26 October 2009

Days In Europa (Second Version) By Skids



















The Skids were fronted by a pair of towering talents. With his chiseled jaw line and stentorian voice, Richard Jobson was a natural front man, commanding the stage with the authority of an army officer leading his troops into battle. And Stuart Adamson was every bit his equal, buttressing Jobson's voice with muscular guitar riffs and soaring lead lines that called to mind amassed bagpipes sounding across the highlands of their native Scotland.

The band formed in Dunfermline, a working class neighbourhood on the outskirts of Edinburgh, where a career in music offered one of the few alternatives to the mines where Jobson's father had toiled. Like so many others, Adamson had been inspired by the punk revolution. Together with his friend William Simpson (bass), he set out to find a singer who could both hold a tune and look the part. They found their man in Jobson, a local punk they had seen about town sporting a full-length black leather trench coat and black and white hair. Tom Kellichan (drums) completed the original line up shortly thereafter.

The Skids played their first gig in August, 1977. The songs were mostly Adamson's at first but Jobson soon proved an adept wordsmith, mixing a schoolboy fascination with the glories of war with a burgeoning respect for the work of the symboliste poets from Mallarme and Rimbaud, to Duras and Plath. The results could be obscure and enigmatic, but were still somehow strangely inspired, urging Adamson to ever more heroic melodies and chord progressions. Early singles "Sweet Suburbia," "The Saints Are Coming," and "Into The Valley" made the charts in 1978 and early 1979, the latter going top ten, in advance of the debut album.

The punk-inspired sound of Scared To Dance was dated by the time it appeared, but Adamson and Jobson had already moved on, developing a new interest in synthesizers, drum machines, and the polished textures of the new dance music being played at the London clubs that Jobson frequented while in the nation's capital. For Days In Europa, they brought in Rusty Egan, formerly of The Rich Kids, and now part owner of the Blitz Club, to play drums, and Bill Nelson, the guitar wizard who made his name with Be Bop Deluxe, to produce. Adamson's guitar style owed an enormous debt to Nelson's fluid, coruscating fret work, and having his hero in the recording booth served to bring out the best in this hugely talented player and songwriter (it is not for nothing that U2's The Edge has cited him as a key influence on his own playing). Jobson, too, stepped up his game, spinning such gossamer lines as, "I sacrificed the methods of my dreams / On the latter, these new poets, stole the scene / Oh, I'm sure they feel I can't betray / Egyptian girls can only say" ("Peaceful Times").

The album was preceded by two singles, "Masquerade," the first to reveal their sleek new sound, and "Working For The Yankee Dollar," but Days In Europa, for all its obvious achievement, never managed the commercial breakthrough for which both the band and label had hoped, making it only to #32 in the UK. Part of the blame was laid on the album cover, which depicted a woman crowning an Olympian with a garland, the Germanic lettering and muscular bodies recalling the fascist stylings of Leni Riefenstahl, while others pointed to Jobson's incomprehensible lyrics, partly buried in Nelson's guitar heavy mix. Virgin decided that the album needed both a new cover and a new mix. The new cover featured an elegant couple in evening dress, caught in an embrace (the original cover still visible as a painting in the background), while the new mix was provided by Bruce Fairburn, a Canadian producer who had made his name with popular West Coast rock acts like Prism and Trooper. Fairburn gave the album a kind of glossy lustre, bringing forward Jobson's booming voice. The running order was changed, too, dropping "Pros and Cons" on British copies for the earlier single, "Masquerade."

The second version of Days In Europa has always seemed to offend the band's loyal fans, who felt Fairburn had turned their post punk darlings into an American style rock band, and later reissues on cd have returned to Nelson's mix, but I've always preferred Fairburn's. Perhaps this is because this is the way the album was first released in North America, and hence the way I first came to adore this particular slab of wax. But even so, there is something to be said for the more balanced and coherent soundscape of the second version, with Egan's terrific hi-hats sparkling brightly in the top end of the spectrum, and Nelson's battery of sequenced synthesizers swirling from high to low.

The rip of the second version of Days In Europa posted here is sourced from a British copy. It is identical to that which was released in North America except that "The Olympian" has been retained from the original running order. Long time fans of the band are encouraged to reconsider the Fairburn mix, while new listeners should seek out The Captain Oi! cd reissue, which includes the original mix and a clutch of associated singles and b-sides. Egyptian girls don't last for long.

-- Crash The Driver

download


Skids - Days In Europa

01 Animation
02 Charade
03 'Dulce Et Decorum Est (Pro Patria Mori)'
04 The Olympian
05 Home Of The Saved
06 Working For The Yankee Dollar
07 Thanatos
08 Masquerade
09 A Day In Europa
10 Peaceful Times

UK LP Virgin [OVED 42] 1979

14 comments:

  1. awesome site! maybe you can take a look & link my blog at:
    http://bannedfromtheempire.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi

    Do you have anything by the Turbo Hy Dramatics?

    Best

    Robert

    BTW: Thanks for the Skids!!

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  3. I prefer the original mixes, which are harder and more radical, though it is great to have these versions as well. One of my fave albums, for sure.

    Jobson, will you ever stop making films and release "Joy"?

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  4. for me, this second mix of "Days In Europa" works better as a whole! ....but i understand the opposite view as well. the best solution is to have the 2 versions! long live the SKIDS

    oh yes!... what happened to "Joy" on CD?

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  5. "Joy" has in fact been reissued just recently. But only as an MP3 download from HMV, Amazon, wherever... no actual hard copy available. On the upside all the single versions are included.

    One of the most under-rated albums ever!

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  6. This was always the bind for bands who emerged out of the British punk mileu and after a few years became more musically competent, more experimental and in short were tired of still singing three chord wonders and being labelled "punk". (in the narrowest terms, I still consider myself a punk after all these years) Ironically it was the 'fans' and often the music press were so quick to scream "sellout"....a few bands managed it successfully such as The Jam, Killing Joke, Magazine and The Clash...sadly others didn't and The Skids were a prime example...too "new romantic" for the punks and too "punk" for the new romantics...sometimes it can take a few years and distance to really appreciate just how good an album was/is and this certainly falls into this category...I still have fond memories of Jobson doing his crazy leg kicking dance to Masquerade (or maybe it was Yankee Dollar) on Top of the Pops here in the UK, infact the "dance" was so popular it replaced the pogo for a brief moment in youth club & school discos the length of Britain, ahh happy daze ;)

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  7. "Days In Europa" works better as a whole!

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  8. for me, this second mix of "Days In Europa" works better as a whole!

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  9. Still works , Thanks for sharing.

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  10. For more info on Skids, please join our fast growing fan site.

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  11. the original mix is the best chaps ! harder more cutting and befits the doomsday scenario the album presents.... but the remix added some interesting ideas to me it's more discoed up as someone said earlier egans hi hat is very prominent....but to miss off pros and cons.... a perfect pop rock song is unforgiverable ! i do want a proper cd reissue of this remix though

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  12. "Scared To Dance" has always been one of my favorite tracks from those days. Looking forward to listening to this album. I never knew about to two versions, thinking it was just a change of artwork. I'll have to see if I can track down the original version. Many thanks.

    -Brian

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  13. I added a link to your review to the Wikipedia page for D.I.E., under 'External Links. Hopefully it won't get deleted, you know how awesomely dickish wikipedia editors can be.

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  14. Thanks for sharing this blog that n all related to
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    ReplyDelete