The Skids have today announced the first 15 UK concerts in celebration of their 45 anniversary. There will be more dates added to this. These all electric performances include an appearance at the Concorde 2 on Brighton seafront on Saturday 1st April 2023 – yes that’s next year!
This is a venue that the band has sold out on three previous occasions, with the last visit being on 30th October 2021. The Brighton & Hove News Music Team was in attendance – Read our review HERE.
The first time I saw the Skids in Brighton was at the Top Rank Suite (which used to be at the bottom of West Street) on the 15th of October 1980. I thankfully still have my ticket. The band’s original lineup then consisted of Richard Jobson, Stuart Adamson (sadly no longer with us), Bill Simpson and Tom Kellichan. They were arguably the biggest Scottish punk band of the 1976-1979 era. They had previously also played at the Top Rank Suite on 31st October 1979, but sadly I didn’t attend that one.
Having originally formed in 1977 in their home town of Dunfermline, the Skids debut 3-track release hit an unsuspecting world on 24th February 1978 on the Scottish punk label ‘No Bad’. The independent single was played by legendary DJ John Peel, and the Skids went on to support The Clash in concert. They were then signed to Virgin Records in 1978, with their first major label singles being ‘Sweet Suburbia’, ‘The Saints Are Coming’ and ‘Into The Valley’ with the latter reaching the UK Top Ten in early 1979.
Their seminal debut album ‘Scared To Dance’; came out on 23rd February 1979 and was quickly followed by two chart singles – ‘Masquerade’ and ‘Working For The Yankee Dollar’. Both singles were taken from the Bill Nelson (Be Bop Deluxe) produced second album ‘Days In Europa’. The album also featured new member Rusty Egan of Rich Kids and Visage fame, after the departure of Tom Kellichan. The band released two more albums ‘The Absolute Game’ (1980) and ‘Joy’ (1981) before splitting. Stuart Adamson went on to have worldwide success with his new band Big Country. The band performed live at the Concorde 2 a few weeks ago – Read our account HERE.
Wind the clock forward to 2017, the Skids 40th anniversary year, and Richard Jobson was back on the case. He picked up his guitar again and sang through all of the hits along with new teammates William Simpson (bass guitar, vocals), Mike Baillie (drums, vocals, percussion), Bruce Watson (guitar, vocals) and Jamie Watson (guitar, vocals), when they performed the first Brighton Skids concert for 37 years, when they played the Concorde 2 on 17th June 2017. Read our review HERE.
A year later, on 29th June 2018, they were back at the same venue, playing no less than 17 superb numbers, which ranged from ‘The Saints Are Coming’, ‘Into The Valley’, ‘Of One Skin’ and ‘Melancholy Soldiers’ (all from 1979 ‘Scared To Dance’ album), right up to tracks from the then brand new ‘Burning Cities’ 2017 album, namely ‘This Is Our World’, ‘Kings Of The New World Order’, ‘Into The Void’ and ‘Desert Dust’. Highlights for me that evening were ‘Kings Of The New World Order’, ‘The Saints Are Coming’, ‘Masquerade’ and ‘Into The Valley’. It was overall a brilliant night. Read HERE.
Purchase your Skids 45 anniversary concert tour tickets HERE. The Brighton concert tickets for their 1st April 2023 performance at the Concorde 2 will go on sale at 10am on Friday 18th March 2022 and can be bought from HERE.
For more information on the Skids visit www.the-skids.com
