"Into the Valley" is a 1979 single by Skids, taken off their Scared to Dance album, and is their best known song, appearing on a number of punk rock and Scottish music compilation albums. It reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart for the week ending 24 March 1979.[1] It was written by Richard Jobson and Stuart Adamson.
"Into the Valley" is still used as a theme song for fans of Dunfermline Athletic F.C. in the Scottish Premier League and Charlton Athletic F.C. of the English Football League Championship, whose stadium is aptly named The Valley. It was also used in their premiership years by Bradford City A.F.C., whose stadium is named Valley Parade.
The song's lyrics are notoriously unintelligible owing to Jobson's diction.[2] This has been sent up in a Maxell television advertisement which features printed (incorrect) "translations" of the words.[3] The chorus, often misquoted, is actually "Ahoy, Ahoy, Land, Sea and Sky".
Richard Jobson has said that the lyrics were written about were about the recruitment of Scottish youths into the army and more specifically about a friend who had been killed on a tour of duty in Northern Ireland.[4][5] Local legend still persists that the valley mentioned is a reference to the village of High Valleyfield, a village with a reputation for "mini warfare" between its own residents and those of nearby towns and villages (namely Torryburn, Rosyth, Oakley and Inverkeithing), near the Skids' home town of Dunfermline.
The song was covered by street punk band the Street Dogs on their 2008 album State of Grace.
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