Richard Jobson and father and son guitarists Bruce Watson and Jamie Watson of Big Country resumed their cancelled acoustic dates performing rare Skids songs and Jobson’s post-Skids work, bringing out the folk hymnic anthems of the band’s repertoire.
Jobson related several stories from his time in The Skids, joining the band when he was 16 and trying to record 27 songs in the studio in one hour, of which only one came out well – ‘Goodbye Civilian’ – which they started their set on. He also reminisced about being on Top Of The Pops and befriending Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols, before performing ‘Circus Games’ from ‘The Absolute Game’.
The Skids then played the song that first got them airplay by radio DJ John Peel, founding guitarist’s Stuart Adamson’s ‘Charles’ which featured on their 1979 EP of the same name released on No Bad records. They also touched on their less successful period following the departure of Adamson with a rare performance of ‘Fields’.
Jobson moved onto his music post-Skids with The Armory Show which saw him playing with Magazine and Siouxsie & The Banshees’ guitarist John McGeoch, whom he shared a personal insight into both on and off stage. He performed their debut 1984 single ‘Castles In Spain’. The band ended their set on some of their well known earlier singles, ‘The Saints Are Coming’, ‘Working For The Yankee Dollar’ and ‘Into The Valley’, coming back from an encore of David Essex’s ‘Rock On’.
19/01/22: The Skids (Unplugged) @ 229 The Venue, London.
© Ayisha Khan.