Big Country Info Big Country Info

 

THE past, so they say, is a foreign country and it's one from which we're almost permanently exiled. With the passing of the years, the landscape shifts, transforms, reconfigures, until the traces of where we once were are erased from everywhere but our memories.

Many of the landmarks that charted the progress of The Skids from their beginnings at the bleeding edge of Scottish punk to their role as one of the new wave's most influential forces have now gone entirely. You'll scour in vain the centre of Dunfermline for Spowart's warehouse — the chilly loft where they perfected their anthems of discontent during the winter of 1977. And the freezing (even in summer Victorian coach house where they distilled many of the songs on their second album Days In Europa has long since been flattened to ake way for a car park. The venues where they played some of their earliest, most explosive gigs - the Belleville, the Kinema Ballroom, Sound 70 - have been rehabilitated, refurbished and renamed.
Sandy Muir's record shop, de facto HQ for the first years of their brief but brightly burning career, is now a betting office. And in Fife these days, Charles - the protagonist of one of their finest songs — would struggle to find a job never mind a factory.

Back before time's embrace had its way, Stuart Adamson and Richard Jobson would regularly thread their way through the town, dreaming out loud as they headed home after spending the night running through songs with Skids co-founder Willie Simpson and the band's original faster-than-a-speeding-bullet drummer Tam Kellichan.

One of the buildings they passed, maybe a hundred times or more on those journeys, was The Alhambra. And as they talked excitedly about what might happen and what kind of future might be mapped out for The Skids, it's not hard to imagine the ghosts of another age - silent film star Gladys Hulette, say, who appeared in the first movie to be screened in the building back in 1922 or music hall favourite Harry Gordon who played there a few years later - enjoying a wry smile at the intensity of that white-hot ambition.

Nowadays, the wide-eyed kids (including a teenage punk gunslinger called Bruce Watson) who huddled into the corner of The Skids practice sessions to watch the kiss of inspiration transform into tracks of the calibre of Saints Are Coming, Of One Skin and the extraordinary Melancholy Soldiers, are all grown up. And the electrifying music that catapulted the band out of Dunfermline, to Top Of The Pops and beyond, has gone on to influence generations of bands, from Joy Division and U2 to Manic Street Preachers and Blur.

Yet the original songs -- including Scared To Dance, Working For The Yankee Dollar and Circus Games -- are still as powerful as they ever were. For some, they're a precious route back to the foreign land that is now the past. For others, a glimpse of the future as it should have been.and still could be.

So, for all sorts of reasons, when The Skids reunited - with a few old friends -- to storm the stage at The Alhambra for a special show as part of the Fifer Festival 2010, it was magical and then some. Sit back, relax and play very, very loud.

TIM BARR

___________________________________________________

 

The Skids
Featuring
BILL SIMPSON
MIKE BALLIE
BRUCE WATSON
JAMIE WATSON
RICHARD JOBSON
JANE BUTTON
and
THE GOSPEL TRUTH CHOIR

Special Thanks to
MJM Management
MICHAEL JOBSON
CAMILLA GWILT
DF Concerts
The Flash Centre
Fife Council
The Alhambra Theatre
Thomas Moffat at Visit Dunfermline
Cob at www.theskids.com

Animation
Of One Skin
Melancholy Soldiers
Thanatos
Yankee Dollar
The Saints Are Coming
Scared To Dance
Charles
The Olympian
Hurry On Boys
Charade
A Woman In Winter
Circus Games
Masquerade
Into The Valley
Fields

The Skids live 2010 DVD was filmed by Richard Jobson and the team he works with on his movies. He was asked to take part in the Fifer Festival 2010, with one week in Dunfermline focusing on his body of work culminating in a Skids reunion at the Alhambra Theatre.

The DVD mixes footage from an onstage interview with novelist Ian Rankin alongside classic Skids songs.
The idea was to try and capture the excitement of the event rather than try and document every part of The Skids' journey.
The film reveals a candid Jobson talking about the early days with the band and what it meant to him then and now,

Produced and directed by Richard Jobson at RJ Films / No Bad Films
Edited by Steven Sander
Main cameras by Simon Dennis and Dennis Lennie
Additional cameras: Matt Brown, Caulder, Adam Duckworth, Dave Beck & Steve Vernon Clarke
Live lighting design by Colin McCallum
Live audio by John Ramsay at EFX Audio
Audio remix by Michael “Curly" Jobson
Alhambra interview by lan Rankin
Archive materials by Cob & Smid
Sleeve notes by Tim Barr
DVD Artwork by Cob

Running Time approx 70 minutes Aspect Ratio: 16:9 DVD 5 Video Disc Region 2 PAL UK E Exempt from classification © Copyright RJ Films / No Bad Films 2010 All Rights Reserved All unauthorised copying, public performance, broadcasting, hiring or rental strictly prohibited.

Limited Edition DVD with Extras
VIDEO

 

NO BAD FILMS

Skids Live 2010

Animation, Of One Skin, Melancholy Soldiers, Thanatos, Working For The Yankee Dollar, The Saints Are Coming, The Olympian, Charade, Masquerade and Into The Valley
courtesy of Virgin Records, published by EMI,
written by Jobson / Adamson

Scared To Dance and Charles
courtesy of Virgin Records, published by EMI,
written by Adamson

Hurry On Boys, A Woman In Winter and Circus Games
courtesy of Virgin Records, published by EMI,
Virgin Music Publishing/10 Music Ltd/BMG Music Publishing.
written by Jobson/Adamson/Webb/Baillie

Fields courtesy of Virgin Records, published by EMI,
written by Jobson/Webb

___________________________________________________


 

{OPENING CREDITS}

THE ALHAMBRA THEATRE
Dunfermline, Fife

IAN RANKIN
Novelist

RICHARD JOBSON

As part of Fife's 2010 celebrations, Richard Jobson,
film maker, proud Fifer and lead singer of The Skids,
was invited to a retrospective of his work

The Skids were also invited to perform
as the climax to a magical week

NOBAD FILMS PRESENTS

THE SKIDS

LIVE 2010

{CLOSING CREDITS}

THE SKIDS

LIVE 2010

Featuring
RICHARD JOBSON VOCALS
BILL SIMPSON BASS & VOCALS
MIKE BAILLIE DRUMS
BRUCE WATSON GUITAR & VOCALS
JAMIE WATSON GUITAR
JANE BUTTON BACKING VOCALS
and
THE GOSPEL TRUTH CHOIR

MJM Management
MICHAEL 'CURLY' JOBSON

Tour Manager
CAMILLA GWILT

Production Manager
ROBIN SCOTT

Edited by
STEVEN SANDER

Main Cameras
SIMON DENNIS
DENNIS LENNIE

Additional Cameras
MATT BROWN
CAULDER
ADAM DUCKWORTH
DAVE BECK
STEVE VERNON CLARKE

Interview at Alhambra
IAN RANKIN

FOH Engineer
JOHN RAMSAY

Monitor Engineer
DAVE 'KLEINER' MORGAN

Lighting Designer
COLIN MCCALLUM

Guitar & Bass Tech
MICHAEL WHEELER

Drum Tech
SIMON MCGLYNN

Archive & DVD Design
COB
SMID

Live gig remixed by
MICHAEL 'CURLY' JOBSON

Thanks to
BILL FLETCHER
THE ALHAMBRA THEATRE
FIFE COUNCIL
DF CONCERTS
THE FLASH CENTRE
THOMAS MOFFAT

A
NOBAD FILMS
Production

© NOBAD FILMS 2010

___________________________________________________

 

ON SCREEN CREDITS (INTERVIEW)

(Liner Notes | Printed Credits | On Screen Credits (Concert))

{OPENING CREDITS}

THE Alhambra, Dunfermline, Fife

IAN RANKIN
Novelist

As part of Fife's 2010 celebrations, Richard Jobson,
lead singer of The Skids and now a film director,
was invited to a retrospective of his work

{CLOSING CREDITS}

Written & Presented by
RICHARD JOBSON

Filmed by
SIMON DENNIS
DENNIS LENNIE

Edited by
STEVEN SANDER

Special thanks to
IAN RANKIN
FIFE COUNCIL
THE ALHAMBRA THEATRE
THOMAS MOFFET
BILL FLETCHER
THE SKIDS

© NOBAD FILMS 2010