The Saints Are Coming
1978 song by Skids
"The Saints are Coming" was the third single by the Scottish punk rock band Skids, featured on their 1979 debut album, Scared to Dance. The song became an international hit when it was covered in 2006 by U2 and Green Day.
Skids' original version
The single was released as part of a four-track EP, Wide Open, which also featured an A-side and two B-sides. The song was also released on their 1979 debut album, Scared to Dance. The song featured Richard Jobson singing of a man facing inclement weather and personal fears, and reached number 48 on the UK Singles Chart in the week ending 11 November 1978. The song's lyrics were written by Richard Jobson with music by Stuart Adamson, who later went on to form Big Country. As with the band's following single, "Into the Valley", it is sung by fans of Dunfermline Athletic F.C. It is also used as the walk-on music by Premiership Rugby club Northampton Saints, Rugby League Super League club St Helens RFC who enter the field in the second half to it and EFL Championship club Southampton F.C., and Welsh Premier League club The New Saints FC, who are all known as The Saints.
Wide Open track listing
Track listing for the 1978 EP single, Wide Open, which features "The Saints Are Coming".
Personnel
Richard Jobson – vocals / guitar
Stuart Adamson – guitars / vocals
William Simpson – bass guitar / vocals
Thomas Kellichan – drums
With:
Chris Jenkins – guitar
David Batchelor – keyboards
U2 and Green Day cover
In September 2006, it was announced that U2 and Green Day were to record a cover version of the song for charitable purposes following Hurricane Katrina.
Release
To coincide with the U2 and Green Day recording of the song, both bands performed it together live during the Monday Night Football Pregame show of the New Orleans Saints versus Atlanta Falcons game on 25 September 2006.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Saints Are Coming” as 1978 song by Skids. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1978 song by Skids. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q584286. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 2006 and 1978.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “The Saints Are Coming” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.