Skids - 1979 - Days in Europa (UK)

Skids - 1979 - Days in Europa (UK)

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Skids - 1980 - Strength Through Joy (UK)

Skids - 1980 - Strength Through Joy (UK)

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The Absolute Game was The Skids' 1980 third album (not counting the two different versions released of their second album, 1979's Days in Europa) and was produced by Mick Glossop.
The album continued the Skids' progression from a punky sound into a more mellow one - paralleled by many bands of the period. The album has a great deal in common with Days in Europa, but not much with its successor, Joy. Around this time the band were driven by internal rifts and disagreements, leading to various members coming and going. Soon after the release and live concert tour of The Absolute Game, Adamson and Baillie left the band. (Adamson had already played on one song from the album Joy before leaving, called Iona.) Adamson went on to launch the career of his new band, Big Country, and Baillie moved back to Scotland to live. A great deal of Big Country's future sound and style can be heard in this album. In particularly on Hurry On Boys, which features bagpipe simulations and real didgeridoo. Joy has a completely different sound to other Skids albums, and some fans consider The Absolute Game to be the last canonical Skids album. This was also the first album featured Richard Jobson and new bassist Russell Webb as a working duo, while Adamson and Jobson relationship was in decadence, reason the lead guitarist dropped out. Jobson and Webb as a constantly musical duo worked constantly until 1988, when their last band The Armoury Show failed to get hits and split up.
ControversyInitial copies came with a limited edition second disc entitled Strength through Joy. Richard Jobson, the Skids' lead singer, later stated that this title had been taken from Dirk Bogarde's autobiography and was not based on the Nazi slogan Kraft durch Freude. However it continued the controversial theme of the first release of Days in Europa, which had been withdrawn.
Strength through Joy – limited edition second disc available with initial copies only

tracklist:

1. "An Incident in Algiers"

2. "Grievance"

3. "Strength through Joy"

4. "Filming Africa"

5. "A Man for All Seasons"

6. "Snakes and Ladders"

7. "Surgical Triumph"

8. "The Bell Jar"

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Skids - 1980 - Days In Europa (UK)

Skids - 1980 - Days In Europa (UK)
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Days In Europa, OVED 42, released 1980

© 1979 Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd.

Side 1: Animation (4:27), Charade (4:0), "Dulce et Decorum Est (Pro Patria Mori)" (4:34), The Olympian (3:22), Home of the Saved (4:26)

Side 2: Working for the Yankee Dollar (3:52), Thantos (4:02), Masquerade (2:44), A Day in Europa (2:56), Peaceful Times (5:00)

Produced by Bill Nelson; WFTYD Remixed by Mick Glossop, Masquerade remixed by Bill Nelson & John Leckie, additional production and remix (except WFTYD) by Bruce Fairbairn

Skids - 1981 - Joy (UK)

Skids - 1981 - Joy (UK)
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Joy is the final album by the Scottish band The Skids. It was the fourth studio record and their first after the departure of signature guitarist Stuart Adamson, who then founded Big Country. As such, it represented a change of direction from rock to folk music, amplifying the traditional Scottish element already hinted at in previous releases.
The band line-up featured Richard Jobson and Russell Webb, with J. J. Johnson (drums / percussion), Paul Wishart (saxophone / flute / keyboards / percussion / vocals) & a collection of musical friends. They all went to Britannia Row Studios in London for rehearsals and song development. Sessions in July 1981 led to the release of the first single from the upcoming album.
The single "Fields" (Virgin VS-401) was released in August 1981, with Kenny Hyslop on drums. The song also featured Billy MacKenzie (vocals), and Alan Rankine (guitar), who were the core members of the band The Associates. Guesting, early in her career, was Virginia Astley (flute). The strummed guitar and marching band elements (bagpipe emulation, percussion) signalled a change in direction, though the rabble-rousing melody and football pitch vocal delivery were standard Skids fare.
Sessions continued through September 1981 and produced a second single, the harmonically rich Iona (named for the Scottish island). It was the only song on the album to be recorded at Highland Studios in Inverness, Scotland. Released in October 1981 (as Virgin VS-449) this was the last Skids track to feature Adamson, alongside Mike Oldfield. At 3:24 the single edit is significantly shorter than the epic to be found on the album.
The eleven track Joy was issued November 1981 (as Virgin V-2217). It marks a concerted effort to update traditional Scottish music into the age of modern rock recordings. The sound is fundamentally more pastoral than previous Skids efforts. Gone are the layers of harmonically treated electric guitar. However, elements of this style were hinted at previously, particularly on the "Strength Through Joy" mini-album. The lyrical concerns of strife, war and brotherhood are Jobson staples.
With Paul Wishart on saxophone, "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" is a cover of the song by Eric Bogle.
Though the band recorded a BBC Radio 1 session and shot a music video for "Iona", promotion problems at Virgin forestalled a tour. With patchy coverage, no live support and a difficult change in musical direction, the record sank without a trace. Critical reception was mixed at best. For example Trouser Press wrote "To call it bad is curt but realistic." However The Guardian greeted it happily.
The album bore fruit in several working relationships. For example, Virginia Astley was to record her debut solo releases with Russell Webb and also guests on Jobson's poetry album "The Ballad Of Etiquette".
Later, The Skids split up and the remaining members Richard Jobson and Russell Webb formed The Armoury Show, with Magazine's John McGeoch and John Doyle shortly afterwards.
This album is unreleased on CD.

Skids, The - 1978 - Scared To Dance

Skids, The - 1978 - Scared To Dance
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Skids - 1978 - Wide Open 7''

Skids - 1978 - Wide Open 7''

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The Skids, it seemed, picked their moment well. Comprising the songwriting axis of Richard Jobson (vocals) and Stuart Adamson (guitar), together with the rhythm section of William Simpson (bass) and Tom Kellichan (drums), they rode into British consciousness on the new wave backwash to the ebbing tide of punk. The release of their self-financed, attention-grabbing Charles EP came at the time Richard Branson's Virgin label were busy accruing an eclectic roster of post-punk hopefuls. Consequently, with almost indecent haste, the band were tethered to what was to prove an optimistic eight-album deal. On the flip side of their first Virgin single, "Sweet Suburbia" (1978), the band proclaimed themselves to be "Open Sound", which was essentially a description of the soaring histrionics of Adamson's guitar style. When married to the martial rhythms of the drumming and the bellowing, chant-like vocals of Jobson, this sound conspired to lend their repertoire a rousing, anthemic quality. It was heroic music which at its best, as on the first album, Scared To Dance (1979), seemed to capture the drama and turbulence of battle. Unfortunately, the sound was an all-too-graphic reflection of the band's own stormy relationships, a turbulence which was to settle only with the departure of Adamson in the summer of 1981. The Skids' decline was in large part due to the portentous designs of Richard Jobson, who sought to mould the band into a vehicle for his ever more convoluted lyrics. This became most evident in the recording of the second album, Days In Europa (1979). Following the departure of original drummer Tom Kellichan in the traditional rock'n'roll style (i.e. after the first album), the Skids recruited a temporary replacement in the form of ex-Rich Kids drummer and Jobson cohort, Rusty Egan, and a producer in the form of ex- Be-Bop Deluxe man Bill Nelson. Together, both Nelson and Egan contrived to free the band from the strictures of punk-pop in favour of a more polished, almost danceable sound. Ultimately it was a case of too many cooks, and the resultant album proved to be a misguided attempt at redefining the Skids' sound. This in turn alienated a great many fans, and also cost them the services of bassist Simpson during the troubled tour that ensued. For Jobson and Adamson it was back to the drawing board, and 1980 saw a rejuvenated Skids with a new rhythm section in the form of Russell Webb (bass) and Mike Baillie (drums). The resultant album, The Absolute Game (1980), produced this time by Mick Glossop, was a commercial success, giving the band their first and only British Top 10 album. Artistically, too, it heralded a return to form, dispensing with the excess baggage of the previous outing and playing to the dual strengths of Adamson's guitar stylings and Jobson's lyrical bombast. Unfortunately, this rejuvenation coincided with Jobson's increasing commitment to a burgeoning London scene. Adamson's departure had as much to do with geographical differences as to musical and personal ones; a point evinced by Adamson's eventual return to Dunfermline, from where he formed the internationally successful Big Country. Following Adamson's departure, the final dissolution of the band was soon to follow. Unfortunately, however, not before Jobson and Webb issued a dour and ill-conceived concept album, Joy (1981), which served only to illustrate that, when Adamson left, he took all of the best tunes with him. Not surprisingly the album failed to chart, and proved a sorry end to a short career which had begun with so much spark and promise.

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Skids - 1980 - Absolute Game

Skids - 1980 - Absolute Game

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