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"I'm a lazy sod" sang the Sex Pistols and to be honest I am too
here. The Skids story is more than adequately covered by John Peel
on the sleeve of the "Fanfare" album so here you go. First off
though, Robin Saunders take on the band that made Scottish punks
swell up with pride.
The Skids...Were fun.
Everyone loved the Skids although there were a few head-scratching
moments over their bizarre lyrics.
“Betrothed and divine” (Into the Valley)???
Their first e.p.
“Charles/Test Tube Babies/Reasons” (on No Bad Records) was a gem.
Everyone eagerly awaited their first album and…boy was it a
disappointment! Jobson’s lyrics
were a bit too extra-terrestrial for our liking.
However the band were good fun – they might have been pretentious
bastards but they were our Pretentious Bastards.
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"Richard Jolson
(vocals)
Alexander Plode (guitar)
Stuart Adamson (guitar)
Thomas
Bomb (drums)
Yes, Jolson. This,
according to a mimeographed sheet from No Bad Records of Dunfermline, was the
original line-up of the Skids. The anonymous writer of this press release, which
accompanied the first Skids single, was of the view that the band was 'destined
for the top', and he was almost right. To quote further from his thoughtful
paragraphs, the Skids were 'causing a substantial "BUZZ",' and this time he was
spot on. This was early 1978 and for some months Scottish fanzines had been
noising abroad the excellence of Messrs. Jolson, Plode, Adamson and Bomb,
remarking that they had moved beyond the confines of pure punk and were evolving
into something entirely of their own devising, something that was, or so it was
hinted, identifiably Scottish.
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Kingdom Come Interview-7 Feb 78
Click images to view larger ones. |
Thus it was that when No Bad NB1, 'Reasons', 'Test Tube Babies', and
'Charles', reached the sink-pits and stews of London, the Skids
already enjoyed the first murmurings of a reputation, and when the
band followed the record south they must have hoped for an
enthusiastic reception. Back home they had been heard on Radio
Forth, for Heaven's sake, and had supported the Stranglers in
Edinburgh, and when they clambered on stage in a Stoke Newington pub
they must have been disappointed at the mute, incurious glances of
the few regulars which greeted them. Happily, my old brave ones,
this performance was enough to win the Skids an outing on Radio 1
and a subsequent approach from Virgin Records.
The rest, I am tempted to
say, is history.
First out of the Virgin
gate was
'Sweet Suburbia'.
'This white vinyl record has a weird gimmick', warned the company's effervescent
promotions department mysteriously, adding 'You'll like it'. Consumers did, but
only a bit, as the record pounced on the number 70 spot in the charts but then
fell away into nothingness.
'The Saints Are Coming'
improved on this, clawing its way as high as 48.
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