389 Goodbye The Skids - Woman In Winter

Chart  entered  :  6  December  1980

Chart  peak : 49

The  Skids  wound  up  their  brief  encounter  with  the  charts  with  this  one. They  peaked  early  with  "Into  The  Valley"  reaching  number  10  during  the  Winter  of   Discontent  then  their  chart  positions  fluctuated depending  on  whether  the  song  had  some  semblance  of  a  tune  or  not.  In  1979  drummer  Thomas  Kellichan  left  the  line  up  and  the  band  recruited  Rusty  Egan  on  a  temporary  basis  to  play on  their  second  album . In  November  1979  Mike  Baillie  from the  band  Insect  Bites  became  the   permanent  replacement.  In  February  1980   bassist  William  Simpson  quit  and   was  replaced  by  Russell  Webb ,  formerly  with  the  ex-Slik  boys  in  Zones  whose  meodic  take  on  punk  had  found  few  takers  outside  Scotland.

"Woman  In  Winter "  was  the  third  single  from  their  album  "The  Absolute  Game"  which  had  peaked  at  number  nine  back  in  September. The  previous  single  "Goodbye  Civilian" had  stalled  at  52  so  Virgin  packaged  this  with  a  sleeve  that  unfolded  into  a  12 page  comic  book  which  featured  the  lads  in  a  pulpy  detective  story. I  remember  it  well. Digressing  slightly, in  the  seventies  we  only  had  one  place  to  buy  singles  in  Littleborough, an  electrical  store  called  Lumb's. I  don't  think  the  tetchy  Mr  Lumb  was  much  of  a  pop  fan  but  he'd  pick  up a  few  singles  each  week  and  hope  for  the  best. He  also  put  up  the  Top  50  ( after  1978,  Top  75 )  from  Music  Week  in  the  window   by  the  door  and  I'd  regularly  stop  to  look  at  what  was  just  underneath  the Top  30. Below  the  chart  here  was   a  handwritten  notice  that  read  "Ex  Top  50's  £0.50"  and  for  years  I  wondered  who  would  want  to  buy  an  out  of  date  piece  of  paper. It  wasn't  until  1981 that  I  twigged  that  he  meant  he  was  selling  ex -chart  singles  at  a  discount   and  from  then  on  I  got  some  good  stuff  ( though  some  of  them  were  marred  by  him  puncturing  the  picture  sleeves  in  the  middle  so  he  could  display  them  on  his  rack )  until  the  store  closed  in  the  mid-eighties   but  I  always  wondered  what  I'd  missed  out  on  before  I  understood  the  notice. I  mention  all  this  because  his  bargain  box  contained  four  singles  that  never  moved. Besides  the  usual  suspects, Gary  Numan's  She's  Got  Claws  and  Beggar  and  Co's  Mule  ( Chant  no  2 )  which  must  be  the  two  most  over-stocked  singles in  history , there  was  this  one  and  Ian  Dury's  similarly  underachieving  Superman's  Big  Sister . I'd  enjoyed  The  Skids  Top  40  hits  but,  not  having  heard  this  one , I  never  made  the  decision  to  take  a  punt  on  it  and  so  it  remained  there  until  the  end.

"Woman  In  Winter "  couldn't  be  anyone  else  with  Richard  Jobson's  thick  accent  and  the flowery   lyrics  about   sailors  and  women  giving  birth  during  winter    and  Stuart  Adamson's  instantly  recognisable  guitar  sound  although  he  doesn't  let  rip  until  the  end. The  wordless  chorus  , a  manly  wail, is  vaguely  tuneful  but  overall  it's  a  bit  ponderous  lacking  that  ferocious  energy  that  made  "Masquerade"  or  "The  Saints  Are  Coming"  so  compelling. I  think  the  low  forties  was  about  right.

Unfortunately  by  this  point  the  band  were  breaking  apart   which  possibly  had  its  roots  in  Egan's  brief  tenure. Richard  was  clearly  intrigued  by  the  New  Romantic  movement  and  , newly  married  to  press  officer  and  future  TV  face  Mariella  Frostrup  wanted  to  base  the  band  in  London. Stuart  on  the  other  hand  had  a  wife  and  child  in  Dunfermline. You  can  see  the  fault  lines  in  their  appearance  on  Multi-Coloured  Swap  Shop  doing  this  song. Stuart's  in  his  favoured  lumberjack  shirt; Richard  clearly  wants  to  be  in  Spandau  Ballet. At  the  same  time  that  this  was  in  the  charts  Richard  did  a  poetry  reading  at  the  first  night  of  Richard  Strange's  Cabaret  Futura, a  performing  arts  club. Strange  drily  commented  that  it  was  "rather  freely  adapted  from  Sylvia  Plath  and  Marguerite  Duras  ". The   music press  had  a  field  day  mocking  his  renaissance  man  pretensions  which  only  made  him  more  determined  to  pursue  his  poetic  vocation.

Mike  saw  which  way  the  wind  was  blowing  and  jumped  ship  at  the  beginning  of  1981  returning  to  work  at  Rosyth  Naval  Dockyard. Kenny  Hyslop  , also  from  The  Zones  came  in  to  help  at  the  sessions  for  a  new  album. More  seriously  Stuart  was  also  pondering  his  exit. The  serious-minded  musician  was  appalled  by  Richard's  antics  which  were  threatening  to  make  the  whole  band  a  joke  to  say  nothing  of  the  communication  difficulties .  After  working  on  just  one  song  "Iona"  he  decided  it  was  time  to  go  and  announced his  departure  in  May  1981. Kenny  left  the  sessions  around  the  same  time  but  Richard  and  Russell  ploughed  on  with  guest  musicians who  eventually  included  both  Associates  and  Mike  Oldfield.

Before  the  release  of  the  first  single  "Fields"  Richard  attracted  more  notoriety  by  appearing  in  a  play  Demonstration  of  Affection  which  included  bedroom  scenes  with  17  year  old   punk  pop-ette   Honey  Bane  amid  predictable  rumours  that  the  action  was  unsimulated.

"Fields"  was  released  in  August  1981  heralding  their  shift  to  a  sort  of  Scottish  folk  music  that  was  heroic  and  pastoral  at  the  same  time. Associate  Alan  Rankine  provided  the  massed  acoustic  guitars  that  bring  James  to  mind  while  a  treated  Billy  McKenzie  bolsters  the  vocal  sound. It's  a   work  song   along  the  lines  of  Spandau  Ballet's  Musclebound   and  one  of  those  records  you  either  love  or  hate. Radio One  took  the  latter  option  and  it  failed  to  chart.

With  mounting  misgivings  Virgin  released  the  album  "Joy" in  November  1981. "Joy"  is  one  of  the  grand  follies   of  the  time. Musically  it  has  some  nice  moments  but  at  others  it's  barely  listenable  like  being  trapped  at  a  party  with  someone's  mad  drunken  Scotch  uncle  holding  court  and  no  one  daring  to  interrupt. The  folly  was  compounded  by  releasing  a  shortened  but  still  pretty  unbearable  version  of  the  ghastly  dirge  "Iona"  as  a  single.  Then  Richard  released  his  first  poetry  album  The  Ballad  of  Etiquette  on  Bill  Nelson's  Cocteau  label  in  the  same  month. Virgin  withdrew  the  album  which  had  sold  about  3,000  copies  immediately   and  turfed  them  out.  The  band  announced  they  had  split  up. Virgin  put  out  a  compilation  the  following  year   not  containing  any  tracks  from "Joy"  but  that  didn't  chart  either.

Richard  made  some  more  poetry  albums  for  the  Belgian  label  Crepuscle  accompanied  by  his  pianist  friend  Virginia  Astley. Her  own  debut  album  in  1983  was  produced  by  Russell. Also  helping  out  on  these  albums  was  ex-Magazine  and  Banshees  John  McGeoch. None  of  these  ventures  were  exactly  paying  the  rent  so  the  three  guys  got  together  in  1984  to  start  a  new  group. The  success  of  Stuart's  new  group  hadn't  got  un-noticed  either  particularly  as  Mariella  was  their  press  officer.

The  Armoury  Show's  line  up  was  completed  by  ex-Magazine  drummer  John  Doyle. They  got  a  deal  with  Parlophone  and  released  their  first  single  "Castles  in  Spain"  in  the  summer  of  1985. It's  a  decent  effort  setting  Richard's  usual  heroic  but  in  this  case  rather  vacuous  lyrics  and  McGeoch's  grinding  riff  against  a  brutalist  dance  beat. There's  a  radio-friendly  melody  in  the  chorus  and  it  was  modestly  rewarded  with  a  number  69  placing.  Their  second  single  , a  rather  nondescript  bass-heavy pop  rock  number  with  a  reasonable  chorus,  "We  Can  Be  Brave  Again",  got  to  number  66  at  the  beginning  of  1985  after  an  appearance  on  The  Oxford  Road  Show.  In  June  they  tried  again  with  "Glory  of  Love" a  stringing  together of  empty  gestures  and  borrowings  ( particularly  U2's  Two  Hearts  Beat  As  One" )  which  missed  the  chart  altogether. It  didn't  bode  well  for  the  album  "Waiting  For  The  Floods"  which  spent  a  single  week  at  number  57  in  September  1985. There  are  one  or  two  good  tunes  on  it  but  it's  let  down  by  an awful  Linn  drum  sound  which  makes  them  sound  tinny  rather  than  epic. They  were  striving  for  the  same  audience as  U2, Simple  Minds, the  Bunnymen  and  yes  Big  Country  but  just  weren't  quite  good  enough. In  October  they  tried  again  with  "Castles  in  Spain"   but  to  no  avail.

Richard,  now  divorced  from  Frostrup, opened  up  another  career  front  as  a  male  model  and  put  the  band  on  hold  as  he  posed  around  the  world. In  1986   the  ex-Magazine  boys  got  fed  up  of  waiting  and  quit  the  band. When  Richard  returned  from  China  he  reconvened  the  band  with  Russell  and  got  some  replacements  in  for  the  others  but  only  the  duo  appeared  on  the  sleeve  of  the  next  single  "Love  In  Anger"  in  January  1987.  Apart  from  Jobbo's  accent  and  the  sax  it  sounds  exactly  like  James  with  the  massed  acoustic  guitars  and  confessional  lyric. It  became  their  biggest  hit  peaking  at  a  mighty  number  63. The  follow  up  "New  York  City"  goes  for  a  bit  of  dance  floor  action  with  a semi-rap  number  that's  more  Captain  Sensible's  Wot  than  Rapper's  Delight.  An  appearance  on  It's  Wicked  did  nothing  to  get  it  moving  and  it  turned  out  to  be  their  last  single.

In  1988  Richard  and  Russell  dissolved  the  partnership  and  what  was  to  be  the  second  Armoury  Show  album   came  out  as  a  Richard  Jobson  solo  LP  "Badman"  with  the  title  track  released  as  a  single. Both  sank  without  trace; I  don't  remember  either  being  even  reviewed.

It  was  finally  clear  to  Richard  that  his  musical  career  was  finished. He  had  already  landed  a  presenting  spot  on  a  regional  TV  programme  01  for  London  and  now  sought  to  develop  that  career.  Gradually  it  worked  and  he  got  a  slot  on  a  more  widely  networked  show  Hollywood  Reports  . In  1998  Sky  came  calling  and  he  got  his  own   film  review  show  Movietalk. Since  the  millennium  he  has  gone  into  writing  and  directing  films  himself  and  while  he's  not  the  next  Danny  Boyle  they've  done  well  enough  to  allow  him  to  make  the  next  one.

Russell  kept  a  low  profile  until  1992  when  he  joined Public  Image  Limited  for  their  last  tour on  the  recommendation  of  McGeoch. After  that  he  became  a  computer  games  designer  and  worked  with  McGeoch  on  TV  scores  until  the  latter's  death  in  2004. He  now  does  music  for  radio  dramas  and  occasionally  plays  live  doing  Skids  and  Armoury  Show  songs.

Stuart's  story  will  be  told  in  posts  to  come.

Willie   emigrated  to  Australia  but  returned  and  went  on  to  study  law  and  became  a  property  lawyer.

Tom  went  on  to  drum  for  Bill  Nelson  on  a  couple  of  his  albums  and  play  in  a  band  called  Secrets . For  a  number  of  years  he  ran  a  music  bar  in  Tenerife  but  has  since  returned  to  Scotland.

Mike  eventually  left  the  dockyard  and  became  a  wine  expert.
     
Following  the  success  of  the  U2 / Green  Day  cover  of  "The  Saints  Are  Coming "   in  2006 , Richard, Willie  and  Mike  got  together  with  Big  Country's  Bruce  Watson  for  a  Skids  reunion  spot  at  T  in  the  Park  in  2007. They  have  reformed  again  for  festival  appearances  in  2009  and  2010.