RICHARD Jobson recalls writing the words for The Skids’ mighty pop anthem, The Saints are Coming, in Dunfermline Library during his school dinner hour.

Revived a decade ago by U2 and Green Day as a chart-topping Hurricane Katrina benefit single – Jobson was invited to the Abbey Road studios to see the song re-worked by Bono, The Edge and Green Day leader Billie Joe Armstrong.

One of The Edge’s favourite songs, The Saints are Coming, was a worldwide hit and raised millions for the disaster fund.

“It was just the most extraordinary moment, watching U2 and Green Day, two of the biggest bands in the world, playing that song I’d written when I was 15,” said Jobson, The Skids lead singer.

“It stopped me in my tracks completely. Not many things in my life have done that.”

It was punk rock that lifted the 16-year-old Jobson out of the gang and on to the stage and 40 years later The Skids are back with a new album, their first since Joy in 1981, and a re-union tour that brings them to Manchester next Friday.

Jobson laughs when he recalls one of The Skids’ early shows, supporting The Clash and Richard Hell and The Voidoids at a near derelict ballroom in Dunfermline.

“I remember it vividly, they put us on before the doors had opened, so we played half our set to an empty hall, and the cleaner,” said Jobson.

“It was a pretty big thing, you know, seeing Joe Strummer and Mick Jones in a tiny cinema in my home town.

“It felt like a musical blizzard was sweeping through the land.

“It’s funny, I still feel the same, that sense of fearlessness that I had then as a singer. Just to get up there and do it, it felt natural.

“Aggressive showmanship, that’s what it was all about.”

Born and raised in Fife, Jobson’s father was a miner and his mother worked on the docks.

“When we talked about The Skids coming back, people told us not to do it but I’d never taken any notice of folk like that anyway.

“We came from a tough, working class community and we made a bold statement in the type of landscape where people do not make bold statements.

“But the punk generation made being different okay for a lot of people from those kind of backgrounds, and I think that has probably stayed with us as part of our culture.

“Sometimes you glance back at your life and think, ‘Blimey, that was a bit of a silly thing to do, boy’.

“But, you know what? I admire that young guy. He was fearless.”

While The Skids’ 1980s hits Into The Valley and Working For The Yankee Dollar have stood the test of time, Jobson, a restless soul, enjoyed a creative re-birth after the band went into cold storage.

He was one of the early faces of ‘Yoof TV,’ made several films and even had a spell as a male model.

“This re-union isn’t just an exercise in nostalgia,” said Jobson.

“I was very nervous of the heritage trail which seems to be quite a big thing in our music culture right now.

“We never sought adulation - I think that is why we were different to some of our contemporaries.”

Killing Joke bassist Youth – a lifelong Skids fan – got in touch with Jobson and offered to co-write some songs.

Their collaboration became the starting point for Burning Cities, The Skids new album due to be released in July.

“It has an anger and an energy about it, which I think it had to have or it was never going to happen,” he said.

“I think a lot of bands in later life start to think of themselves as musicians and start to show their technical skills.

“We haven’t done that, because I don’t have any technical skills, so they’re songs that are just heavy in atmosphere, and have an edge and a vitality that really excites me at this stage in my life and the record definitely feels part of the modern world.”

The Skids, Manchester Ritz, Friday, June 2. Details from 0161 236 4355. The Skids also play the Grand, Clitheroe, as part of their 40th anniversary tour on Saturday, October 7. Details from 01200 421599