Courier Newspaper Article
Friday March 5th 2010 (Page 4)
RICHARD JOBSON frontman of The Skids, last night spoke of the loss of founder member Stuart Adamson.
The Kirkcaldy born singer and film-maker was taking part in An Evening With Richard Jobson at the Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, in which he spoke of his career with acclaimed crime writer Ian Rankin.
Jobson told of his early interest in comics and how his brother, Francis, had a huge influence on him.
He said, "My father was a coal miner and we were a classic working class family, "However, my brother went out his way to be different". "He drew a mural of Spider Man on my bedroom wall when I was a boy living in Crosshill.
"He listened to music like Captain Beefheart, Leonard Cohen, MC5 and The New York Dolls and i saw him as being iconic. "He took alot of abuse for this".
Jobson said he was diagnosed as having epilepsy as a child auditioned for The Skids at Cowdenbeath Working Men's Club. He told the audience that he could not sing at the time and was coached by Stuart Adamson, the late guitarist of The Skids and Big Country, who died in December 2001.
Jobson said Adamson had "a natural talent" and spoke of his shock on hearing he had died.
He said, "Stuart was an incredibly talented musician The whole episode of his death was tremendously sad".
He added "I was in denial of The Skids for a long time after we split up - I don't know why.
"We never had a chance to say goodbye to Stuart -- there was never any closure. "Sowhen the chance came to warm up tfor T in the Park with a gig at Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline, it was great".
Jobson said "In 1976 when punk first growled, the outlook for music was bleak. "Punk was really rebellious and we had this DIY attitude in The Skids".
He added "In the early days we managed to play at Clouds and upstairs in Kenilworth in Rose Street, both in Edinburgh. We would then go to wait at Waverly Station and got the milk train home to Dunfermline the next morning.
"It was a magical time".
Jobson said the band had their own record label, No Bad Records, before being "discovered" by the late DJ, John Peel. He said "John played Charles every single night and hearing that made my heart skip. But success came too quickly -- i was only 17 years old when we were on Top of the Pops and were touring 300 days of the year.
"There was never an acrimonious split as has been depicted".
The audience were also shown excerpts from 16 Years of Alcohol and New Town Killers, both films directed by Jobson.
He ended the evening by singing a solo renditition of Ae Fond Kiss and was joined by Bruce Watson (ex Big Country) and son Jamie for acoustic renditions of Skids songs The Saints are Coming and Into the Valley.
Jobson said that he wrote both songs in Dunfermline Carnegie Library.
courtesy of The Skids website
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