Skids - Scared To Dance [Box Set]

Released in 1979, Scared to Dance is the seminal debut studio album by the Scottish punk and new wave band Skids. Driven by the soaring, highly influential guitar work of Stuart Adamson and the distinctive vocal delivery of Richard Jobson, the album seamlessly blended the raw energy of punk rock with anthemic, stadium-ready melodies. It established the band as pioneers of the post-punk movement, peaking at number 19 on the UK Albums Chart. The record features some of the band's most enduring and legendary tracks, including the fierce Top 10 hit "Into the Valley" and the urgent, politically charged "The Saints Are Coming.

"The definitive three-disc box set edition, originally compiled by Caroline International, transforms this classic album into a comprehensive historical document. Alongside the fully remastered original album and its associated singles, the collection unearths rare 1978 Virgin Records studio demos that include five completely unreleased songs. It also features a ferocious, full-length live concert captured at London’s iconic Marquee Club in November 1978. Packaged with a 24-page booklet filled with rare photographs and detailed liner notes, this box set serves as the ultimate archive of a band at the peak of their creative, energetic power.

Skids - Days In Europa (2001 Captain Oi! release)

Skids were punk on their debut, but were fronted by a glass-chewing vocalist who dressed alternately as a dandy, cricketer, and marionette member of S.P.E.C.T.R.U.M. It was all rather incomprehensible. But the riffs were good. This time the rhythm section is better (Mike Baillie and Russell Webb had stepped in), and Bill Nelson's production also helps matters. But just what is he like, that Richard Jobson? Here Jobson indulges all his WWII fantasies and somehow convinces his label to release the most Teutonic cover ever. It's 1936 and we're in Berlin. The Nazis are about to inaugurate the Summer Olympics. It's the absolute game they're playing; just that no-one else yet knows how far they are going to take it. Other questionable decisions are made. Synthetic guitar boffin Bill Nelson is brought in to put giant phasers on the drums, everything else goes through the Eventide, then generous reverb. Dance sequencers pulse as though the group was called "Japan". Guitars are run backwards. In one brilliant move an entire song is run backwards! However, there was considerable compensation in the inclusion of the singles "Animation," "Charade," and, in particular, "Working for the Yankee Dollar."

Is this the basis for a stompin' rock album? Well, yes, apparently it is. This is a rock album with a rather unusual aesthetic.

The result is so extreme that the label had to remix the record, clad it in more fashionable garb, and re-issue it before someone noticed.

But this version is fucking amazing.

The 2001 Captain Oi! reissue of Days in Europa marks a definitive historical restoration of the Skids’ sophomore 1979 album. This specific UK release (Catalog Number: AHOY CD 172) famously reinstated the original, highly controversial sleeve artwork featuring an Aryan-style Olympic athlete. Virgin Records had quickly suppressed this original cover in 1979 due to its uncomfortable resemblance to pre-WWII German propaganda posters, replacing it with a tamer band portrait for a 1980 Bruce Fairbairn remix version. By restoring the original Bill Nelson production mix alongside the intended visual design, the 2001 CD allowed fans to experience the album exactly as the Scottish post-punk pioneers had first envisioned it.

Beyond aesthetics, this expanded edition greatly increases information and musical value by appending seven bonus tracks onto the original ten-song lineup. Listeners receive essential contemporary single releases, B-sides, and rarities, including "Masquerade", "Another Emotion", and "Vanguard's Crusade". While purists note a minor historical oversight—the included version of "Out of Town" is actually the 1980 re-recording from The Absolute Game rather than the 1979 single version—the release remains highly praised. It successfully captures the transition of the Skids from raw punk rock into a more polished, synth-infused new wave art rock sound.

Skids - Into The Valley 7''

"Into the Valley" is the definitive 1979 punk-new wave anthem by Scottish band The Skids, serving as the breakout hit from their debut album Scared to Dance. Released on Virgin Records (VS 241), the track reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart and is celebrated for Stuart Adamson’s soaring guitar riffs and Richard Jobson’s famously abstract, martial-style vocal delivery. The highly collectible 7" vinyl release features the humorous live track "T.V. Stars" on the B-side and was pressed on both standard black and limited-edition white vinyl, with original copies regularly trading among collectors today for £6 to £20 depending on condition.

Skids - Scared To Dance (US)

Forming in Dunfermline in 1977 when locals Stuart Adamson and Willie Simpson were enthused by the burgeoning Punk scene, they added Tom Kellichan on drums before chancing on the Kirkcaldy born Richard Jobson, who completed the initial Skids line up on vocals. Within six months of their formation they put out the Charles EP on the local No Bad label. This record created a buzz about the band and shortly after its release the Skids were signed up by major label Virgin Records, who were concentrating a large part of their operation at the time on New Wave/Punk outfits.

Their first two singles with the big boys, Sweet Suburbia and The Saints Are Coming, nudged them into the lower end of the UK charts. But the arrival in early 1979 of the third 7″ Into The Valley and their first album Scared To Dance put them right at the business end so to speak, Valley reaching the Top Ten and the LP nestling comfortably at number 19 in the album charts.

In many ways the Skids were the perfect band for the Post-Punk Winter of Discontent of 78/79 – influenced by the original Punk burst of creativity in 1976, but now forged into something different (despite later on in 1979 Adamson protesting that they were still a Punk band in the music press), more thoughtful but with big catchy choruses and that one of a kind guitar sound. Jobson’s lyrics were different from what people saw as the “usual Punk concerns” – he wrote a lot about the pointlessness of war and emotional trauma with his words and Adamson’s mighty guitar giving a clear sense of location to where they came from – both literally and figuratively.

The Skids debut album is still an enjoyable and invigorating record to listen to all these years after the fact. Scared To Dance hangs together like a “proper album”, not just a collection of songs, with a genuine ebb and flow; like a work of art really and the extracted singles don’t feel like add-ons at all. This showed once and for all they weren’t a one-trick pony. Dramatic singing, mid-paced slashing guitars sweeping in and out, with a confidence in knowing that what they were doing is unique and important.

Skids - Wide Open 12'' EP

Released by Virgin Records in October 1978, "Wide Open" is a highly collectible 12" red vinyl EP by the Scottish punk rock and new wave band Skids. The four-track release is anchored by its legendary lead track, "The Saints Are Coming"—an anthemic punk masterpiece later covered by U2 and Green Day in 2006—alongside the tracks "Of One Skin", "Night and Day", and "Contusion". Driven by Stuart Adamson's signature layered guitar work and Richard Jobson's passionate vocals, this 45 RPM maxi-single perfectly captures the band's transition from raw punk rock to a more sophisticated, driving post-punk sound.

Skids - Charles 7''EP

The Charles EP is the legendary 1978 debut 7" vinyl release by the Scottish punk rock and new wave band The Skids, released on 24 February 1978 as the first-ever record (catalogue number NB 1) for Dunfermline's independent No Bad Records label. Recorded at REL Studios in Edinburgh in late 1977, the self-produced three-track EP includes the title track "Charles" on Side A, backed by "Reasons" and "Test Tube Babies" on Side B. It showcase the early songwriting brilliance of guitarist Stuart Adamson (later of Big Country) and the distinct vocals of Richard Jobson, featuring the driving, martial guitar style that defined the band's later anthems. The record gained widespread attention and heavy rotation from legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, which ultimately helped the band secure a major label contract with Virgin Records later that year.

Skids - Burning Cities

The vitality of Burning Cities and the renewed vigour of Skids truly compensates for the thirty-seven year gap between this new album and its 1981 predecessor. It definitely re-establishes the band as one of the pillars of Post-Punk/New Wave music and reaffirms Skids’ rightful place in the history and development of the much beloved music genre. It’s as powerful as all of their old albums, in fact it’s arguably better overall than any recent albums by bands who Skids influenced; Manic Street Preachers, Green Day and even U2! More than just a ‘comeback’, Burning Cities is a great 2018 rock album, not one last tilt at the windmill.