Echo of ’80s a Pseudo return

Erin Pearson
EIGHTIES music lovers remember them as one of the great hair bands of Generation X’s teenage years.
The members of Australian band Pseudo Echo were painfully faithful to the era, with synthesiser sounds, parachute pants, acid wash jeans, hyper-colour T-shirts and supersized mullets in spikes and curls.
And now they’re back.
Pseudo Echo will roll into town next Saturday night to perform everything from past number-one Funky Town to Dancing Till Midnight.
Lead singer Brian Canham said the band reformed in the early 2000s with “a different look”.
“We’re playing the same music but gone are the full-on clothes and hair styles,” he told the Independent.
“We’re not sexy young kids any more – we have less hair and more weight.”
Canham said the band’s focus remained unchanged despite the vagaries of fashions.
“The tour is a faithful reproduction on our ‘80s shows.
“Back in the ‘80s some fans probably would have mobbed us and tried to take our clothes, which freaked us out a bit, but now they’ve become mature adults and we enjoy having conversations with them – we really get a buzz out of that.”
Canham said photographs and fashions from the band’s heyday remained “in a drawer” but he still had fond memories of when Pseudo Echo “pushed the boundaries”.
“I grew up in the northern suburbs (of Melbourne) and it was rough and ready and you couldn’t get away with much, so Pseudo Echo’s clothing was almost an artistic expression,” he said.
“It was kind of nice to be different and appreciated at the same time.
“I can remember as a kid and late teens I was a tradie cabinet maker and when I went to trade school I copped it so bad for having dyed hair.
“My parents even tried to get me to work in a bank but it wasn’t me, I couldn’t conform.”
Canham and school friend Pierre Gigliotti formed the nucleus of the band in 1982 before Anthony Agiro and Tony Lugton joined to create the full line-up.
Pseudo Echo’s first album, Autumnal Park, produced hit singles Listening and A Beat for You. By the summer of 1984 Pseudo Echo was the second biggest band in Australia behind INXS.
Another track, His Eyes, earned exposure overseas before turning up on the soundtrack of Friday the 13th: A New Beginning.
In 1987 the band’s cover version of disco hit Funkytown brought the group their biggest international success, spending 12 weeks at number one in Australia and reaching number six on USA’s Billboard Hot 100.
Pseudo Echo will play at Corio’s Gateway Hotel on August 28.