"more than skin-deep"
Year: 1988
Country: UK
City: Doncaster
Label: Mad Butcher
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 10
Time: 35 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Ska Reggae
Skin-Deep was a short-lived band born in Doncaster, being active from 1985 until 1988. Some of its members had met in another local Punk band called Chuckie Egg & The Soldiers, with only one live show known, which took place in their hometown. Despite having been formed in ’85, the band was unable to perform live until February ’86 as none of them were old enough to hire a van.
After supporting The Business in London, they were approached by Link Records. The relationship between the band and the label turned out to be quite fruitful. In 1986, their first recordings appeared on the famous compilations “Oi! the resurrection”(Link Records, 1986) and “The Sound of Oi!” (Link Records, 1987).
Early in '88 they went to The Billiard Room Studio in Leeds to record their first and only full-length record titled “More Than Skin-Deep”. Finally the album was released in July ‘88 on the ska-focused label Skank Records, subsidiary of Link Records. Several songs on the album were enriched with a brass section and a keyboard.
After three years active the band played their final gig at the iconic Brixton Fridge, supporting Bad Manners. They had already decided to split up after the show, which did not go very well. For some reason, the promoter tried to kick the band off the bill, a thing that didn’t happen thanks to Buster Bloodvessel (Bad Manners singer). Instead of that, as an act of revenge, the organization made them play right at the door opening. Unfortunately, most of his fans missed their final show.
That was the end of Skin Deep, which disbanded with an album and having performed only 19 gigs, none of them in the place where they come from, Doncaster.
The track "Never change" was also recorded in the same session as "Self Respect" (which was the track that appeared on the compilation "Oi! the resurrection"), but remained unreleased until 1997, when the English label Captain Oi! released the compilation "Oi! the demos" on CD, together with other bands like The Burial, Red London, The Crack or Angelic Upstarts.
