On this day, 4 November 1979, Scottish punk rockers The Skids played Cardiff’s Top Rank.
Formed in Dunfermline in 1977 by Stuart Adamson (guitar, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals), William Simpson (bass guitar and backing vocals), Thomas Kellichan (drums) and Richard Jobson (vocals, guitar and keyboards).
Their biggest successes were the 1979 single "Into the Valley" and the 1980 album The Absolute Game.
Pre-tour the band had recorded their 2nd Album Days in Europa at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, with Bill Nelson, producing.
The album was initially released with an Aryan album cover reminiscent of the 1936 Olympics, complete with Germanic Gothic-style lettering causing some controversy.
The album was re-released the following year with a new cover. At the same time the opportunity was taken to change the album's track listing and re-mix some of the original songs, allegedly for the US market.
Some of the original tracks resurfaced on later albums.
The second release's cover includes the controversial first cover as a picture on the wall behind the woman in white's head. On the back of the cover the illustration is repeated, only with the withdrawn release's picture on the wall being replaced with that of the earlier Scared to Dance album. The track "Pros and the Cons" is removed, and "Masquerade", also released as a single, is added.
Setlist
Animation
Out of Town
Melancholy Soldiers
Working for the Yankee Dollar
Dulce et Decorum Est (Pro Patria Mori)
Masquerade
The Olympian
Pros and Cons
Scared to Dance
The Saints Are Coming
Thanatos
Home of the Saved
Charade
Into the Valley