As 70s Scottish punk band Skids make their Hong Kong debut, frontman Richard Jobson is thrilled to play favourite city
- Skids frontman Richard Jobson talks about his love for Hong Kong, his hero Bruce Lee, and joining the Scottish band in 1977 as a 16-year-old punk
- Now 63, the singer and filmmaker is thrilled to make his Hong Kong debut at the Wanch, on April 30, and has a film in the works that’s set in the city
As a kid growing up in a small Scottish town, Richard Jobson, frontman with punk rockers Skids, plastered his bedroom walls with posters of his hero, Hong Kong martial arts legend Bruce Lee.
It was the beginning of a love affair with the city that continues to this day.
“I’ve travelled everywhere, but my favourite place in the world is Hong Kong,” Jobson says by phone from Britain, about to board a train to a gig in the city of Lincoln. “I feel very at home there.”
On April 30 at The Wanch, Skids will play their first Hong Kong gig as part of their 45th anniversary greatest hits tour.
Formed in 1977, Skids made it big in Britain with breakout anthems “Into the Valley”, “Working for the Yankee Dollar” and “Masquerade”. Wider appeal followed when their song “The Saints Are Coming” was covered by U2 and Green Day in 2006.
Albums through the decades include their 1979 debut Scared to Dance, The Absolute Game (1980), Joy (1981) and Burning Cities (2018).
Last year, the band released their latest album, Destination Düsseldorf, the same year The Skids: Revolution hit the screen, the documentary tracing their success, break-up and 2016 reunion.
It’s been a long road for Jobson who, now 63, says his rebellious streak started at an early age. “I didn’t listen to any of that Genesis c**p.”
He was into Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and David Bowie. It was all about the music – and the fashion: in high school he dyed his hair black and white and wore “really tight trousers”.
“When I was about 15, a friend and I borrowed a motorcycle – we didn’t have a licence – and rode it all the way from Scotland to London in a brutal winter to buy leather trousers,” he says.
While in the British capital, they squeezed in a gig by Sid Vicious – best known as the bassist for punk outfit the Sex Pistols – who was playing with fellow rockers Siouxsie and the Banshees.
“We met Vicious and he was amazed that these little kids had come all the way on a bike and then rode back in the early morning […] We were proper little punks,” says Jobson, who not long after would become a founding member of his own punk band.
“I was about 16, just a kid, when I joined the Skids – my life changed overnight. When you’re that age, you’re not really equipped to deal with such a dramatic event in your life,” says Jobson, whose credits also include television presenter and author, including his autobiography, Into The Valley (2018).
He has also carved out a name in film, writing and directing the 2004 drama 16 Years of Alcohol, based on the death of his brother, and The Purifiers (2004), a martial arts movie set in a futuristic Scotland that pays homage to Lee.
A film, tentatively called Bloodline and set in Hong Kong, is also on his radar. A few years ago he was in the city discussing it with Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai and actor Andy Lau Tak-wah.
While his creative juices are flowing faster than ever, Jobson says his punk attitude has mellowed. “I’m older, wiser and understand what it all means, and my ego and narcissism have been tempered.”
The drive to connect with his audience is also stronger than ever.
“You’re out there on stage having a blast, transmitting a very positive thing to an audience,” he says. “The essential thing for me is to have as much fun as I can muster in that hour and a half.”
Skids 45th Anniversary Tour, April 30, The Wanch, 1/F, Henan Building, 90 Jaffe Road, Wan Chai. 8pm. HK$440.
