On This Day 01/03/1979 The Skids

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On this day, 1 March 1979, Scottish punks The Skids played Cardiff’s Grannie’s Club. The previous night the band had played their first ever Welsh gig at Newport’s Stowaway Club.

Formed in Dunfermline in 1977 by Stuart Adamson (guitar, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals), William Simpson (bass guitar and backing vocals), Thomas Kellichan (drums) and Richard Jobson (vocals, guitar and keyboards).

The singles "Sweet Suburbia" and "The Saints Are Coming" both made commercial inroads, before "Into the Valley" reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart in early 1979. The band had just released their debut studio album, Scared to Dance, the month before.

Scared to Dance has been well received by critics. Ira Robbins of Trouser Press called the album "excellent [...] Using loud guitar and semi-martial drumming for its basis, Jobson's hearty singing sounds like an 18th century general leading his merry troops down from the hills into glorious battle."

The song "The Saints Are Coming" was later covered by Green Day and U2 and released as a charity single, reaching #1 in several countries.

"Into the Valley" became popular as adopted and sung by fans of Dunfermline Athletic F.C., the band's local football team, as well as Charlton Athletic F.C. in England whose ground is known as The Valley.

On this day 04/11/1979 The Skids

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On this day, 4 November 1979, Scottish punk rockers The Skids played Cardiff’s Top Rank.

Formed in Dunfermline in 1977 by Stuart Adamson (guitar, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals), William Simpson (bass guitar and backing vocals), Thomas Kellichan (drums) and Richard Jobson (vocals, guitar and keyboards).

Their biggest successes were the 1979 single "Into the Valley" and the 1980 album The Absolute Game.

Pre-tour the band had recorded their 2nd Album Days in Europa at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, with Bill Nelson, producing.

The album was initially released with an Aryan album cover reminiscent of the 1936 Olympics, complete with Germanic Gothic-style lettering causing some controversy.

The album was re-released the following year with a new cover. At the same time the opportunity was taken to change the album's track listing and re-mix some of the original songs, allegedly for the US market.

Some of the original tracks resurfaced on later albums.

The second release's cover includes the controversial first cover as a picture on the wall behind the woman in white's head. On the back of the cover the illustration is repeated, only with the withdrawn release's picture on the wall being replaced with that of the earlier Scared to Dance album. The track "Pros and the Cons" is removed, and "Masquerade", also released as a single, is added.

Setlist

Animation

Out of Town

Melancholy Soldiers

Working for the Yankee Dollar

Dulce et Decorum Est (Pro Patria Mori)

Masquerade

The Olympian

Pros and Cons

Scared to Dance

The Saints Are Coming

Thanatos

Home of the Saved

Charade

Into the Valley