really heard that much (other than Whole Wide World), but my band supported him a few years ago - his support band consisted of two Roy Orbison lookalikes: one on bass & one on 'drums'...consisting of a bass drum & a tambourine in a cardboard box.

Pub Rock was an odd one - kind of new wave with a dash of the sprirt of Dennis Waterman. Nick Lowe is a personal fave of this genre; I could hardly beleive he was recording back in 1966 with Mark Wirtz for Teeneage Opera...

Got a Wreckless Eric comp on the back of hearing Reconnez Cherie recently. Nothing quite as wonderful but its enjoyable. Apparantly Reconnez Cherie was his attempt to do a Cajun song despite a minimal command of the french language.

I was thiking about Wreckless Eric the other day, and how I think he's great (in parts). Aside from "RC" I particularly like "The Final Taxi" a lot, and "Hit and Miss Judy" is as good a song about swearing as exists in the world, I think.

I kind of kept up with what he was up to in a vague sort of way until the mid '90s. He still came out with the odd corker: "It's Comedy Time" on a Len Bright Combo LP is great, as is "In The Land Of The Faint At HEart" on the Captains of Industry record.

My mother is a big fan of "Excuse Me", and if that's not a mark of quality I don't know what is.

How much *did* he drink?

in litres, 2384756

Is that a lot of litres?

I once saw him play a gig in Fife as part of a triple bill with The Skids and The Rezillos. Both the local bands were very very well recieved. and Wreckless was very very very drunk to the point of incoherence - neither he nor the crowd seemed to be aware what song he was currently performing. He had actually lost the ability to speak, never mind sing. Eventually he was forcably removed from stage by the audience.

Apart from that he was fine.

I used to have a S/T alb for 'That Summer' (a 1979 English surf movie, no less) which featured lots of 'new wave' hits, inc. 'Another Girl, Another Planet' and 'Whole Wide World' by W.E. A great song - and, shitfaced or not, who else sings like Eric?

Haha That Summer = Human Traffic for the pub rock generation. Wasn't it set in Torquay?