The Skids frontman Richard Jobson has paid tribute to his hometown roots in The Story of The Skids — a brand new documentary directed by punk artist Mark Sloper which premiered final week to packed audiences throughout Scotland.
The Skids frontman Richard Jobson has paid tribute to his hometown roots in The Story of The Skids — a brand new documentary directed by punk artist Mark Sloper which premiered final week to packed audiences throughout Scotland
The movie, directed by the celebrated punk artist and filmmaker Mark – identified professionally as Mark Illuminati – charts the rise of Dunfermline’s punk pioneers from their beginnings in Fife’s former royal capital to their enduring affect at this time.
A lot of the documentary focuses on Richard’s reflections on rising up within the space, his inventive inspirations, and his delight within the metropolis’s musical heritage.
Richard narrates the movie, sharing recollections of penning punk anthems corresponding to Into the Valley and The Saints are Coming at Dunfermline Library.
He advised the Dunfermline Press: “There’s a whole lot of particular issues concerning the (then) city. It’s our job to spotlight them and be very humble about it.
“That library is a particular place, as a result of it gave me time to assume. It’s in some of the spectacular areas that I feel I’ve ever seen, it’s simply breath-taking.
“My feeling is that they need to pedestrianise the entire Maygate. They may flip it into this stunning place the place you may have markets and do various things, making it a inventive hub within the coronary heart of an vital metropolis.”
A lot of the filming befell contained in the Outdated City Barber Membership on Maygate, run by Richard’s brother Brian Jobson.
Early scenes revisit long-closed venues such because the Bellvue Lodge and the Kinema Ballroom – the latter as soon as internet hosting David Bowie and The Conflict – the place Richard remembers headlining as a defining second for The Skids.
One story within the movie recounts their ill-fated second gig, deliberate throughout a Communist Celebration occasion in Pittencrieff Park to help Chilean refugees.
Richard mentioned: “That was till Stuart Adamson opened by telling the gang how ‘if this was a Communist nation, you wouldn’t be allowed to see a band like this’, at which level the plug was pulled.”
He added: “I took a way more internationalist method with the band, however the magnet was all the time coming again to Dunfermline, and I feel the important thing to that was Stuart, as a result of he lived within the centre.”
Skids Guitarist Stuart Adamson went on to type Huge Nation in 1981, attaining worldwide fame earlier than his demise in 2001.
Richard later launched The Armoury Present and moved into writing and tv earlier than reforming The Skids in 2017.
Reflecting on the band’s longevity, he advised the Press: “I feel by way of varied issues that we’ve been doing, we’ve saved The Skids related. If you play a music like Working for the Yankee Greenback, it most likely means extra at this time than it did after we wrote it approach again then, due to the politics of at this time which are virtually indescribably horrific.
“Immediately these songs have one other that means, as does Into the Valley, even Masquerade and Charade. All of them really feel very modern as a result of they have been commentaries on the world as I noticed it once I was 15, 16, 17. I all the time thought the world would get higher, and it didn’t.”
Director Mark Sloper is known in Britain’s punk artwork scene and not too long ago gained consideration as Oasis’ official artist for his or her 2025 comeback tour.
The band commissioned him to provide two neon artworks celebrating their first two albums, Positively Perhaps and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, priced at £4,000 every in official Oasis pop-up shops.
Mark famously brought about a stir in 2020 when he unveiled a portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II with blue hair, a nostril ring and a coronary heart tattoo bearing the phrase ‘Philip’.
The artist mentioned: “The message was she mentioned it was actually good however didn’t just like the Philip tattoo and would like the lion and unicorn crest. I by no means acquired the print again so assume it might be hanging in her bathroom. Once I was advised she had been proven the portrait, I used to be joyful to make the change.”
Talking about his newest collaboration with Oasis, Mark added: “Noel and Liam Gallagher clearly love the punk aesthetic, and I’m overjoyed to be a part of the reunion tour as Oasis nonetheless have that punk spirit.”
