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 right now.
A lot of the documentary focuses on Richard’s reflections on rising up within the space, his inventive inspirations, and his pleasure within the metropolis’s musical heritage.
Richard narrates the movie, sharing recollections of penning punk anthems resembling Into the Valley and The Saints are Coming at Dunfermline Library.
He advised the Dunfermline Press: “There’s a variety of particular issues concerning the (then) city. It’s our job to focus on 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 one of the crucial 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 might flip it into this stunning place the place you possibly can have markets and do various things, making it a inventive hub within the coronary heart of an essential metropolis.”
A lot of the filming occurred contained in the Outdated City Barber Membership on Maygate, run by Richard’s brother Brian Jobson.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 Resort 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 Occasion occasion in Pittencrieff Park to help Chilean refugees.
Richard stated: “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 Large Nation in 1981, reaching worldwide fame earlier than his loss of life 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 numerous issues that we’ve been doing, we’ve saved The Skids related. Whenever you play a tune like Working for the Yankee Greenback, it in all probability means extra right now than it did after we wrote it means again then, due to the politics of right now which are nearly indescribably horrific.
“Out of the blue these songs have one other which means, as does Into the Valley, even Masquerade and Charade. All of them really feel very modern as a result of they had 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 legendary 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 supply two neon artworks celebrating their first two albums, Positively Possibly 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 stated: “The message was she stated it was actually good however didn’t just like the Philip tattoo and would favor the lion and unicorn crest. I by no means obtained 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 blissful 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.”
