“They’d always played fast and loose with traditional song structures. This album pushed it even further”: Big Country wouldn’t have called Steeltown a prog record – but it is

Big Country in the 1980s.

In February 1976, as the Sex Pistols stumbled onto the stage at the Marquee, Stuart Adamson and his mate Bill Simpson went to see Focus in Edinburgh. They would soon form The Skids with Richard Jobson on vocals.

But what began as a Clash/Buzzcocks-inspired punk band morphed into something more progressive and original. Adamson gleefully took a blowtorch to traditional song structures, Jobson’s lyrics were esoteric and ambitious, and their single sleeves featured Dadaist art.