Scared to Dance by Skids

Scared to Dance, the Skids' debut album, hit the shops on Virgin on February 23, 1979, a week after "Into the Valley" had already bulldozed its way to number 10 on the UK singles chart. The Dunfermline four-piece cut it at the Townhouse in London with David Batchelor producing and Mick Glossop engineering, and it's punk that has learned to march: Thomas Kellichan's drums drill like a parade ground, William Simpson's bass stomps alongside, and Stuart Adamson's guitar keens and skirls in the bagpipe style he'd later carry into Big Country.

Richard Jobson bellows over the top like a man rallying troops, his words set hard against war and packed with the Scottish home turf the band came from. The album climbed to 19 on the UK chart, and one of its songs, "The Saints Are Coming", got a second life much later when Green Day and U2 covered it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.