Help a newbie - cheap HMV sounds like playing backwards

Hi there, I just got this HMV gramophone. Please excuse the fancy photo but I'm trying out a new camera right now

I came across this replica while on holiday in Dubai and got hold of it for under €20 (25 USD)!! I carried it all the way back home and then had to wait a few more days for my first record to arrive in the post. The sound isn't bad at all and it's actually quite loud too. Only problem is that the music sounds as if it's playing backwards. Makes no sense at all to me. Anyone has any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any help!!

That's really a puzzler!

Initially, I thought perhaps the turntable is spinning backwards. It should be spinning clockwise. But then, I thought, no, if it's spinning backwards, and you're playing a conventional 78 rpm record, the tonearm would fly off the record when you put the needle in the groove. This video shows the correct way a record should be played -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd9YPHuU8TM

These reproduction gramophones (known among hobbyists as "Crap-o-Phones") are not noted for quality of sound reproduction, and normally they don't even hold a set speed--always slowing down and speeding up. But, I've never heard of one playing backwards.

I'm wondering if it might not be the record? What's the make & title? (There were some center start records made, but in all cases I'm aware of, they were played on conventional clockwise spinning turntables. Still, you never know...)

Is it just running at the wrong speed?

Does the leadout groove move the arm toward the center?

There was one kind of record that plays backward on one side. They recorded the same thing on both sides and used two pickups to make it louder. But you should be able to turn the record over and hear it.

Maybe some company in a foreign country made records that turn the other way.