Richard Wilkins looks back on his 1970’s rock ’n’ roll music career

Richard Wilkins looks back on the ‘pure rock ’n’ roll’ days of his music career and weighs in on whether the band will be getting back together.

Richard Wilkins is leading Stellar On Friday on a guided tour of his Sydney house. He’s headed to the gym, where two posters from his days as rock singer Richard Wilde sit above the treadmill.

“They don’t make flares like that anymore,” Wilkins says of his wardrobe choices in 1977, fresh from leaving teacher’s college in his native New Zealand to try to crack the music industry here.

“We’d do 14 gigs in a busy week,” he recalls of his days touring with his band Wilde And Reckless.

“What would have happened if I had a couple of monster hits and wound up in the UK?” (Picture: Paul Seusse)

“My girlfriend at the time, Lynette, who’s the mother of two of my kids, was on the road with us – she used to run the fan club. We weren’t staying in swanky hotels or drinking fancy booze, but it wasn’t about making money, it was about living the dream.”

After signing an international deal with Polydor in 1977, and making minor waves at home, they followed in the footsteps of New Zealand bands Dragon, Split Enz and Mi-Sex, and relocated to Australia in 1980.

One early gig in Sydney saw Wilde And Reckless play before INXS, who’d just released their debut single.

“Hutchy [Michael Hutchence] was just pure rock ’n’ roll. I remember standing [off] stage thinking, oh God, now we’re in trouble.”

Following tours with Men At Work and Grace Jones, the band had called it a day by 1982.

After going solo, Wilde landed a spot on Countdown with the song ‘Young Heroes’ (“my son Christian still plays that song at our pool parties”), however after his record label butchered his 1983 single ‘Second Time Around’, he felt disillusioned and quit the music industry.

In 1987, he resurfaced playing music videos on MTV Australia after winning the role from his mate Russell Crowe who auditioned with him.

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Wilkins’ six years of music releases (including the original ‘Second Time Around’, which he came across on a cassette) feature on the compilation The Wilde Years, out today on streaming platforms and CD.

“Some of these songs pre-date electricity,” he jokes.

“So they were never on CD until now!” Wilkins says he’s proud of the detour down memory lane.

“People can listen and see where the old boy came from,” he says.

“I sometimes think what would have happened if I had a couple of monster hits and wound up in the UK? But I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got and where I’m at.”

However, the band won’t be getting back together.

“I can’t sing that high anymore, for starters. Maybe I’d do one song once somewhere for charity. But there are plenty of other people doing it better than I could, so I’ll leave it to the experts.”

Originally published as Richard Wilkins looks back on his 1970’s rock ’n’ roll music career