WRECKLESS Eric has a new album of songs ready for recording, much to his surprise, as he leaves behind his new Norfolk home for a solo gig at Fibbers in York tomorrow night.

"I've got a lot of new material now, having not been into writing for a while," says the rock maverick, who is linked indelibly with Whole Wide World from 25 years ago.

"I think it was after writing my book his imminent autobiography A Hundred Thousand Words, and I reckoned that if Travis wanted to write songs, I didn't want to write any more because it was all about that thing of being worthy.

"My good friend Annie Nightingale, the DJ, said to me 'the thing about writing songs is that it gets in the way of making music', and that's why I like dance things instead, because with songs you have to rehearse them and work with a band and I couldn't see a way of getting to something interesting out of that. That's why I took to making films."

Nevertheless, having returned to England after nine years in France, Eric has written a raft of songs, and the Fibbers audience can expect to hear a selection on his return to Yorkshire, the scene of his milk-teeth days in music.

When studying art and sculpture at Hull College of Art, he had played in the now legendary Hull band Addis and the Flip Tops in the mid-1970s

"I'm really proud of that band but everyone hated us, which is why I still can't play in Hull," he says, recalling those pre-punk days. "We had a bad attitude, we couldn't play, so we used to get beaten up in the car park. I don't think we ever played the same place twice."

Fibbers, however, always welcomes Eric with Wreckless abandon. Tickets for tomorrow are £5 in advance, £6 on the door. Tell the whole wide world.

Updated: 12:25 Friday, February 07, 2003