Reality Check - Part 2: Echo Beach revisited.

I'd been planning to mention some new (to the UK) Australian music developments in this post but this evening, while I was making something to eat (a fish pie if you care to know) and listening to the radio I got a surprise...

I know it's out of fashion and a trifle uncool
But I can't help it, I'm a romantic fool.
It's a habit of mine to watch the sun go down.

The song 'Echo Beach' but certainly not the version I remember.

This one is, it turns out, a cover version sung by Australian 16-year-old Gabriella Cilmie and I'm fine with that. The thing is that it made me feel old again when the DJ said I bet you don't know the original. I certainly do (and without the help of a press release) but I did recall something more useful that was not mentioned, which is that it was on the album Metro Music (DINDISC, released as DID.1 - that being a fact that I didn't remember) and more importantly that I actually own it on original vinyl and so, after some searching, here it is.

Metro Music - Martha And The Muffins (1980).

The passage of time, almost three decades, has not done the sleeve any favours but then, as I have just rediscovered today, I paid the princely sum of £0.50 ($0.95, €0,70) for it secondhand and that was in 'Canterbury Rock' twenty-two years ago next month! The vinyl inside has however stood the test of time admirably - unscratched and still as flat as could be - and so it should therefore play perfectly? I have just listened to it and it certainly does; that may be surprising but what I find even more so is just how well the music itself has aged!

This is not actually what I intended to continue yesterday's post with but that will now just have to wait again.