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The prime work of Scottish punk band Skids will be celebrated by Demon Music Group with a new CD box set and vinyl compilation, out this fall.

Boy, Man & Soldier: Skids 1978-1981 will offer, on five CDs, expanded editions of the group’s Virgin Records discography: Scared to Dance (1979), two pressings/mixes of Days in Europa (1979), The Absolute Game (1980) and Joy (1981). The discs are packaged in a 7″ x 7″ box featuring original album and single art. A companion best-of, Land, Sea & Sky: Skids Singles 1978-1981, offers a dozen of the A-sides featured on the box, pressed on saltire blue vinyl. Both packages were designed by Phillip Mandrell, with photographs by Virginia Turbett on each cover.

The Dunfermline-raised quartet – singer/guitarist/lyricist Richard Jobson, lead guitarist/songwriter Stuart Adamson, bassist William Simpson and drummer Thomas Kellichan – broke through in the wake of the Sex Pistols and The Clash’s rise in the British rock scene. Skids had a similar edge but loftier musical ambitions, with Adamson’s ringing guitars recalling the sound of the Scottish countryside and Jobson’s edgy lyrics adding color to their shout-along choruses. After a few EPs, both independently and on Virgin, 1979’s Scared to Dance became a Top 20 album in the U.K., with lead track “Into the Valley” reaching the British Top 10. (“The Saints Are Coming” has since become a standout favorite, covered in 2006 as a team-up with U2 and Green Day.)

Follow-up album Days in Europa – featuring production from Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe and Blitz kid Rusty Egan replacing Kellichan behind the drum kit – courted controversy for a cover some believed was flirting with Nazi symbology. After withdrawing the album, the band decided to resequence the new pressing and hired producer Bruce Fairbairn (noted for producing late ’80s arena rock blockbusters by Bon Jovi and Aerosmith) to remix the tracks, as well. (Both versions are available here, with different bonus material on each disc.) The ambitious 1980 release The Absolute Game, featuring Jobson and Adamson alongside new rhythm section Russell Webb (bass) and Mike Baillie (drums) earned the group a U.K. Top 10 album, but also butted up against brutalist interpretations thanks to the title of Strength Through Joy, a bonus album of outtakes released with some copies of the album. (The title, translated to German, was the name of a leisure organization run by the Nazi party.) Skids limped to the end of their Virgin contract with the folk-inspired Joy, released by the duo of Jobson and Webb. (Stuart Adamson had by then departed and was in the process of forming his arguably best-known band, Big Country.) Jobson, Simpson and Baillie reunited in the late ’00s and again on the albums Burning Cities (2018) and Songs from a Haunted Ballroom (2019), all of which featured Adamson’s Big Country bandmate Bruce Watson and his son Jamie. Jobson remains the sole original member of the band, continuing to record and tour.

Both titles are available from Demon/Edsel on October 3 and can be pre-ordered below. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

Boy, Man & Soldier: Skids 1978-1981 (Edsel EDSL0252 (U.K.), 2025) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1: Scared to Dance and bonus tracks

1. Into the Valley
2. Scared to Dance
3. Of One Skin
4. Dossier (of Fallibility)
5. Melancholy Soldiers
6. Hope and Glory
7. The Saints Are Coming
8. Six Times
9. Calling the Tune
10. Integral Plot
11. Charles (Re-Recorded Version)
12. Scale
13. Charles (Original Version)
14. Reasons
15. Test Tube Babies
16. Sweet Suburbia
17. Open Sound
18. Night and Day
19. Contusion
20. TV Stars (Live at The Marquee Club, London, England – 11/1/1978)

Tracks 1-12 released as Virgin V 2116, 1979
Tracks 13-15 released as No Bad Records EP NB-1, 1978
Tracks 16-17 released as Virgin single VS 227, 1978
Tracks 18-19 released on “Wide Open” single – Virgin VS 232, 1978
Track 20 released on “Into the Valley” single – Virgin VS 241, 1979

CD 2: Days in Europa and bonus tracks

1. Animation
2. Charade
3. Dulce Et Decorum Est (Pro Patria Mori)
4. Pros and Cons
5. Home of the Saved
6. Working for the Yankee Dollar
7. The Olympian
8. Thanatos
9. A Day in Europe
10. Peaceful Times
11. Masquerade
12. Out of Town
13. Another Emotion
14. Aftermath Dub
15. Grey Parade

Tracks 1-10 released as Virgin V 2138, 1979
Track 11-14 released as Virgin double 7″ VS 262, 1979
Track 15 released on “Charade” single – Virgin VS 288, 1979

CD 3: Days in Europa (Remix) and bonus tracks

1. Animation
2. Charade
3. Dulce Et Decorum Est (Pro Patria Mori)
4. The Olympian
5. Home of the Saved
6. Working for the Yankee Dollar
7. Thanatos
8. Masquerade
9. A Day in Europe
10. Peaceful Times
11. Vanguard’s Crusade
12. Working for the Yankee Dollar (Live at Hammersmith Odeon)
13. Monkey McGuire Meets Specky Potter Behind Lochore Institute

Tracks 1-10 released as Virgin V 2138 (second pressing), 1979
Track 11 released on “Working for the Yankee Dollar” single – Virgin VS 306, 1979
Track 12 released on “A Woman in Winter” single – Virgin VSK 101, 1980
Track 13 released on “Goodbye Civilian” single – Virgin VS 373, 1980

CD 4: The Absolute Game and bonus tracks

1. Circus Games
2. Out of Town
3. Goodbye Civilian
4. The Children Saw the Shame
5. A Woman in Winter
6. Hurry On Boys
7. Happy to Be with You
8. The Devils Decade
9. One Decree
10. Arena
11. Goodbye Civilian (Single Version)
12. A Woman in Winter (Single Version)
13. An Incident in Algiers
14. Grievance
15. Strength Through Joy
16. Filming in Africa
17. A Man for All Seasons
18. Snakes and Ladders
19. Surgical Triumph
20. The Bell Jar

Tracks 1-10 released as Virgin V 2174, 1980
Track 11 released on Virgin single VS 373, 1980
Track 12 released on Virgin single VSK 101, 1980
Tracks 13-20 released as Strength Through Joy bonus album with early pressings – Virgin VDJ 33, 1980

CD 5: Joy and bonus tracks

1. Blood and Soil
2. A Challenge (The Wanderer)
3. Men of Mercy
4. A Memory
5. Iona
6. In Fear of Fire
7. Brothers
8. And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
9. The Men of the Fall
10. The Sound of Retreat
11. Fields
12. Iona (7″ Mix)
13. Blood and Soil (7″ Mix)
14. Brave Man (7″ Mix)
15. Fields (7″ Mix)
16. Brave Man (12″ Mix)

Tracks 1-11 released as Virgin V 2217, 1981
Tracks 12-13 released as Virgin single VS 449, 1981
Tracks 14-15 released as Virgin single VS 401, 1981
Track 16 released on “Fields” 12″ – Virgin VS 401-12, 1981

Land, Sea & Sky: Skids Singles 1978-1981 (Demon DEMREC1296 (U.K.), 2025) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Charles
2. Sweet Suburbia
3. The Saints Are Coming
4. Into the Valey
5. Masquerade
6. Charade
7. Working for the Yankee Dollar
8. Animation
9. Circus Games
10. Goodbye Civilian
11. A Woman in Winter
12. Fields
13. Iona