LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

martin briley has enjoyed a phenomenally diverse 40-year life in pop. from humble origins as a founder member of late '60s brit psych legends mandrake paddle steamer, through years of success as an in-demand session vocalist and guitarist (featuring on recordings by julian lennon, bonnie tyler, neil sedaka, the modern jazz quartet, engelbert humperdinck, lulu, mick jones, donna summer, dan huff, cliff richard, charlie pride, olivia newton-john, johnny mathis, michel legrand, the hollies, anton fig, chris squire, meatloaf, tom jones, albert hammond, ian hunter, mick ronson, andy williams, jim steinman, charles aznavour and jimmy webb amongst others - no, i'm not making this up!) to belated solo success in the 80s with hit single "salt in my tears" and a series of critically acclaimed solo albums to his current post as one of only two hand-picked songwriters at sir paul mccartney's mpl communications. his songs have been recorded by celine dion, *nsync, dream, michael bolton, kenny loggins, pat benatar, jessica andrews, 5-star, jeff healey, rebecca st. james, nana mouskouri, willy nile, gregg allman and barry manilow and he was recently awarded an riaa award for worldwide sales of 8 million for celine dion's "a new day has come". phew! a mighty impressive cv i trust you'll agree. but way back in 1973, before all the plaudits and mega unit-shifting, martin, along with former mandrake guitarist brian engel and session aces clem cattini and herbie flowers, cut an album as the liverpool echo for the london indie, spark records. the brief was to write a dozen songs that evoked the spirit and spunk of early merseybeat and record them as quickly and authentically as possible for the label's 'replay series'. these days i guess you'd call it power-pop. the band duly obliged, coming up with a superb long-player that melded a hard day's night-era beatles melodies, cavern club sweat, ultra-convincing production values and the kind of tough early '70s performances that would've had emerging pub-rock movers like dr feelgood and brinsley schwartz quaking in their bovver boots. if they'd have heard it. not surprisingly the album sank like a stone. housed in a sleeve depicting a beatles-dominated front page from a 1963 edition of the liverpool echo newspaper, it was an anachronism and an anomaly in a year when glam and prog ruled the roost. but time has been very kind to the liverpool echo and it's value has risen steeply as word has spread among collectors - you'll be lucky to find a copy for sale these days and if you do it's likely to set you back an arm and a leg. rev-ola is proud to present the liverpool echo! you might as well surrender / girl said to me / you know it feels right / no not again / seems like today will never end / gone gone gone / if i told you once / girl on the train / sally works nights / no more tomorrows / don't you know i've been lying / another night alone