With there being, sadly, no Stuart Adamson, the best best thing is his Big Country Guitar partner, Bruce Watson and you have to say that Watson takes on the Adamson Skids role wonderfully, at times it could be Stuart playing.

This new album follows in the footsteps of Days In Europa as a celebration of friendship and shared experiences.It's not like he even sings any tracks from the last album (perhaps because it gets in the way of talking. But then the wheels come off the wagon with the arty "Things We've Seen", what were they thinking, this is nil pointe horrible and one I'll be skipping in future, enough said.

Tidal Wave, the first of several songs written in collaboration with Matin Metcalfe, follows in a similar vein with a powerful chorus and earnest words foretelling momentous changes on the horizon. With its release date delayed to coincide with the tour of the same name, Robin Boardman finds out if it was worth the wait. Third track "Don't Stop" comes roaring out of the blocks but then has a change of direction and becomes kind of arty in a Bowiesque rocking way, its ok but after that wonderful start I can't help but feel it could have been better. Probably straight up as he believes we can fly and oh, there you are up in the sky just like a bird flying so high while lives are broken on the ground while walls come tumbling down and the world keeps spinning cos nothing ain't easy or for free.Richard Jobson is a great rabble-rouser and we certainly need those at this moment in time, but he’s an even better storyteller as evidenced by the title track / lead single Destination Düsseldorf, a lively paean to German artist and one of the singer’s heroes, Jospeh Beuys. In fact, he tells us that he's going again so many times at one point that you want to scream "just go already! The green vinyl edition was exclusively available at the live launch event held at Dunfermline Abbey on Friday 30th June 2023 and within a few very limited bundles.

Back in the day I wasn't a big Skids fan, I saw them perform at Surrey University in 1979, and remember only two things from that night, the skinheads had a rumble and some person born out of wedlock nicked my denim jacket from the cloakroom and I went home cold and grumpy, but I don't remember the music, perhaps it may have done had I bought "Scared to Dance".The guitar work is strangely reminiscent in turn of Masquerade and Circus Games, either a conscious nod to the past or just something in the band’s DNA – but as the Skids have never tried to emulate others, it’s only fair they should look to themselves for inspiration. Co-written with Hugh Cornwell, this last track has a distinctly different feel to the rest of the album displaying a more wistful side to Jobson’s songwriting. Creativity born from friendship and respect lies at the heart of this new album which we think will be one of our finest recordings.