Formed in 1979 by Fritz Catlin, Johnny Turnbull and Sam Mills, and later augmented by Alex Turnbull and Tom Heslop, 23 Skidoo had interests in martial arts, Burundi and Kodo drumming, Fela Kuti, The Last Poets, William S. Burroughs, as well as the emerging confluence of industrial, post-punk and funk, heard in artists such as A Certain Ratio, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, The Pop Group and This Heat.
[1] Their first 7", "Ethics", was released in 1980, followed by "The Gospel Comes To New Guinea" & "Last Words" 12" single which was co-produced by Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson from Cabaret Voltaire at their studio, The Western Works in Sheffield.
Seven Songs, which was recorded and mixed in three days, was co-produced by Tony, Terry and David, aka Genesis P-Orridge, and Peter Christopherson of Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV and engineer Ken Thomas.
[7] Skidoo recruited Aswad's horn section for the "Coup" 12", which featured samples from Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and which was interpolated from their track "Fuck You G.I."
[8] After having been evicted from their rehearsal space at Genesis P-Orridge's "Death Factory" the band shifted their focus towards hip hop and turned their attention to production and building a studio, Precinct 23.
[9] In 1987 the Turnbull brothers formed the Ronin label and released Jailbreak by Paradox, widely regarded as one of the first breakbeat records, as well as tracks by British photographer Normski and MC FORCE.