Stuart will alway

It’s 40 years since The Skids made their debut in Dunfermline but front man Richard Jobson insists they’ll be looking to the future when they play the town’s PJ Molloys on May 3 and 4

August 1977 and The Skids are playing their first live gig in their hometown of Dunfermline.

The iconic post-punk band, founded by the late Stuart Adamson with Bill Simpson, Tam Kellichan and Richard Jobson, would go on to enjoy their first big success two years later with Into the Valley.

That set the scene for a series of other anthems, including Working for the Yankee Dollar, Masquerade and The Saints are Coming, which was given a new lease of life when U2 and Green Day released it as a charity single in 2006 to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina.

Now, as frontman Jobson and the modern line-up of Simpson, Mike Baillie, Bruce Watson and Jamie Watson launch a 40th anniversary UK tour with back-to-back homecoming gigs, fans should not imagine their latest project is driven by nostalgia.

This July will see the release of Burning Cities – the first album from The Skids in 35 years and Jobson has been surprised by the level of interest.

“I didn’t expect it to become as big as it has,” the 56-year-old admits in an interview from London.

“We wanted the album to be relevant and pertinent to the world today and not just about nostalgia.

“I’m very aware of the interest in The Skids – that for many people we were part of their childhood with our anthemic big choruses. But at the same time we have to be relevant to now because there’s so much going on in the world. I am not a juke box.”

Jobson, who has reinvented himself as a poet, film critic and movie director, said the band were approached by Jesus

Four decades on, The Skids are back in the band’s home town.