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EXCLUSIVE: How the punk anthem written in the bedroom of a Dunfermline teenager was recorded by U2 and Green Day as inspiring tribute to New Orleans
By Billy Sloan
POP supergroups U2 and Green Day are heading for No.1 - with a song written 28 years ago by a pair of Scottish punk rockers in a Dunfermline bedsit.
The track - The Saints Are Coming - was recorded to raise cash for Music Rising, a charity set up to aid musicians who were victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The Irish band and US trio performed the song for the first time at a benefit gig to reopen the New L Orleans Superdome last week - marking the first home game of NFL side New Orleans Saints since the 2005 floods which claimed 1700 lives and left thousands homeless.
But The Saints Are Coming was written as an anti-sectarian anthem by teenage musicians, singer Richard Jobson and guitarist Stuart Adamson of The Skids.
Richard, now a successful film-maker, recalled the day he wrote the song with Stuart, who took his own life in 2001, aged 43.
He said: "It was written in Stuart's bedroom in Dunfermline and polished up in a garage we rehearsed in behind Queen Anne High School nearby."
"The lyrics were inspired by a guy I knew who had no real job prospects so he joined the Army.
"He didn't want to go down the mines in Fife. He was looking for a career and thought the Army would turn him into a car mechanic or an engineer. But within 20 weeks of basic training he was walking down a street in Northern Ireland with a rifle in his hand."
Tragically, Richard's pal was shot dead in Belfast.
Richard added: "His partner had just had their first baby shortly before he got killed. The lyrics are written from the perspective of the kid trying to speak to him.
"Like us, he didn't want to be a part of all that sectarian stuff. In The Skids, I was a Catholic while the other three guys were Protestants - but it didn't matter to us."
The track had been forgotten until U2 guitarist The Edge chose it as the anthem to spearhead the appeal aiming to raise cash to replace instruments lost in the floods.
"The Edge said something really beautiful to me," revealed Richard.
"He said, 'You know, good work never dies, it just goes to sleep for a while until somebody wakes it up'.
"That's all I needed to hear. It made me feel so proud."
But Richard thought a mate was at the wind-up when the guitarist phoned to invite him down to Abbey Road studios in London to watch U2 and Green Day record the song.
Richard said: "I was so sure somebody was taking the p***. I was saying, 'Yeah, right, okay, sure'."
"The Edge was quite startled by how blase I was. Then it began to dawn on me - with deep embarrassment - this WAS The Edge.
"He was incredibly flattering about my lyrics. That's not something I've had much recognition for.
"So to hear The Edge praise my words was a great validation of a song I'm very proud of." Richard -whose movies include Sixteen Years Of Alcohol and The Purifiers -added: "To watch both bands lay down the music was totally surreal.
"Green Day are from a different generation to The Skids -I think they thought I was this strange old man sitting in the corner. But as soon as The Edge played them the song and suggested recording it, they got it first time."
Richard was bowled over when he watched footage of the bands performing his song in the 70,000-capacity New Orleans Superdome last week.
And what would his mate, the late Stuart Adamson have made of it all? Richard said: "Stuart was a very proud man. I'm sure wherever he is now - listening to the new version - he'll probably have a big smile on his face."
--The Sunday Mail
EXCLUSIVE: How the punk anthem written in the bedroom of a Dunfermline teenager was recorded by U2 and Green Day as inspiring tribute to New Orleans
By Billy Sloan
POP supergroups U2 and Green Day are heading for No.1 - with a song written 28 years ago by a pair of Scottish punk rockers in a Dunfermline bedsit.
The track - The Saints Are Coming - was recorded to raise cash for Music Rising, a charity set up to aid musicians who were victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The Irish band and US trio performed the song for the first time at a benefit gig to reopen the New L Orleans Superdome last week - marking the first home game of NFL side New Orleans Saints since the 2005 floods which claimed 1700 lives and left thousands homeless.
But The Saints Are Coming was written as an anti-sectarian anthem by teenage musicians, singer Richard Jobson and guitarist Stuart Adamson of The Skids.
Richard, now a successful film-maker, recalled the day he wrote the song with Stuart, who took his own life in 2001, aged 43.
He said: "It was written in Stuart's bedroom in Dunfermline and polished up in a garage we rehearsed in behind Queen Anne High School nearby."
"The lyrics were inspired by a guy I knew who had no real job prospects so he joined the Army.
"He didn't want to go down the mines in Fife. He was looking for a career and thought the Army would turn him into a car mechanic or an engineer. But within 20 weeks of basic training he was walking down a street in Northern Ireland with a rifle in his hand."
Tragically, Richard's pal was shot dead in Belfast.
Richard added: "His partner had just had their first baby shortly before he got killed. The lyrics are written from the perspective of the kid trying to speak to him.
"Like us, he didn't want to be a part of all that sectarian stuff. In The Skids, I was a Catholic while the other three guys were Protestants - but it didn't matter to us."
The track had been forgotten until U2 guitarist The Edge chose it as the anthem to spearhead the appeal aiming to raise cash to replace instruments lost in the floods.
"The Edge said something really beautiful to me," revealed Richard.
"He said, 'You know, good work never dies, it just goes to sleep for a while until somebody wakes it up'.
"That's all I needed to hear. It made me feel so proud."
But Richard thought a mate was at the wind-up when the guitarist phoned to invite him down to Abbey Road studios in London to watch U2 and Green Day record the song.
Richard said: "I was so sure somebody was taking the p***. I was saying, 'Yeah, right, okay, sure'."
"The Edge was quite startled by how blase I was. Then it began to dawn on me - with deep embarrassment - this WAS The Edge.
"He was incredibly flattering about my lyrics. That's not something I've had much recognition for.
"So to hear The Edge praise my words was a great validation of a song I'm very proud of." Richard -whose movies include Sixteen Years Of Alcohol and The Purifiers -added: "To watch both bands lay down the music was totally surreal.
"Green Day are from a different generation to The Skids -I think they thought I was this strange old man sitting in the corner. But as soon as The Edge played them the song and suggested recording it, they got it first time."
Richard was bowled over when he watched footage of the bands performing his song in the 70,000-capacity New Orleans Superdome last week.
And what would his mate, the late Stuart Adamson have made of it all? Richard said: "Stuart was a very proud man. I'm sure wherever he is now - listening to the new version - he'll probably have a big smile on his face."
--The Sunday Mail
