Skids - The Saints Are Coming - Live and Acoustic 2007 - 2021

From 1977 to 1982, Scottish band the Skids, originally comprised of Richard Jobson, the late Stuart Adamson, William Simpson and Tom Kellichan, released four great albums that kind of walked the border between punk, new wave and even pop.  While they had numerous hits in the UK they never really hit it big in the States (I’ll admit I was late to the game and only discovered them in the mid-eighties scouring through the used record bin, being a Big Country fan and seeing Adamson’s name in the liner notes).  In 2006, following Hurricane Katrina, Green Day and U2 covered their 1978 single “The Saints Are Coming” to raise money for The Edge’s Music Rising charity to help replace instruments lost in the hurricane.  Inspired by their cover, band founder Richard Jobson decided to get the band together to play a few shows to commemorate their 30th Anniversary.  Rounding out the band for these shows was original bassist Simpson, Mike Baillie who was their drummer in ‘79 and ’80, and Bruce Watson and his son Jamie on guitar.  Bruce had played guitar in Big Country with Adamson, so he was a fitting replacement.  On July 1, 2007 the reformed band made their broadcast debut for DJ Billy Sloan on Radio Clyde, which is now available for the first time on disc six.  The nine-song set shows the band in fine form as they tear through eight of their best-known songs and an interesting cover of The Sensation Alex Harvey Band track “Vambo”. Their performance is high energy with a bit of an edge, but also has that radio show intimacy.  If you didn’t know better you would never believe this was their first performance in 25 years and the first performance from this incarnation. 

Shifting back to the beginning of the box set, disc one and two contain two full-length live shows, which were recorded on March 6, 2010 at Alhambra in Dunfermline and June 16, 2017 at The Roundhouse in London.  Both shows sound great with the band at the top of their game and the crowds energetically cheering and singing along.  The sets are full of songs that Skids fans know and love and while all the songs they played in the Alhambra show were also in the setlist at The Roundhouse, they also included several additional songs in London, including new track “World On Fire”, which would appear on the following year’s Burning Cities album and has some great Big Country sounding ringing guitars. 

After Richard and Bruce played a few of their songs acoustically for a charity event in Dunfermline they decided to record some acoustic versions of some of their songs, which resulted in the 2019 album Peaceful Times, found here on disc three.  A few months after that album’s release, Jobson along with Bruce and Jamie Watson went out on a ten date acoustic tour called “An Evening With Richard Jobson… “Songs and Stories’”.  Disc four was recorded on that tour at The Sage 2 in Gateshead on September 10, 2019.  Stripping the songs down like this really breathes new life into them and does a great job of showcasing Jobson’s emotional vocal performance.   Several of the tracks on Peaceful Times have been reconstructed a bit from their original versions.  “Fields” is given a bit of a Celtic sound, “Hurry On Boy” takes on an Australian vibe with the use of didgeridoo and some interesting percussion and then there’s “Animation”, now completely revamped with gorgeous harmonies reminiscent of the sounds of the West Coast in the late sixties.  On the other hand the songs on the live album stick closer to the originals and are absolutely gorgeous pared down to nothing but vocals and guitars. Surprisingly each album contains several songs not on the other including a great live version of “Castles In Spain” from Jobson’s mid-eighties band The Armoury Show.

Like so many other bands during the pandemic, the band decided to live stream a couple acoustic shows, which led to them being asked to do an electric one, that was recorded live in Livingston on March 9, 2021 and is found here on disc five.  Listening to the ten song set that comprises Lockdown Live, the band’s performance is extremely tight and you would never believe they were performing in an empty room during a pandemic as they tear through some of their best known songs with the energy of a young, upstart band.  Jobson also provides great between song banter telling jokes and giving some insight to the songs as well as providing some band history.  It should also be noted that drums for this show were handled by Mark Brzezicki, best known as the drummer for Big Country.  This is an outstanding box set and even though many of the songs here appear multiple times (a few are on almost all six discs) the diversity of the performances keeps them fresh and the band sounds as vital as ever.   

(Cherry Red Records)