SKIDS + VOODOO RADIO – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 6.7.23
Skids are now in their 46th year, but in reality have only been on the case for around 15 of those! 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’. 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’. After the departure of band member Tom Kellichan, the album featured new member Rusty Egan of Rich Kids and Visage fame, who we saw the other day at the Iggy Pop gig (Review HERE).
The band initially 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, who we reviewed a few weeks back – Read our account HERE.
Skids were my favourite Scottish punk band back in the day and the first time I saw them in Brighton was at the Top Rank Suite (now PRYZM) 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.
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 – Review HERE. A year later, on 29th June 2018, they were back at the same venue, playing no less than 17 superb numbers – Review HERE and they returned for another sold out show on 30th October 2021 – Read HERE.
Skids clearly love the Concorde 2’s sound and lighting as they are back at it this evening, although tonight’s concert hasn’t sold out, unlike the previous three had. There are no other local punk gigs in town, so I guess that folk are away on their holidays. Thus there’s plenty of room for us lucky punters to lap up everything Jobson and his pals throw at us!
As they grace the Concorde 2 stage bang on 9pm, I note that tonight’s front trio, either side of Jobson, were exactly the same as I had recently witnessed as part of the Big Country concert (see above). Stage right (our left) was Jamie Watson who flitted between a Canadian Eastwood guitar and a Yamaha guitar. On his left was his dad Bruce Watson, who was swapping his Gibson with one or two Yamaha’s throughout the set. Jobson was as you would expect is in the middle; and to his left was Gil Allan on his distinctive headless Status bass. Behind the quartet was a drummer who I didn’t recognise, but it might have been Nick Hernandez.
For the next 74 minutes we are entertained with Jobson’s witty banter, which is interspersed with some music. They don’t quite stick to their proposed setlist, but we have it covered!
They commence with a newbie, ‘Open Your Eyes’ from their brand new chart-bound album ‘Destination Düsseldorf’, which dropped on 30th June. Jobson seems to be in the know with this regarding its forthcoming album chart position. Clearly it has sold well, and there are signed copies on sale this evening from the merch stall.
Next up is 1979’s ‘Charade’, which sees Jobson doing his usual boxing style dance. The rather terrific ‘Of One Skin’ follows with its distinctive riff and clearly the lads are on form. The tempo is taken back down for ‘Charles’, the first number that the band released and was written by Stuart Adamson (RIP), who Jobson rightly points out that they wouldn’t be standing here today if it wasn’t for Adamson.
The second of three numbers from the new ‘Destination Düsseldorf’ album is up next. This being the title track, which was dedicated to German musician, author and music consultant Rudi Esch who was attending this evening. He was a friend of my partner Jordan Mooney and he is a very nice man indeed! ‘Destination Düsseldorf’ (the tune) was a powerful number and clearly was highlighting the fact that the lads have still got what it takes to bring out new quality material in this day and age. It was after this number that ‘Jobbo’ makes his first of many references to Shoreham born lad Leo Sayer. I have a sneaking suspicion that ‘Jobbo’ spends many an hour visiting THIS PAGE on the internet to see what his idol is up to, and that somewhere in his house is a small card that says “Leo Sayer Fan Club Member No.001”. (*see foot of Skids review).
A trio of top hits followed in the form of ‘The Saints Are Coming’, ‘Working For The Yankee Dollar’ and Jobson’s favourite Skids tune ‘Masquerade’. Suffice to say that all were great. Crowd participation was required for the first of two numbers from 1980’s ‘The Absolute Game’ album, in the form of ‘Hurry On Boys’. After which we had ‘Circus Games’, which Jobson says that he can remember playing a gig at a Brighton school at that time as part of the “Skids For Kids” initiative, which was to let younger people experience a live concert as many gigs, like these days, have a lower age limit of 18 years old. Sadly it wasn’t my school.
My favourite, like many Skids fans, was given an outing next, this being ‘Into The Valley’, which I enjoyed, but to be honest have heard better live renditions on previous Skids gigs. The slower Celtic sounding ‘A Woman In Winter’ was their next choice, which the fans joined in with the “whoa whoa whoa whoa” chorus. Jobson said that he was very pleased that Brighton thus far was the only venue on the current set of dates where fans hadn’t continually shouted out “Albert Tatlock”, in reference to them wanting the band to play their comedy tune ‘TV Stars’. A song I can remember they mockingly penned back in the day to the response to the fact that the press and the like observed almost all of Skids numbers seemed to directly or indirectly reference the subject of war! Thus they played it for us this evening. There were many loud “Albert Tatlock’s” shouted out by the punters during this brief number.
Jobson then tipped his cap to The Clash, stating that at the very beginning the Skids were totally inspired by the band. History dictates that the Skids played their first gig on 19th August 1977 at the Bellville Hotel in Pilmuir Street, Dunfermline and within six months they had released the ‘Charles’ EP on the label No Bad records. The record brought them to the attention of national BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel and this led to a local gig supporting……yep you’ve guessed it….. The Clash! They play an awesome rendition of ‘Complete Control’, where Bruce was seriously on the case, this surprisingly was my choice track of the night! Who’d thought it?
The penultimate number is ‘The Olympian’ and they ask us to indulge them as they sign off with another new number. This being ‘Tidal Wave’ from ‘Destination Düsseldorf’, it is unmistakably a Skids sounding number, which in places remind me of the riffs in ‘Out Of Time’. It was 10:14pm and that was our lot, a little early I guess, but maybe Jobbo needed to go and visit Leo Sayer in Shoreham?
Skids:
Richard Jobson – vocals
Bruce Watson – guitar, backing vocals
Jamie Watson – guitar, backing vocals
Gil Allan – bass
Nick Hernandez – drums
Skids setlist:
‘Open Your Eyes’ (from 2023 ‘Destination Düsseldorf’ album)
‘Charade’ (from 1979 ‘Days In Europa’ album)
‘Of One Skin’ (from 1979 ‘Scared To Dance’ album)
‘Charles’ (from 1979 ‘Scared To Dance’ album)
‘Destination Düsseldorf’ (from 2023 ‘Destination Düsseldorf’ album)
‘The Saints Are Coming’ (from 1979 ‘Scared To Dance’ album)
‘Working For The Yankee Dollar’ (from 1979 ‘Days In Europa’ album)
‘Masquerade’ (from 1979 ‘Masquerade’ single)
‘Hurry On Boys’ (from 1980 ‘The Absolute Game’ album)
‘Circus Games’ (from 1980 ‘The Absolute Game’ album)
‘Into The Valley’ (from 1979 ‘Scared To Dance’ album)
‘A Women In Winter’ (from 1980 ‘The Absolute Game’ album)
‘TV Stars’ (from 1979 ‘Into The Valley’ single)
‘Complete Control’ (The Clash cover) (from 2021 ‘Songs From A Haunted Ballroom’ album)
‘The Olympian’ (from 1979 ‘Days In Europa’ album)
‘Tidal Wave’ (from 2023 ‘Destination Düsseldorf’ album)
(* = not really, it’s an in joke for those that where there!). “When I need you; I just close my eyes and I’m with you; And all that I so wanna give you; It’s only a heartbeat away….”.
Support this evening from 8pm came from Voodoo Radio, who are a breath of fresh air. Following on from their debut single ‘Space Girl’, the duo dropped their debut mini-album ‘Pop Pills’ in December 2021, which consists of eight self-penned tunes and is available on 10” yellow vinyl HERE. This was followed by their latest offering, the 12” ‘Stupid Humans’ EP, which came out on aqua blue vinyl back in March and amongst the 4 tunes there is a deliciously infectious two-and-a-half minute cover-version of Bow Wow Wow’s classic ‘C30 C60 C90 Go!’. Grab yours HERE.
Voodoo Radio’s 33 minute nine song set was well received by tonight’s punters. To the eye, they initially appear like an inverse version of the Courette’s, (boy drummer/girl guitar/vocals), but in fact they are actually a father and daughter combo consisting of Tony Cook and Paige Cook, who originally hail from Cumbria. Dad is in charge of his Gibson guitar and his daughter stands next to him as she sings her heart out whilst giving the drums and percussion a very good seeing to. I reckon it always looks impressive when a drummer adopts the standing position in order to play! Eyes are very much drawn to Paige who most certainly has powerful lungs as she has a clear slightly shouty Northern vocal delivery, which is accompanied by expressive face movements as well as an energy that comes with the joys of youth.
I would suggest that these don’t solidly fall into the pure punk category as such, but more skirting the rock spectrum, but they are an enjoyable act that are very much ploughing their own furrow.
At 8pm they open with ‘Eat Your Words’, which is the first of five in a row from their 2022 ‘Pop Pills’ mini album. Prior to offloading the second number Paige single’s out my friend Fred in the crowd and dedicates song two, ‘Pretty Boy’ to him. This number has an almost mid-1970’s Status Quo guitar riff in it. Paige informs us that tune three, ‘Basic Bitch’, was penned after her brother called her that a few times! The following number was written about a mound of slag near where they come from in Cumbria, it’s title ‘Slag Bank’.
The assistance of the punters was requested mindset as we had to sing the “la la la la” chorus for ‘Ice Cream Man’, which went rather well, but not as well as the following number, ‘Dog’ from the new ‘Stupid Humans’ EP, which was the highlight of their set for me. Paige informed us that it was penned for a film starring Bill Nighy. Sadly this was surprisingly the only number played from the new release, thus we didn’t get to hear their Bow Wow Wow cover…Shame!
The final three numbers were all from their ‘Pop Pills’ release, starting off with ‘She’s So Toxic’, which was possibly written about a love triangle. After this tune, Paige got out her phone and we waved our hands in the air for the obligatory selfie. Their ‘Record Of The Week’ on BBC Cumbria was next, namely ‘Space Girl’, which was written about going on holiday around lockdown time. They left us with ‘Turn Out The Light’ and at 8:33pm they were done. Paige’s positivity is infectious, even their struggle to try and offload as many tunes as they can within the allocated time, even if it means telling dad to “shut up” on a few occasions is amusing. I like their sound, but I really don’t like dad’s heavy metal riffs!
Voodoo Radio:
Paige Cook – vocals, drums
Tony Cook – guitar, backing vocals
Voodoo Radio setlist:
‘Eat Your Words’ (from 2022 ‘Pop Pills’ mini album)
‘Pretty Boy’ (from 2022 ‘Pop Pills’ mini album)
‘Basic Bitch’ (from 2022 ‘Pop Pills’ mini album)
‘Slag Bank’ (from 2022 ‘Pop Pills’ mini album)
‘Ice Cream Man’ (from 2022 ‘Pop Pills’ mini album)
‘Dog’ (from 2023 ‘Stupid Humans’ EP)
‘She’s So Toxic’ (from 2022 ‘Pop Pills’ mini album)
‘Space Girl’ (from 2022 ‘Pop Pills’ mini album)
‘Turn Out The Light’ (from 2022 ‘Pop Pills’ mini album)
