Skids – in concert – Live at The Odeon, Edinburgh – September 7, 1979 – Live and loud.com –
Skids in concert this Monday night. Recorded live at The Odeon in Edinburgh on September 7, 1979 and cleaned and spiffed up by Flip Martian for Live and Loud.com.
Skids were formed in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1977 by Stuart Adamson (guitar, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals), William Simpson (bass guitar and backing vocals), Thomas Kellichan (drums) and Richard Jobson (vocals, guitar and keyboards). Their biggest success was the 1979 single “Into the Valley” and the 1980 album The Absolute Game.
cord included “The Saints Are Coming”, which was later covered in late 2006 as a charity single by U2 and Green Day.
Skids played their first gig on 19 August 1977 at the Bellville Hotel in Pilmuir Street, Dunfermline, Scotland. Within six months they had released the Charles EP on the No Bad record label, created by Sandy Muir, a Dunfermline music shop owner turned manager. The record brought them to the attention of national BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel. This led to a local gig supporting The Clash. Virgin Records then signed up Skids in April 1978. The singles “Sweet Suburbia” and “The Saints Are Coming” both made commercial inroads, before “Into the Valley” reached the UK Top 10 singles chart in early 1979. The band released their debut studio album, Scared to Dance, the same year. It was recorded at The Townhouse Studios in London, England with production and keyboards by David Batchelor. Adamson walked out towards the end of the sessions before all the guitar overdubs were completed. Session guitarist Chris Jenkins was chief maintenance engineer at Townhouse studios and completed the album using Adamson’s studio set up, adding additional guitar to four tracks – “Into the Valley”, “Integral Plot”, “Calling the Tune” and “Scared to Dance”. In the meantime, Adamson returned to Scotland when the recording was finished. He rejoined the band for the live concert tour promotion of the album. The record included “The Saints Are Coming”, which was later covered in late 2006 as a charity single by U2 and Green Day.
Skids enjoyed a further year of chart success as “Masquerade” and “Working for the Yankee Dollar” reached the UK Top 20 singles chart. Both came from their second album, also released in 1979, Days in Europa, with the record’s production and keyboards by Bill Nelson (Be-Bop Deluxe, Red Noise, Channel Light Vessel and solo artist). Nelson was the obvious choice for the record’s production duties as he was not only Adamson’s principal ‘guitar hero’ but also an enormous influence on Adamson’s playing. Nelson also played an important role in polishing Skids’ sound and in encouraging the development of Jobson’s lyrics. Just before recording of the album commenced, Kellichan left the band and was temporarily replaced on drums by Rusty Egan (ex-Rich Kids, then with the band Visage and a New Romantic 1980s dance DJ at the Blitz club). Egan played on the album and later on the live concert tour of the record.
For a reminder, here is one of the concerts from their 1979 tour. Crank it up and enjoy.
