ShareThe Skids performing their 40th Anniversary Tour at Rock City Nottingham on Friday 1st September 2017.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
Scottish punk veterans the Skids were back in action last night to mark the band’s 40th anniversary, and they thrilled their diehard fans at Rock City with a performance that saw original singer Richard Jobson and bassist William Simpson power through a set packed with anthemic songs from all of the bands late 70s and early 80s albums.
Opening with Animation, Jobson immediately commanded the stage with his engaging and powerful presence. Never keeping still for a minute, Of One Skin and Melancholy Soldiers saw Jobson in fine voice and with his arms flailing; his dancing was just as frenetic and individual as ever.
In this nonstop high energy set, the crowd showed their appreciation by belting out the words to the catchy Working For The Yankee Dollar which was followed by a superb performance of The Saints Are Coming with its huge football stadium chorus.
A tribute to the late Skids and Big Country guitarist Stuart Adamson, who took his own life after years of battling alcoholism in 2001, came in the form of Scared To Dance which brought a huge round of applause from the crowd, before the band continued with Charles, The Olympian and Out Of Town.
Throughout, Big Country guitarist Bruce Watson was a joy to watch as his guitar playing was a perfectly measured tribute to his former band mate, whilst his son Jamie showed just why he is in the line up. Drummer Mike Baillie was a real driving force whilst Simpson reinforced the Skids dynamics on bass.
But it was Jobson who mesmerised this appreciative crowd with his anecdotes and jokes. There was his mid set sing along of ‘Ed Sheeran is a wanker’, sung specifically for Jamie who does bear an uncanny resemblance to the singer, and he entertained this crowd with tales of when NME voted the Skids the best punk band in Scotland, only to be brought back to earth when his mother said “but you’re the only punk band in Scotland”.
Bringing the set to a close with the thrilling Into The Valley there wasn’t a single person not singing along. With the cheers still ringing they returned to deliver their encore which included TV Stars, the B side to the original Into The Valley 7 inch vinyl, which was essentially a silly run through of character names from Coronation Street and Crossroads, changed to include Boris Johnson but with the chorus of “Albert Tatlock”, the Streets grumpy man from the programme in the 70s being belted out by a crowd that had really embraced this band.
They delivered Charade, Happy To Be With You, Integral Plot before delighting the crowd with new track A World On Fire from their latest album, Burning Cities.
With last night’s triumphant return, it is hard to believe that the Skids ever went away, proving that old punk rockers never die; they just lose their Mohicans.