From Dunfermline based No Bad Records came forth the debut Skids release. The Skids went on to become firstly John Peel favorites, secondly a decent enough top 40 band for the rest of the singles that followed on the Virgin Record label. Some thought they were aloof and pretentious (what band wasn’t in the late 1970’s, The Cure, Banshees, Antz?). I thought they were great. Richard Jobson after The Skids became involved in The Armoury Show for a couple of singles in 1984, and he was also seen in theatre with Honey Bane, then became Edinburgh’s version of Francis Ford Coppala with his debut directed film ’16 Years Of Alcohol’, which is actually pretty good.
Chris
February 23, 2008 at 2:35 amwoops, just seen youve put this up. QUALITY record.
Nuzz
February 23, 2008 at 10:49 amMuch maligned in punk circles, but a top pop band, with some great tunes Working For The Yankee Dollar springs to mind straight away, probably cos it still such a relevent piece of work.
Nic
February 23, 2008 at 11:26 am“(Richard Jobson)…was seen in theatre with his winkle flopping about over Honey Bane”…
I love the way you put that, penguin!
🙂
I mainly remember Jobson’s teeth: I was 10 when the band first came to my attention and I couldn’t help thinking that Jobson’s teeth reminded me of Richard Kiel’s metal teeth in ‘The Spy who Loved Me’ which I had seen the year before…
The ‘Scared to Dance’ album has some fantastic guitar playing..
and great cover artwork…
Spare a thought for poor Stuart Adamson who died in 2001…
Carl
February 24, 2008 at 8:50 amI loved The Skids. This was my entry into punk I think. Too young to take much notice of David Bowie etc etc…the likes of The Skids and The Undertones, were my entry into punk and all that followed….The intro to “Into the Valley” still gets the hair on the back of my neck ( now grey !! ) standing up …
Nic
February 24, 2008 at 11:02 amYes, that was the same for me Carl: I was too young to have felt the importance of Bowie and Bolan (or – for that matter – precursors like Dylan), and entered Punk at a kind of ‘year zero’ point where I knew none of the preceding ‘history’…
After 1978 (Undertones, Buzzcocks, X Ray Spex, Penetration, PiL, etc ) it all opened up for me in 1979…
Carl
February 24, 2008 at 7:52 pmComing in at “year zero” is a different angle from some of the older ! (God, Im 41 !!) people on here who do have different early terms of reference than we do. I remember a discussion that Gerard was having a few weeks back I think about “starting points” and the importance of Bowie etc…
It all meant nothing to me really and I still struggle with some of the more “hippy” , sorry about the generalisation , bands that have been named checked on this site. To me , there was nothing before punk…tho I did think some of my Dad’s early rock and roll records were exciting…but this was like a “riot of our own ! “….
Chris
February 24, 2008 at 11:34 pmActually, i nicked a couple of Bowie albums (Heroes and Lodger) plus a copy of Japan’s ‘adolescent sex’ when i was about 12 or 13 for the simple reason i came to the understanding as all the hot girls at school were into them it would improve my chances of scoring with them.
I’ve always found it a bit strange that Bowie was never as name-checked by the 77 punk crowd (‘Bromley contingent’ types excepted) as much as you’d think he should have been, given some of the songs on his ‘berlin period’ albums, which i still think sound absolutely stunning today.
and funnily enough, David Sylvian’s road manager is a mate of mine from the anarcho days.
Penguin • Post Author •
February 25, 2008 at 12:27 amDid it work then Chris??? I was a little more interested in music and football matches to be bothered with girls at that age…took me a couple more years, sad I know, but y ‘know…! Always thought Bowie had loads of credibility during the punk years, one of the artists that would remain important throughout his career before, during and (to an extent) after punk.
gerard
February 25, 2008 at 12:43 amgood to see japan namechecked as well i might add – singer was almost up there with ‘nando torres in the gay temptation stakes 😉
Nic
February 25, 2008 at 11:01 amI’m not sure about ‘nothing before Punk’, Carl!
🙂
For me, I realised that what I was looking for from music was something exciting, exploratory, sometimes challenging, and ideally engaged (in the widest sense) with issues of relevance to my life…
The more I explored, the more I found this in almost every strata of music – even the dreaded Hippies (you know – people like Al 🙂 )…
Thinking of being a youth…
When I was 11, I knew an older (21) girl who would indulge my mania for Punk, and she totally expanded my musical interests by introducing me to all kinds of music I may never have heard at that time…
She would play me Bowie albums and records by people like Bolan (and Japan), but it just didn’t quite click for me: something seemed to be absent that I was searching for, something intangible…
She did – however – play me records like Human League ‘Being Boiled’ and ‘Dignity of Labour’, Cabaret Voltaire ‘Extended Play’, B-52’s first album, and so on which I really loved, and other interesting records like Eno and Fripp ‘No Pussyfooting’, Kraftwerk ‘1’ and ‘2’, and Eno ‘Music for Airports’ which opened up my perception of what could constitute ‘music’…
She went out with a few musicians (Kenny Morris, Spizz) including Adrian from the Human League: I did a swapsie with him in 1980 – he got my collection of ‘TV21’ singles and he got me all kinds of things from the Virgin warehouses…
I was robbed – you can’t get those ‘TV21’ singles anywhere!
🙂
I remember that her bedroom was like an exotic pleasuredome: scarves draped everywhere, a strong smell of parfum, and a mattress on the floor…
I think I may have had a warm feeling in my tummy…
🙂
I have to agree with Penguin, Chris – I always had the sense that a lot of Punks gave Bowie ‘props’ (not just the Bromley people)…
Did you model your fringe on David Sylvian, Chris?
😉
When I was 12/13, all the girls at school were listening to Two Tone (probably because it was ‘local’ music) and wearing parkas…
A year or two later, they were all listening to Whodini and Man Parrish…
betab
February 25, 2008 at 2:20 pmTV21 reformed a while back and now posting their stuff on myspace.
Glad to see others as eclectic as me – was beginning to think I was alone.
Chris
February 25, 2008 at 4:23 pm“I remember that her bedroom was like an exotic pleasuredome: scarves draped everywhere, a strong smell of parfum, and a mattress on the floor…”
you forgot to mention the red light at the door and the sign saying ‘Young Swedish Model – special schoolboy rates”
“I think I may have had a warm feeling in my tummy…”
and another feeling, not too dissimilar to that experienced when climbing up the ropes in PE class, i shouldn’t wonder, eh Nic?
😉
Hmmm…hadn’t thought about the ‘regional aspect’ of two tone, though it was pretty big in Scotland, despite there not really being any great black population then. Maybe that’s why there was never any Scottish Mod or two-Tone bands? I was never into it but went along to the ‘Two Tone Tour’ gig at Stirling Uni (as we did every gig there) – got chased along the road afterwards by a big gang of loacl mods/rude boys. One thing I remember was that most of the kids into the two tone thing seemed to change from being ‘mods’ to ‘rude boys’ depending on which band was poplar that week , which I thought a bit strange. Must have all kicked off around the same time Quadrophenia came out?
All the girls into ska and the mod scene at school and around were pretty stinky and into ‘fighting’ where-as all those into Bowie and Japan had that 1980/81 Clare Grogan in ‘Gregory’s Girl’ type look and were into art…and ‘finger sex’ 🙂
lee23
February 25, 2008 at 4:46 pmah clare grogan in gregory’s girl, there was definately something about her look to make an impressionable teenager drool ha ha :)…
Nic
February 25, 2008 at 5:55 pm‘finger sex’? Is that the X-rated version of ‘Fingerbobs’?
“Yoffi lifts a finger, and some glop appears…”
🙂