The Absolute Game

The Absolute Game was The Skids' 1980 third album (not counting the two different mix versions released of their second album 1979's Days in Europa) and was produced by Mick Glossop.

The album continued the Skids' progression from a punky sound into a more mellow one - paralleled by many bands of the period. The album has a great deal in common with Days in Europa, but not much with its successor, Joy. Around this time the band were driven by internal rifts and disagreements, leading to various members coming and going. Soon after the release and live concert tour of The Absolute Game, Adamson and Baillie left the band. (Although Adamson did temporarily return to play on one more song from the album Joy, called Iona.) Adamson went on to launch the career of his new band, Big Country, and Baillie moved back to Scotland to live. A great deal of Big Country's future sound and style can be heard in this album. In particularly on Hurry On Boys, which features bagpipe simulations and real didgeridoo. Joy has a completely different sound to other Skids albums, and some fans consider The Absolute Game to be the last canonical Skids album.

Captain Oi! Records, in cooperation with Virgin/EMI Records, are planning on remastering and re-releasing this album (including the tracks from the limited edition bonus disc Strength Through Joy) in 2007.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Controversy

Initial copies came with a limited edition second disc entitled Strength through Joy. Richard Jobson, the Skids' lead singer, later stated that this title had been taken from Dirk Bogarde's autobiography and was not based on the Nazi slogan Kraft durch Freude. However it continued the controversial theme of the first release of Days in Europa, which had been withdrawn.