Jobson is the lead singer with the art-punk rockgroup Skids, those original run was from 1977 -1982. Jobson's singing style with Skids was highly distinctive, and he wrote the lyrics, while Stuart Adamson wrote most of the music. Scared to Dance, the first Skids album, featured the hit 1979 single "Into the Valley", the group's most successful single. Jobson appeared on BBC Television's Top of the Pops singing it. The album also featured "The Saints are Coming". The fourth album by Skids was released in 1981, Joy, was almost entirely written by Jobson and Russell Webb, as the other two band members left, one of whom was Jobson's long-time songwriting partner Stuart Adamson who moved on to form his new band Big Country.
Reunions and covers
In September 2006, it was announced that Green Day and U2 were to record a cover version of the song for charitable purposes. Jobson said that he had written the song about the death of a friend in the British Army. Much of Scared to Dance features local references, and also Jobson's fascination with the two world wars. Skids including Jobson reformed from 2007 to 2010, and again from 2016 to present.
Jobson and Russell Webb both shared a common interest in the War Poets, a theme which was in evidence for Jobson's solo albumBallad Of Etiquette and which bore a credit for "Virginia & Josephine". This album was released in November 1981, and peaked on the UKindie charts at number 24. At the same time Astley, Nicky Holland and Kate St John auditioned for Bill Drummondat the Zoo Club in Liverpool where they made their live debut. In 1983, Jobson formed another rock band with Russell Webb and John McGeoch called The Armoury Show — named after a 1913 New Yorkmodernistart exhibition. Jobson and Webb also worked with Virginia Astley. Webb co-produced her first album From Gardens Where We Feel Secure. Both Astley and Jobson were recording sessions for Les Disques Du Crépuscule, a Belgian record label, and Jobson made several LPs for the label, usually of poetry readings with Astley as his accompanist. At the same time the final Skids album Joy was released, Astley and Nicky Holland appeared as backing vocalists with Astley also playing flute on the single "Fields". Jobson was doing poetry readings at the Cabaret Futura Club, who issued an album on the Martyrwell label and which was engineered by Astley's brother Jon Astley. Amongst a lot of strange-sounding and difficult music was the first ever recording by Kissing the Pink, where the "Josephine" from "Ballad Of Etiquette" came from, and who had been a music student in Manchester along with Virginia Astley. For Crépuscule's various artists compliation LPThe Fruit Of The Original Sin, Jobson performed a poem called "Homage To Marguerite Duras" with music by Astley. In the mid-1980s Astley and Jobson toured Japan to promote his album An Afternoon In Company. Much of Jobson's spoken-word material for the Cocteau and Crépuscule labels has been reissued on CD by the LTM label.
He also presented a late-night series in some ITV regions called Hollywood Report. Katie Wagner worked as a reporter on the show. From 1988 to 1992, he presented an arts magazine programme called 01-For London.
